Humor Random Comments Thread

[Andy44]

For some pretty good military sci-fi (not syfy, hate that they did that...) give a look at "Terms of Enlistment" by Marko Kloos. It reminds me a lot of Heinlein, not so much because of the social commentary, but that it's a grunt point of view.

Also another one of my favorite authors, Marc Edelheit; Start with Stiger's Tigers (it's book 1) or Stiger - Tales of the Seventh (a prequel, followed by Fort Covenant). It popped up on my recommended list last year. I read the blurb for it and thought , eh, sounds pretty good. At first I thought it was just a story about a bunch of Romans tramping through central Europe. Then I found I was mistaken. Again it's basically war from a grunts point of view. Good stuff! After I posted my review of Tales of the Seventh, I got a package in the mail. It was a signed copy from Mr. Edelheit with some added swag (giant mouse pad, some bookmarks and stuff. And an invitation to be on his beta reader team. Reading is awesome! Swag from the authors is awesome too!

Where do you keep your list? Where did you leave a review? Amazon?

My favorite military SF has been Heinlein (of course), Jerry Pournelle (sometimes with Larry Niven), John Steakly (Armor), and Joe Haldeman (The Forever War). A few others, but those are the biggest for me so far. I think the first I ever read was The Two Faces of Tomorrow by James P. Hogan, great space marines-vs-AI story from the early 80s.

Also, Diane Duane's Star Trek novels venture into military SF territory, and of course the entire run of BattleTech novels are by definition military SF, with the best being by Robert Stackpole and Robert Thurston's Jade Phoenix Trilogy and related spinoffs, which heavily influenced the classic computer game MechWarrior II.

I really miss the heyday of BattleTech in the 90s; the games, the books, even an animated TV show, it was like crack for military SF fans.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Amazon and Goodreads. Then Amazon bought Goodreads, so a review shows up on both (if you have an account on both)

 

[Notebook]

UK holidaymakers are to be offered the chance to choose their sunbed before they have even left home.
Thomas Cook's trial scheme will allow customers to pay £22 to book a specific lounger in advance of their holiday.
They will be able to pick their preferred location from a map, which will also allow customers to work out when each spot will get sun and shade.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42855169

Ready, set, GO! British holidaymakers in desperate 8am sunbed stampede as they race to beat the Germans to get the best spot by the pool at hotel in Gran Canaria

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ourists-race-reserve-loungers-hotel-pool.html

One well-placed source at the hotel, where an estimated seven out of 10 guests are currently British, said: 'The worst are definitely the Brits followed by the Irish and then some Canarians who are on holiday here and appear to have started to become infected by their behaviour.
'I know the British have traditionally regarded the Germans as the worst offenders but our experience is that they have breakfast first and look for a sunbed after.
'The pool opens at 8am and there's always a queue of people waiting at this time of the year. It's a bit hard to fathom really because there's enough sunbeds to go round.

Think I'll go to Blackpool this year.

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

..., and of course the entire run of BattleTech novels are by definition military SF, with the best being by Robert Stackpole and Robert Thurston's Jade Phoenix Trilogy and related spinoffs, which heavily influenced the classic computer game MechWarrior II.

As still active BattleTech player I must disagree to Michael Stackpole (Robert Stackpole did never write for BT) as best author. His novels are terribly predictable - though he had the honor to also write the novels about the more significant events in the storyline.

The most science-fiction heavy novels there is of course the early Grey Death Legion trilogy, by William H Keith. For the orbiter context, the Task Force Serpent novels might be more interesting, since they are among the few featuring spaceflight battles (Not too unrealistic in an unrealistic setting).

 

[jedidia]

Omg, why doesn't anybody tell me that C++ has had lambda support for ages? There's so much I wish I could rewrite now :blink:

 

[Urwumpe]

Omg, why doesn't anybody tell me that C++ has had lambda support for ages? There's so much I wish I could rewrite now :blink:

C++ has lambda support for ages. VC++ doesn't.

 

[Andy44]

As still active BattleTech player I must disagree to Michael Stackpole (Robert Stackpole did never write for BT) as best author. His novels are terribly predictable - though he had the honor to also write the novels about the more significant events in the storyline.

The most science-fiction heavy novels there is of course the early Grey Death Legion trilogy, by William H Keith. For the orbiter context, the Task Force Serpent novels might be more interesting, since they are among the few featuring spaceflight battles (Not too unrealistic in an unrealistic setting).

Getting Stackpole's name wrong is what happens when I don't look things up first...but I did like his books, mainly because he had that one nameless assassin running around, that guy was my favorite character.

I also really liked the Grey Death Legion stories.

 

[Urwumpe]

Getting Stackpole's name wrong is what happens when I don't look things up first...but I did like his books, mainly because he had that one nameless assassin running around, that guy was my favorite character.

Well, the nameless assassin was some sort of written dead in the end, like many other interesting characters.

The character Trent was IMHO pretty great and also disappeared without a trace (Well, his ending sounds like Bruce Springsteens Atlantic City: Everything that dies, some day comes back), just like his best friend Roussou Howell... well, he came back with a vengance.

 

[Andy44]

Well, the nameless assassin was some sort of written dead in the end, like many other interesting characters.

The character Trent was IMHO pretty great and also disappeared without a trace (Well, his ending sounds like Bruce Springsteens Atlantic City: Everything that dies, some day comes back), just like his best friend Roussou Howell... well, he came back with a vengance.

I don't recall ever getting to the end of Stackpole's storyline, so I never knew how it all wound up.

 

[Urwumpe]

I don't recall ever getting to the end of Stackpole's storyline, so I never knew how it all wound up.

Well, he was finally killed around 3064 by another pretty interesting character, Minoru (formerly Minoru Kurita) in the aftermath of the Lyran-Davion-Civil war (in the Loren Coleman novel "Endgame"), after getting nearly killed by Isis Marik at the beginning of the civil war.

Minoru was the only person who ever managed to take a whole Clan as bondsmen... :lol:

 

[Andy44]

Well, he was finally killed around 3064 by another pretty interesting character, Minoru (formerly Minoru Kurita) in the aftermath of the Lyran-Davion-Civil war (in the Loren Coleman novel "Endgame"), after getting nearly killed by Isis Marik at the beginning of the civil war.

Minoru was the only person who ever managed to take a whole Clan as bondsmen... :lol:

It is interesting that the Clan invasion was supposed to impose the Clan way of life upon the soft Inner Sphere, and instead it wound up basically diluting the Clans' "purity". Fictional universes like that always fascinate me, especially when contributed to by numerous authors.

A counter example is the Saurons of Pournelle's CoDominium future, a race of genetically engineered superhumans who fail to conquer all of mankind, and whose remnants retreat to the lost world of Haven (the "War World" anthology stories), but who never compromise on their values and wind up engineering the local population to try and build up a new strain of Saurons.

Pournelle's CoDominium universe is another one that I never got a satisfactory conclusion to, at least not the Haven-bred Sauron part. The events of The Mote in God's Eye take place years after the end of the Sauron war.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

All of my experience with Stackpole was with his X-Wing Series... Damn fine storytelling, compelling characters, and absolutely superb grasp on what being a starfighter pilot in the early days of the New Republic would likely have been like.

 

[Matias Saibene]

Currently, through my window I see a red Moon.
Is it supposed to be like that? I did not hear any report about it, and I thought it might be some kind of local fire.

 

[DaveS]

Currently, through my window I see a red Moon.
Is it supposed to be like that? I did not hear any report about it, and I thought it might be some kind of local fire.

It isn't the lunar eclipse, that's tomorrow. Must be some local phenomena creating the effect.

 

[Matias Saibene]

It isn't the lunar eclipse, that's tomorrow. Must be some local phenomena creating the effect.

Thank you, just now the newspaper has just published, Red Moon that we are seeing is not because of the eclipse but because of a grassland fire near a YPF fuel and agrochemical plant:leaving:.

As it was not going to happen naturally here (the red Moon), they were going to manage it so now we have a Red Moon, and one day before. That is envy.
:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:

 

[Urwumpe]

It is interesting that the Clan invasion was supposed to impose the Clan way of life upon the soft Inner Sphere, and instead it wound up basically diluting the Clans' "purity". Fictional universes like that always fascinate me, especially when contributed to by numerous authors.

Well, the concept of the Clans is pretty interesting, since they are essentially all utterly fascist - but not similar and not stupid (Except most of the Smoke Jaguars). And with diverging levels of respect to those groups considered inferior to the Trueborns. Some are almost meritocratic, others base their society completely on the belief that genetic engineering will always be better than nature... Some are completely focussed on the warrior cast and treat the other castes like slave workers, the others show a lot of respect. Some are completely focussed on success in combat, others look for something more than just the next victory.

I still need to read up on what happened after 3070 there... some event cut the 1000 LY ties between the Clan homeworlds and the invasion zones.

 

[jedidia]

Filling out my accident report:

describe nature of accident: "Got hit in the knuckle of the left index finger by a longsword during sparing."

describe cause of accident: Very tempted to fill in "rolled a one on my parry" :lol:

 

[Fabri91]

The Lego Saturn V is absolutely excellent and huge :

 

[kuddel]

The Lego Saturn V is absolutely excellent and huge

Yes it is(*)!

(*) First hand experience :thumbup:

 

[Urwumpe]

The Lego Saturn V is absolutely ugly and booooooooring*.



* Yes, I still don't have it. :dry: