https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eon_(novel) is better, because bigger on the inside!1!!
Rendezvous with Rama
121–124 of 124 posts
Re: Rendezvous with Rama
#122"Wonder" might be the wrong way to describe it, but Blindsight by Peter Watts gave me the same feeling of "this is incredibly alien and I have no idea what will happen next". Other books with a similar plot structure and deeply alien vibe: - Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (recommended elsewhere in this thread) - Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds I know there's one I'm forgetting.
For genuine, believable oddness - although the SF pigeonhole seems restrictive - I would recommend the utterly unique M. John Harrison, specifically the later Kefahuchi Tract trilogy. The much earlier Centauri Device pops up on lots of lists but although it is entertaining and original, is not in the same league. Definitely more in common with the Strugatsky brothers than Clarke - humans fixated on commerce and sex, much more than technology.. quantuum weirdness bleeding into the occult... a galaxy-wide, neon-lit rust-belt. If there is anyone else doing anything remotely like him then I am all ears - sadly, I have read it all! I also felt that Tchaikovsky's ideas are striking and well thought-out, but I did not encounter any people in his books. Peter Watt definitely interesting but often unnecessarily hard to parse, I thought? Must revisit Reynolds - only tried one many years ago...
Re: Rendezvous with Rama
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of the ringworld covers were quite good.
One of the things that I recall from that (and written about elsewhere... though I don't recall where) is that the shadows of the shadow squares, when viewed from the surface all subtend the same angle on the Arc of Heaven.
I have been lusting after a decent visual interpretation of Ringworld ever since I read it decades ago... I was thrilled to hear Halo was set on a ringworld and - because I am diehard Nintendo guy - had to go to a mate's house to see it on his XBox.. I spent ages wandering about looking up, but it wasn't quite what I was after and hey, given the era, the graphics were not up to much. I am still amazed it has not been well done in a film or game or VR to this date - at least afaik, i am open to suggestions. (One of the most visually plausible habitats in film imho was in Elysium and I always feel this film has been a little overlooked. The parallels with the modern world's refugee issues are overstated but I thought incredibly compelling.)
Re: Rendezvous with Rama
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the things that I recall from that (and written about elsewhere... though I don't recall where) is that the shadows of the shadow squares, when viewed from the surface all subtend the same angle on the Arc of Heaven.
I have been lusting after a decent visual interpretation of Ringworld ever since I read it decades ago... I was thrilled to hear Halo was set on a ringworld and - because I am diehard Nintendo guy - had to go to a mate's house to see it on his XBox.. I spent ages wandering about looking up, but it wasn't quite what I was after and hey, given the era, the graphics were not up to much. I am still amazed it has not been…
I can dig them up and make high res pictures of the covers if you want. Elysium is really good, agreed.