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What is your favorite story arc? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 170 comments | Search Discussion
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @02:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 17 2017, @02:05AM (#454673)

    Sure because those Culture Minds weren't flying around mind-raping and murdering each other all the time either.

    Each Culture Mind possessed enough processing power to simulate entire universes in its own imagination, and mind-reading was forbidden, so who would ever know if every Mind was committing gigadeathcrime every nanosecond?

    The most damning criticism of The Land Of Infinite Fun is it was simply author wankery. Iain M Banks dreamed up a universe which was biased the way he liked it, and that was his hobby, so naturally his super intelligent fictional creations should also adopt dreaming up universes as their hobby too.

    The universe in which the Culture exists is ridiculously biased. "Post-scarcity" is possible because there isn't any scarcity at all. As soon as anyone discovers how to tap into gridfire, they immediately gain unlimited free energy, because the universe conveniently provides it. FTL travel is possible because it's convenient. Time travel is impossible because it's confusing. The setting is carefully crafted to force exactly the right kind of drama and solve the boring problems by hand waving them away.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @03:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 18 2017, @03:54AM (#455231)

    Every ship was a meatfucker but Grey Area was the only ship who was honest enough to admit it.

  • (Score: 2) by caffeine on Thursday January 19 2017, @08:21AM

    by caffeine (249) on Thursday January 19 2017, @08:21AM (#455950)

    If you are looking for something less fantasy, have a look at Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series. No FTL travel and fairly grounded in science. The immense time frames of space travel act as a key plot element in many of the stories.

    Personally, I'm happy to forgo reality when reading science fiction. I quite enjoyed the Culture because it was so different from the usual dystopian societies and space marines.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @12:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19 2017, @12:34PM (#456010)

      I'm perfectly fine with one or two big lies based in science that hasn't been discovered yet. FTL, time travel, teleportation, force fields, beam weapons, intelligent machines, these things are at least remotely possible. The cosmos is conveniently designed with energy grids where you can plug in your perpetual motion engine? Now that just breaks suspension of disbelief.

    • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday January 25 2017, @01:28PM

      by TheRaven (270) on Wednesday January 25 2017, @01:28PM (#458470) Journal
      I've just reread those. I'd warn people off starting there though: Revelation Space starts very slowly and you need to get past the first hundred pages or so before it gets really engrossing. I'd suggest reading The Prefect and Chasm City first.

      Of all of the Alastair Reynolds, I think his best works are the ones not set in the Revelation Space universe. Pushing Ice is by far my favourite and House of Suns probably comes in second.

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      sudo mod me up

      • (Score: 2) by caffeine on Thursday January 26 2017, @05:03AM

        by caffeine (249) on Thursday January 26 2017, @05:03AM (#458823)

        I really enjoyed The Prefect. I can see that being a great first book recommendation for the series. I'll put Pushing Ice and House of Suns on my to read list.

        • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday January 26 2017, @09:46AM

          by TheRaven (270) on Thursday January 26 2017, @09:46AM (#458861) Journal
          I realise that my post sounded quite negative towards Revelation Space. I really enjoyed the series, but it took me ages the first time I read it to get past the first 100 pages. I think I read three other books before getting that far. After that, I finished the rest of the book the same day and went to try to find the next one (unfortunately, I was in Salt Lake City at the time and the bookshops there are really light on any science fiction not by Orson Scott Card and I wasn't there long enough for Amazon to deliver, so I had to wait for a while).
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          sudo mod me up