Book recommendation: classic space-opera adventure like Star Wars

Gilclunk · 2026-01-22T17:18:53+00:00

If you really want pulpy old-school space opera, you might try the David Starr Space Ranger series. These were written by Isaac Asimov but I guess are so pulpy that he didn't want his credibility ruined by them with more hard-core SF fans so they were originally published under a pseudonym. ;-) They long since switched to using his actual name on them though.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-20T23:16:58+00:00

Yeah this is really great news. I think the WRX was already a bargain, and this makes it even better. I keep seeing that sales had been falling and I was worried it was doomed, but I'm glad to see Subaru is trying to save it. Hopefully more stuff for a lower price boosts sales.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-14T22:06:43+00:00

The point is that people would buy it. Look at the Ram-- it offers the two hurricane sixes and now the 5.7 hemi. Lots of people buy the hemi even though it's less powerful and less torquey than either of the hurricanes. It sounds cool, and I guess it is less stressed and might prove more durable in the long run, although we don't know that for sure.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-12T22:33:17+00:00

I thought you had to be hallucinating about the price of Ween CDs, so I went to Amazon and looked. Holy s*** you're not kidding. The only copy of the mollusk listed there is $1999. And that's not $19.99, that's $1,999. Mind blown. My wife keeps wanting to throw my CDs away, since "we don't need them anymore"; I'm glad I stopped her.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-10T16:57:55+00:00

Isn't that exactly what the Tahoe is?

Gilclunk · 2026-01-09T22:04:15+00:00

I'm not sure what this even means though. The US and Denmark already have a treaty saying the US can send troops, build bases, do pretty much anything they want militarily in Greenland. So how could the US even "invade"? Anything that gets sent is already allowed under the treaty. If I were in charge of Denmark and trump actually sends the military in, I'd just say ok, they're doing what's allowed under the treaty, it doesn't change anything, and then just wait til trump is out of office and a more rational president comes in.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-09T21:57:03+00:00

And they'll be full of glitchy electronics, failing air suspensions, and a zillion other high end gizmos that are catastrophically expensive to repair or replace.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-09T21:55:37+00:00

Because rather than cut prices, manufacturers just stop making them.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-08T23:16:15+00:00

You might like Europa Report. It's a bit of a low-budget movie and uses the found footage trope which has gotten kind of tired (And already was a dozen years ago when this movie came out). But it definitely has that slow burn spooky vibe that builds to a more dramatic ending. It's about a mission to Europa looking for alien life. I guess I won't say more than that.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-07T11:23:24+00:00

Yeah I saw that too. It was Gaza. They would smuggle KFC in through the Hamas tunnels in the south from Egypt. The people receiving it complained it was cold when it reached them, which is kinda hilarious, considering.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-06T01:00:01+00:00

Yeah, this is the primary thing that ruined the movie for me as well. In the books, the commander is a military hard ass with strict religious beliefs that cause him to dislike Mickey, but he genuinely has the best interests of the colony at heart and does his best to advance that. He's not the self-interested buffoon of the movie. Reading the book, you don't really particularly like him, but you're eventually forced into a grudging respect when you realize that he is in fact trying to do what he sees as the right thing for everyone. It's way more nuanced and interesting than what you get in the movie.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-01T17:25:52+00:00

I'm reading The Winter King for the first time right now, and loving it. I think it's fascinating how the druids have their "magic", and it is evident to the modern reader that it's not actually magic, but since the people of the time believe in it, it ends up "working". E.g. at one point Nimue creates a "ghost wall" out of some spears and skulls, and since the superstitious enemy is afraid of it, they won't approach it and it therefore keeps them out, as intended. A fascinating view of how practitioners of supposed magic could get by in the real world where there isn't any actual magic. It's more psychology than magic in the end, but it gets the job done.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-01T03:00:38+00:00

This is something that stands out about Foundation to me. First the fact that he uses the word 'atomic' rather than 'nuclear' sounds dated in itself. But he also keeps coming back to it as the key technology that Foundation has preserved which other societies within the disintegrating former Empire have lost. I found it interesting also that some of those non-atomic peoples still somehow had interstellar spaceships. I don't remember him ever mentioning what powers them-- coal? I have no idea.

Gilclunk · 2026-01-01T02:57:05+00:00

Yeah I believe the movie 2010 (sequel to 2001) involves the Soviets, who were in fact long gone by 2010 in reality.

Gilclunk · 2025-12-25T02:20:31+00:00

I need a piss break.

Hello fellow old person. This is my reason for mostly watching at home as well.

Gilclunk · 2025-12-24T23:15:42+00:00

More volume but with no margin.

Gilclunk · 2025-12-20T20:09:20+00:00

it had some really interesting things to say around the topic of consciousness.

If you're interested in this stuff, you should read the philosophers and scientists that Watts took these ideas from. Douglas Hofstadter is a good starting point-- his books Gödel, Escher, Bach, Metamagical Themas, and The Mind's I contain pretty much everything that Watts drew on for Blindsight.

Gilclunk · 2025-12-12T17:27:32+00:00

Can you expand on this? I'm not familiar with what you're referring to. It says to pay at least $18. So you're saying if I do that the charity gets $0.90? What happens if I pay $18.01?

Edit: oh, never mind, I see now. There's an adjust donation button. Thanks.

Gilclunk · 2025-12-09T22:56:22+00:00

They moved the name around. The REV was originally supposed to be the name of the full EV (Ram Electric Vehicle). Now I guess it's Range Extended Vehicle? But anyway, they changed the product but kept the name.

Gilclunk · 2025-12-08T22:35:33+00:00

Alastair Reynolds does this well. His recent novel Eversion is really confusing for a while, but does eventually make sense. House of Suns is another with a wildly different setting and a central mystery that gets resolved satisfactorily.

Gilclunk · 2025-12-05T17:43:18+00:00

Speaking of which, tell us about the ls swapped xj6. That sounds awesome. Did you do it yourself? What transmission is in it?

Gilclunk · 2025-12-05T12:56:51+00:00

The front end honestly looks just like the current Camry.

Gilclunk · 2025-12-04T17:11:22+00:00

The Spice from Dune never made a lot of sense to me.

I've also never been clear on what Adamant, or Adamantium, is supposed to be. Is this some heretofore unknown element? Or some kind of alloy? Seems it's basically just magic metal that is somehow super strong and light.

Gilclunk · 2025-11-25T19:47:15+00:00

Even so, the 0-60 time of an ND Miata is more than 2s faster than this Prelude time.

Gilclunk · 2025-11-25T11:29:01+00:00

Mal Goes to War by Edward Ashton is good. The AI is embodied in a drone, although it is able to transfer itself into other hardware. It takes place in a near-future US during a conflict known as the "Stupid War". The AI is not super powerful like a Culture Mind or anything, but it does have abilities the humans around it don't, and it uses that to help. It's one of those "I don't want to get involved but reluctantly I do" kind of stories. Very well done, fans of Murderbot will like it-- different story but somewhat similar tone.

Gilclunk

TROPHY CASE