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Post by tracytrek on May 6, 2015 10:56:06 GMT -6
Does anyone here like the writings of these 2?
My favorite Asimov novel is Nightfall and my favorite Clark novel is 2010.
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on May 8, 2015 7:55:40 GMT -6
You mean we don't already have a topic on these? Asimov was my very favorite writer. I loved not only his fiction but his science essays, too. And yes, "Nightfall" has got to be his best story (although I didn't like the novel Robert Silverberg turned it into). Second would probably be the Foundation series.
I also liked Arthur C. Clarke although to a much lesser degree. I think "Rendezvous with Rama" was my favorite of his, but not the sequels. "Songs of Distant Earth" was also pretty good.
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Post by tracytrek on May 9, 2015 10:38:22 GMT -6
I also like the books, Nemesis and The Ugly Little Boy* by Asimov.
It seems like a I recall a short story he wrote, but I'm not completely sure it's his. Does this sound familiar to you? A society has a mass transit system like Star Trek transporters (this story may have pre-dated Star Trek). The people had a portal in their homes which they stepped into and programmed their destination and they were beamed there. They called it a Doorway. Well this one family's Doorway broke down and this boy had to actually walk to school. He found out he actually liked it, but he mother thought he was crazy.
*The Ugly Little Boy being about a Neanderthal Boy brought forward in time. I like reading about pre-history, especially Neanderthals because I like the Earth's Children novels by Jean M. Auel.
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Post by Atoz 77 on May 11, 2015 8:10:22 GMT -6
Oh you're talking about "It's Such a Beautiful Day", another one of my favorites. They send the boy to a psychiatrist because he actually LIKES playing outside! Strangely enough, does that seem a bit familiar? I don't see nearly as many children playing outdoors these days. But it's not because of transport systems, it's because they stay inside watching television and playing computer games. (That and the playground toys have been down-graded so much in the interest of safety that they're not fun any more.) I've heard that doctors are actually seeing cases of rickets again, caused by lack of sufficient sunlight!
"The Ugly Little Boy" is another good one. I cry every time I read it. I mean the short story; I don't think I've read the novel version.
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Post by tracytrek on May 12, 2015 9:45:47 GMT -6
Thanks, I've been racking my brain trying to remember the title. I thought it might be that, but I wasn't sure.
This is off topic, but I just thought of it. Speaking of the term "Doorway", in the Stargate movie the scientist were calling the Stargate a "Doorway to Heaven" until Daniel corrected their mistranslation. In a Stargate fanfiction I read, it was about an alternate reality where Daniel was not part of the Stargate program* and it was referred to as a Doorway.
*In this fanfic, Daniel has died at age 8 in this alternate reality (instead of his parents). His parents (alive in this reality), Mel and Claire Ballard Jackson worked on cataloging artifacts that the teams that went through the "Doorway" found. They were low on the totem pole and did not know where these artifacts came from, (they didn't know about the Doorway). They are sucked into the normal Stargate universe by way of a quantum mirror.
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Post by Atoz 77 on May 13, 2015 7:50:02 GMT -6
That sounds like a pretty interesting twist, although... well we're just making conversation so please don't this personally... I don't generally like alternate universe stories that go so far afield of the primary universe. I mean for instance Daniel Jackson is one of the main reasons I like Stargate SG-1. Without him, it wouldn't be the same at all.
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Post by tracytrek on May 14, 2015 9:09:53 GMT -6
Oh, Daniel is my favorite character as well. And I didn't like the year he was gone. The main reason I liked the story is when Mel and Claire (and once again a civilian Sam Carter) end up in the regular Stargate Universe, they get to meet this reality's version of their son. Although he's an adult, probably close to the age they were when he was eight. And it's an emotional reunion for Daniel as well, seeing a version of his parents that lived to grow old.
However, the link to the story is broken, so I'll probably never get to read it again. It's not on Fanfiction.net, it was on a site called Stargatefan.com which seems to be missing now.
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Post by Atoz 77 on May 15, 2015 7:49:41 GMT -6
Oh I see. That does sound pretty cool.
Another of my favorite Asimov stories is "Pate de Foie Gras", about the goose that laid the golden eggs. I love stories that mix fantasy with science that way, as long as they make sense. What I mean by that is stories that try for example to claim that vampires are real and "explain" their supernatural powers usually don't work for me. I have to say "usually" because "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson was pretty good.
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Post by tracytrek on May 16, 2015 11:19:59 GMT -6
I've never heard of that story. Is there anywhere it could be read online for free? I'd also like to read the one I asked you the name for and the short story version of Nightfall and The Ugly Little Boy. Or do you know perhaps a book title that has these short stories in their collections? That way I could possibly find them at the library or on my Kindle.
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Post by Atoz 77 on May 18, 2015 7:50:56 GMT -6
I've never heard of that story. Is there anywhere it could be read online for free? I'd also like to read the one I asked you the name for and the short story version of Nightfall and The Ugly Little Boy. Or do you know perhaps a book title that has these short stories in their collections? That way I could possibly find them at the library or on my Kindle. You can find "Nightfall" and "It's Such a Beautiful Day" in the collection "Nightfall and Other Stories". "Pate de Foie Gras" is in a collection called "Where Do We Go From Here?", which is edited by Asimov but has stories from other authors too (including "The Deep Range" by A.C. Clarke). But there might be other collections that also have them.
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Post by tracytrek on May 18, 2015 8:45:18 GMT -6
Thanks. I'll take a look.
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Post by Atoz 77 on May 20, 2015 7:46:10 GMT -6
I had to go through my library because I couldn't remember the title of the collection, "The Edge of Tomorrow", which contains "Ugly Little Boy", and "Pate de Foie Gras" and "Nightfall". It's an odd collection though because it has his science essays and science fiction stories, more or less alternating.
That other book I mentioned, "Where Do We Go From Here?", is good anyway because it also has classic science fiction stories like "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley Weinbaum, "Surface Tension" by James Blish, and "Omnilingual" by H. Beam Piper.
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