What are some of your favorite Science Fiction

[viperzerofsx]

So what kind of Science Fiction does everyone around here like? TV, Movies, Books, etc.


I like

Serial Experiments lain,I empathize greatly the main character and greatly enjoy a lot of the themes

Star Trek TOS and to a lesser extent TNG, TOS for having lots of really interesting episodes and TNG for having a cool cast and the Borg (not to mention being a late 80's early 90's cultural icon). also a cool vision of a future society (even if a few things bug me) and one of the few science fiction series that feature a democratic government rather than an Empire or some other autocracy.

Digimon, the first series as a great science fantasy show that got me to like computers and the third as an awesome cyberpunk show with great charters

Star Wars, Science fantasy but I really loved seeing it as a kid, a society where space travel was as routine as boating is for us. Also I am a sucker for any story were an oppressive government is overthrown by rebels. not to nuts about the force but I never found it to be a big issue.

twilight zone, what can I even say? it covers so much and is generally so well written even if it is really old it has held up very well in my mind.
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others that I like but would not consider favs

Ghost in the Shell, famed cyberpunk Anime series, some really cool action but I never was to into the themes

I robot, very fun and cleaver, I also like the atomic age vision of the future

Foundations series, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I Robot, it was cool to see where the popular concept of a Galactic Empire came from though. not too sure about psychohistory ever being a thing, but it was cool to see how it was played with and the mule fucking it up

2001 a Space Odyssey, obviously a beloved movie, really cool to see what could be done with even 60's special effects (same time the Enterprise was on fish strings and a decade before Star Wars), the realistic space mission was cool too, and Hal and the Monoliths are awesome. I'm not nuts about the ending though even if it is so beloved.

Halo, I really liked this series as a kid, though I have come to feel its a bit too Militaristic for my tastes these days, I still love the Covenant (especially Elites) designs and the depiction of large scale astro engineering, probably that is what has stuck with me the most and is what I think of when I think of these things.

Mass Effect, Just played the first one and I have seen the second and most of the third, I admire the character based aspect of the series and a lot of it is real interesting, the main plot though doesn't do much for me.

Stargate, just a real fun tough and cheek series, not the best but fun, I also like the idea of modern humanity exploring the universe.

Neon Genesis Evangelion, famous and controversial anime, crazy giant impractical technology, with a cool underground base. I'm ambivalent about the character and themes and have never managed to make up my mind about it. this series owes a lot to 60's and 70's sci fi and might be enjoyed by people who like that stuff.

[Drashner1]

Hmm. Well, let's see here...

Books:

Most of my favorites run to hard SF that 'thinks big' (I know, what a surprise), but not all. Favorite titles or settings include:

The Culture universe by Iain Banks - the vision of a largely mobile, supertechnological, civilization that makes such a point of being so nice but ends up kicking butt in a big way is fun. And the tech is simply awesome, even if not hard science.

The Algebraist - also by Banks, this is a standalone book. More hard science then the Culture novels by far and depicts a hugely complex civilization. Could almost be an alternative universe version of OA.

The Polity Universe - Another similar to OA, but different, with superhuman AIs running things, advanced tech, and lots of adventure. More violence and simpler themes than OA (at least so far), but lots of fun.

The Uplift Universe - books by David Brin - just a great story overall, although I like some books more than others.

Existence - also by Brin - lots of cool ideas, but ends to soon for my taste.

The Vorkosigan Saga by Loid McMaster Bujold - doesn't claim to be hard SF and the scope is much smaller than the other things listed here - but a fun read, particularly given that the main characters win the day by brains and force of personality, not a body count or sheer technological superiority.

The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons - especially the first three books.

Vacuum Flowers by Michael Swanwick - a neat future where minds and personalities are rewritten on a routine basis and people modify themselves as casually as they change clothes.

The Quantum Thief books by Hannu Rajaniemi - another very complex future, although the science suffers a bit.

The Humanx Commonwealth books by Alan Dean Foster - I was introduced to this universe in junior HS and have been reading them ever since.

Rendezvous with Rama - the first (and best) of the Rama books by Arthur C. Clarke. Exploring a big alien starship with a sense of science and wonder rather than lurking nastiness.

Films:

I grew up with the original Star Wars movies and have always enjoyed them.

The Fifth Element - just a fun movie

2001 - I also didn't care for the movie ending - the book version does a much better job of explaining things.

It may be more Science Fantasy than Science Fiction, but I have been really enjoying the various Marvel Universe movies (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Avengers) that have been coming out over the last 5ys or so.

The latest remake of Superman - Man of Steel - I like the re-envisioning they did with it. A harder edged and grittier vision, but I like it.

Godzilla movies - total science fantasy but I grew up on the original movies and still enjoy them sometimes. The latest incarnation was ok, but still cool.

TV

ST:TOS and TNG - I saw a lot of TOS as a small child (it was in reruns even then), and TNG brought my dorm to a halt every week when I was in college. I thought TOS was just fun, and TNG explored lots of neat ideas as well.

Babylon 5 - A series that took SF in some new directions and introduced (or reintroduced) the idea of TV SF with a story arc, not just the 'episode of the week' that was the norm before.

Andromeda - The early seasons also presented a new SF vision, and the series did a fair bit of stuff with AI, nanotech, gengineering of humans, etc.

Stargate SG1 - This started out slow IMHO, but eventually grew into one of the best TV SF series around. I liked the 'modern people with space opera' mix and some of the episodes played with some pretty neat ideas. I have the entire series on disk (an Xmas gift).

I think that about covers it for me. I've never been able to work up much interest for either anime or video games, although some of the settings themselves seem (from various ancillary materials I've run across) to be interesting in themselves.

Todd

[stevebowers]

Some more, along similar lines:
Stephen Baxter has written some of my favourite books, including the Manifold series and the Xeelee Sequence.

Greg Bear also wrote some fine stories, such as his stories about The Ships of the Law and the Eon universe. Queen of Angels was also good.

I'm still a great fan of the 2000AD comicverse, which includes not only Judge Dredd (much funnier and darker than in the movies) but also Zenith, Halo Jones and Lobster Random, and much more.

And Doctor Who, which is another thing entirely. Really soft SF/fantasy nowadays, but was a pioneer in may ways, introducing cyborgs and a sense of deep time to the public consciousness, and the original Matrix virch...

Red Dwarf, a truly funny SF comedy, with very good SF tropes in the bargain.

[Drashner1]

Oops. I forgot to include Dr. Who. Got introduced to the early episodes while in college, then picked up the newer ones when they started appearing on cable. Thanks to the magic of Netflix I can watch whenever I want

Todd

[viperzerofsx]

I wow I forgot to add Godzilla, I love Godzilla one of the first movies I ever saw.

Back to the future as well, I don't normally like time travel but I was a really nice spirited movie

[Rynn]

There's not too much I can add to what people have already said but I'll give it a go:

Books:

Al Reynolds Revelation Space series was probably the first modern hard-SF I read and pretty much got me addicted throughout my teens. I also really liked his standalone novel Pushing Ice about a near future asteroid mining ship being stranded on an Alien probe (disguised as a moon of Saturn) as it races out of the solar system. Fantastic castaway type book, it's great to read how the crew adapt their technology to try and survive.

Singularity Sky by Stross. Had the first description of an assembler I ever encountered. The idea of having a briefcase that eats waste and spits out products stayed with me for a long time. Plus: proletariat revolution!

Laundry Files by Stross: Not really SF but a great series. It follows the story of a junior IT guy working in the British government's Occult secret service. Turns out that H. P. Lovecraft was right about most things, there's a multiverse full of intelligences (subtype: Elder god, alien & ancient) and solving certain esoteric theorems can have significant consequences in the real world (AKA magic that works by mathematics). It starts slow with the first book being two novellas but with the 5th book just out it's really picking up pace.

The Commonwealth Saga/The Void Trilogy/Chronicles of the Fallers by Peter F Hamilton. These three collections are set in the same universe (the latter is brand new) with some of the same characters but set far apart in space and time. They don't look like hard-SF but I'd argue they have all the hallmarks: AI, human augmentation, DNIs (used by everyone), aliens that are truly alien, advanced biotechnology/nanotechnology etc. There's also a lot of soft(ish) tropes like forcefields and FTL but Hamilton writes the technobabble very well. On top of all that the characters are incredibly well written and the stories are engaging.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi. A great little novel set in a universe full of hostile aliens. The only way humans can compete is by recruiting the elderly of overpopulated nations and turning them into super soldiers. Excellent exploration of the effect on war on soldiers and human augmentation. The sequel is also very good and concerns the "special forces" of the supersoldier army. There's a third and forth novel...which take a very different turn.

That's all for now

[FrodoGoofball]

Some of mine:

TV: Star Trek (TOS, TNG, DS9, new movies), Babylon 5, Terra Nova, Agents of Shield.

Movies: Star Wars (original trilogy): this is what made me a SciFi fan for life, The Matrix.

Books: Assac Asimov (I Robot, Foundation series, The End of Eternity, and many, many others), Arthur C Clarke (Space Odyssey series, Rendesvous with Rama, The Songs of Distant Earth), Larry Niven (Ringworld, Tales of Known Space, Footfall, and many others), Fred Saberhagen (Berserker series), The Hunger Games, Dragonriders of Pern series.

Anime / Manga: Robotech / Macross: this is what made me an anime fan for life, Tenchi Muyo, Cowboy Beebop, Gall Force, Ghost in the Shell, Gunslinger Girl, Armitage the Third, Last Exile, Appleseed.

Games: I don't really play video games or RPGs, but I like to read / listen to / view the cutscenes / backstory / strategy guides because some of them have really good backstories, SciFi ideas, etc.: Star Frontiers, Battletech, Homeworld, Mass Effect, Halo, Eve Online.

[rom65536]

TV: Stargate franchise, early episodes of SG1 are best. Star Trek, late episodes of DS9 being the best. First season of Andromeda. And recently, I was very upset when they canceled Almost Human. That show was starting to turn into something good. Continuum - usually time travel is done poorly, this one does it fairly well.
As an exercise left to the reader - check out the writing credits for the first two seasons of the 70s kid show "Land of the Lost".

Movies: Star Wars (the first three, anyway), Alien, Silent Running, Blade Runner, Enemy Mine, The Thing...
But sci-fi movies are something I can like even if they are terrible (I can't abide poorly executed fantasy movies, but am willing to swallow cheesy as hell sci-fi movies....mental quirk I guess) - so I also like stuff like Battle Beyond the Stars, Barbarella, Zardoz, Logan's Run, The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension, They Live, The Ice Pirates - this list could go on indefinitely. It would be easier to list sci-fi movies I didn't like.

Books: Anything by Vernor Vinge. Just started reading the Culture novels by Banks, but it's good so far. Most everything by Larry Niven leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but I keep going back for more - so he must be doing something right. Herbert's Dune, but pretty much just the first one. Doorways in the Sand and My Name is Legion by Roger Zelazny. My first real Science Fiction novel as a kid was The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison....Or maybe it was Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon (I got both of them from the "Troll Book Club" in elementary school).

[viperzerofsx]

I just started Babylon 5, its starting to get good, the only issue is it seems everyone I like will be gone well before the show ends

[chris0033547]

I'm surprised that so far noone mentioned the Terminator-films I and II (I don't like the other ones). Furthermore the 'Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles' is also really well made. Okay, let's see ...

Films and TV series:

• Solaris (1972)
  OA relevance: at least S:2 level(?) xenosophonts, first contact scenarios. Perhaps something like simulationism or enhanced reality (look under 'related articles'). A form of repeated mind forking coupled with neogen human-like creations can also be found in the film since one of the main characters is created from the memories of another and interacts as an eidolon with "her" environment. In any case you should really take a look at this film. It's very philosophical and thought provoking.
  
• Contact (1997)
  OA relevance: xenosophonts and first contact scenarios and a scientifically dubious (?) depiction of wormholes.
  
• The Abyss
  OA relevance: xenosophonts, first contact scenarios
  
• Terminator I and II, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
  OA relevance: A-human AI
  
• Zettai Kareshi - Absolute Boyfriend
  OA relevance: erotobots, synthetic humans and some of the issues and reasons which led to the foundation of the Synthetic Human Alliance.
  
• Babylon 5, Crusade
  OA relevance: Xenosophonts, Archaeology, partial grey goo scenarios, Gengineering, Mindjacking, perhaps even ascension, although it's certainly not portrayed in the way it is portrayed in the OA setting. (Look here)
  
• Star Trek (but only those episodes and movies which contain the Borg and Q and some more philosophical episodes; and I also don't like Voyager)
  OA relevance: Well, lot's of stuff like Void Ships, because almost all vessels within the series use the Alcubierre Drive for faster-than-light travel. Then we have "xenosophonts" (basically humans acting like xenosophonts ) and synthetic humans, wormholes and lots of other OA relevant stuff. There's also this interesting scene, which shows, what would happen during an Intertoposophic Conflict. Although the scene itself is kind of illogical if one looks at it from the entire context of the series, the scene itself is still interesting, if taken out of context. If you want a reallife example for how an intertoposophic conflict might look like in the very far future, just type in "Watson plays Jeopardy" in youtube search.
  
• The Matrix Trilogy including the Animatrix and from the Animatrix I specifically like "The Second Renaissance Part II" - it's horrible and morbidly fascinating to watch the emergence of The Matrix virch even though the trilogy itself as well as the Animatrix contain a lot of logical absurdities but it's still interesting to watch.
  OA relevance: Basically partial(!) bottleworlds, A-human AI and it's also an example for an intertoposophic conflict.
  
• Dark Angel
  OA relevance: gengineering, nearbaselines, superiors, ghost net (because there is a whistleblower network in the world of the series, which is trying to uncover various corporate/government "mishaps" and so on)
  
• The Sentinel
  OA relevance: nearbaselines (without intelligence modifications)
  
• Johnny Mnemonic
  OA relevance: memory modification, enhanced dolphins and I guess a form of "electrosmog" and/or "soobooism" (?)
  
• Earth 2
  OA relevance: Lots of OA relevant stuff but xenosophonts and first contact scenarios play an important role here.
  
• seaQuest DSV
  OA relevance: Again there's a lot of OA relevant material; gengineering and provolution for example.
  
• Outer Limits, specifically episodes like 'The New Breed', 'Stream of Consciousness' or 'Unnatural Selection'.
  OA relevance: Most Outer limits episodes are OA relevant. Stream of Consciousness for example features a S:0 level perversity similar to the Bolobo Mind Control Scandal. The only difference is in singularity levels. The Bolobo scandal has been caused by an S:1 level mind, while the perversity in the episode is clearly somethere on a baseline human intelligence level and may not even be completely sentient. In any case switching off the network was far too easy.
  
• Time Trax
  OA relevance: pro-human Artificial Intelligence (not sure about the maximum toposophic level but SELMA is cleary a turing-level ai, who uses an eidolon (or something similar) to communicate with Darien), one episode features a synthetic human. Then we have superiors in the series: Just compare this EG-article with the introduction for the series. The first half of the video summarizes some of the abilities of a superior in the EG-article.
  
• Sliders
  OA relevance: Even though interdimensional travel, as depicted in the series, is impossible in OA (unless of course you're in a virch), the concept itself reminds me of the Sol Multiverse. Look at the Kromaggs for example.
  

Okay, let's take a look at some memorable anime, which may sometimes but not always (!) contain something loosely associated with the OA setting:

Anime:

• Ghost in the Shell (this scene is rather awesome, isn't it?)
  
• Romeo's Blue Skies (I like it that the main character becomes a doctor in the end)
  
• Kemono no Sōja (a very underrated and overlooked anime in my opinion)
  
• Story of the Alps: My Annette (a story about sin, atonement and forgiveness)
  
• Time of Eve
  
• Chobits
  
• Elfen Lied
  
• Shadow Star
  
• RahXephon
  
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
  
• Zegapain (humanity is trapped within quantum computer generated, partial bottleworlds; sometimes this anime is poorly executed but it has its thought-provoking moments)
  
• Heroic Age
  
• Casshern Sins
  
• Death Note
  
• Serial Experiments Lain
  
• Gin'iro no Olynssis
  
• Origin: Spirits of the Past (even though the movie is awful the core idea itself is interesting)
  
• Earth Maiden Arjuna
  
• Aria series
  
• Fantastic Children
  

Okay, some sci-fi-books...

• The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
  
• The Venus Trilogy by Pamela Sargent
  
• The Mars Trilogy by Stanley Robinson