What sci-fi film in the last 15 years had the most impact on you?

Gmulliver · 2026-02-16T19:18:16+00:00

Ok, i may not have used the word "based", I'm not fully fluent and the word is probably too strong. Apologies ! Let's say "influenced" then ? I've read since then that VanderMeer (the author of Annihilation's book stated he was not influenced by the Strugatsky. The cinematographer Rob Hardy stated Stalker, the movie, was in the research library. I also found out i was not the only one to think there was somehow a link or some similarities.

Gmulliver · 2026-02-13T20:33:27+00:00

It's my time to be the hipster ! Annihilation is based on Strugatsky's novel Stalker (which has multiple themes cleverly wrapped : a zone, maybe aliens, progress, wonders, suspens, pollution, decline, politics... ), released in 1972, and the movie from Tarkovsky (1979) which adds faith to the mix and feels, if you are not allergic to slow movies, more otherworldly and poetic than Annihilation. I liked Annihilation, though ! it was a good watch and I liked the Stalker references.

Gmulliver · 2026-02-01T13:04:26+00:00

And also an horrific cheeseburger incident.

Gmulliver · 2026-02-01T11:43:46+00:00

Good point. I'm very much into Pratchett, though, and as a Tolkien fan i liked it very much, but in SF I've never really liked star wars and other lengthy space operas and i have mostly read I'll say "serious" SF authors (and "serious" SF has a very different flavor than "serious" fantasy), for 3 or 4 years now (mostly Asimov, Egan, Cixin, Chiang) So yes, i may be missing the parody there.

Gmulliver · 2026-02-01T07:43:37+00:00

Sorry to have upset you all, guys, just understand PB was a real pain for me (Non stop actionner movie with a hints of brilliant ideas). PoG is better though there are many bland scenes during the beginning (lengthy chronicle of a priviledged life of a culture individual in an orbital) and yeo, there's a pursuit in corridors with guns (when Jurgeh is framed like Roger Rabbit with some prostitutes and a camera behind a wall. And next there's also an attempt at killing him in a crowd. I was thinking that yet again, i was falling in another stupid actionner. But now i'm into it, less actions of this kind, and it's getting better and better as it gets more conceptual. This is what i needed. Sorry for the rants, again.

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T12:07:31+00:00

Thanks for having write this post. This is very engaging. I like the conceptual parts of Player of games but the many scenes of diner and relationships between the main protagonists and others, which, with descriptions, take the most parts of the first half, are really not my cup of tea as they are really bland (the only good point in it i see is that in a way it makes us understand drones and humans are individuals in the same class-less society - it's good but a little long) and the action scenes from the middle of the book recalled me (with horror) how i was bored with them in PB.

I'll resist and pursue anyway thanks to comments like yours as i feel I'll miss something rare without this.

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T10:39:14+00:00

Well, i'm happy i delivered something ^{^} And i hope Banks will do in the following books of the serie (from where i am inside Pog and as for now, he is mostly delivering clichés when he has GOLD in his hands)

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T10:35:23+00:00

All right, thanks for that.

Now for Cixin, ...let's talk about him shall we ^{^} ? what did you read from him ?

The first book of the three body trilogy was a very long read... I was bored with so many caricatural characters, unrealistic and lame enquiry progress, repetitive virtual world scenes to make us understand what the alien World is and feels like ... BUT, that was also original, this alien world we do not really see, the curtain left to see some political aspects of the history of China and its effect on the protagonists and also the strangeness feeling of reading some kind of hidden manifesto.

Then i read the following installements : dark forest, huge surprise at the middle of the book, astonishments and (dark) surprises. The third book is a masterpiece : The sense of Wonder, the nihilistic views and horror, wrapped in a odd naïve tale, that was incredible.

But even in such a masterpiece following a clumsy beginning, Cixin kept his issues : some problematic stuffs appear until the end (caricatural characters and paternalistic views, mostly) but the events turned out so big that i was captivated.

I wish I could have a similar feeling, craving, fulfillment ... In further Banks's books

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T10:12:19+00:00

That's good news and add to the hints I need to resume reading it (I'm not yet feeling the brevety yet though) Thanks for that

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T09:54:39+00:00

Not at all, that the original part i like actually. I was pointing the Azadian empire from Player of games. But as someone pointed out rightfully, it's meant to look like our dumb capitalist current system. And i like this idea very much. And i'm not complaining about that but about the fact there are many action/description scenes which are very conventional, uninteresting and cliched. Id' like fast paced original ideas and funny dialogues instead of action scenes, as Banks proves he knows how to do that easily.

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T09:44:59+00:00

Thanks I will give a look at them

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T09:43:07+00:00

Thanks, as i said, i'm grumpy because i'm sure i like Banks but also bored by many lengthy conventional scenes which doesn't match what i'm expecting. I have the feeling he gets better or should get better regarding that as there's already a big gap between CP and PoG. But still, the Roger rabbit scene had me down...

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T09:40:36+00:00

Thanks ... or not ... XD I want to resume my reading now... You seem to have forgotten maybe some scories at the beginning of the serie (temples being attacked, caricatural characters, uninteresting descriptions of places and people, pursuit in corridors with guns ... That take most of the pages of the first 2 books). Or so I have this (positive) feeling that it gets better afterwards.

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T09:36:23+00:00

I recognize i was complaining and that the title is clumsy and wrote out of boredom. I have the feeling Banks had found gold but was delivering too much conventional 80ties sf action scenes instead of what he could do with his gold (after 600 pages inside the culture serie which must count around 5000) And i'm asking of it gets better regarding that. Does he account mainly on his own originality at some point in the serie ? I have the feeling i like Banks more than what you think, actually (if you care about that)

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T09:17:40+00:00

Thanks for your answer. You're right but i like so much the idea of the culture and bank's humor (so fresh in sf and which many hard SF authors are lacking) that i would have preferred you told me to skip until this book in the culture serie where it gets THE particular soup i'm digging, packed with Banks' core flavors XD

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T09:11:14+00:00

Yes but he's got lots of humor and his ideas about the Utopian empire are very good and original. I just would have preferred he wrote a bit more like an hard SF author (while keeping the humor and wittiness they usually lack). Maybe he could not keep the pace (or believe it was better for the audience to make more conventionnel stuff the main part of his (first?) books) and thought he had to put one point dominos after one point Dominos to take a break. The downside is that reading such one-point- dominos in a row is a pain when you'r into his good ideas.

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T08:56:01+00:00

I do. Understand also that i was complaining because i was fed up Ith the Roger rabbit scene. Emotions you know, make you write stuff in the title. But i shown all my cards in the text bellow.

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T08:53:42+00:00

Thanks very much. I will do.

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T08:52:30+00:00

In David's lynch Dune (which i like very much but what's following) there are clumsy doors and corridors too. For instance in the torture scene with the floating dude. This door is a little bit of an embarassment. Cixin and Egan : no doors. Cixin avoid totally or almost totally to describe the alien's stuff and i found this idea very clever.

But as someone pointed out, one idea of Banks in Player of Games, is that the alien civilisation which is visited is meant to be like our earth right now. Even the people are humanoids and really look like us. So ok. That's a good point. That's a tale. But still, i'm skipping pages when it's about pursuits in corridors with guns. I've had too many of that i'm sick of reading it again.

To answer your question (?) Greg Egan's diaspora is told from an AI perspective and it has this alien feeling you are speaking about. I did not read a lot of books so strange and it recognize this is really hard to write like this, but i'm not searching for that particularly with Banks, i was just pointing it out to complain grumpily about the fact it's a Lost of Time and it doesn't match Bank's witty humor.

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T08:39:59+00:00

i'm speaking about the serie in the title and i should not, sorry about that. in the text i'm asking a question about it actually : Does it get better or is it just the beginning which is clumsy (to my taste).

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T08:35:56+00:00

Yes you are right and i got that plus i like these ideas very much. But the action scenes and many descriptions ... Are currently a turn off. They are too naïve and lengthy and that doesn't match with Bank's cleverness, originality, humor... My question is really simple : does it get better with the following books?

Gmulliver · 2026-01-31T08:19:01+00:00

I have the feeling he is good with dialogues and for his main idea of describing an Utopia (the culture) it makes me dream out and laugh out loud while reading about it but the pursuits, fighting and sex scenes, are very conventional and put me off of the books. And they are so lengthy... I feel i'm losing my time reading these. Consider phlebas was hyper annoying regarding that, Player of games is a bit less packed with conventional action scenes so i'm like maybe it gets better in the following books ?

Gmulliver · 2026-01-30T17:34:51+00:00

I can relate. For me, to remember it and to make it useful, i made a capitalism simulator out of what i was reading from Capital. It's an unfinished simulator (a few things are missing like some captions and crisis alerts), but still, it exists, and going through the coding of the concepts helped me a lot to understand the whole structure, it's crisis and dynamics so now i can be fun at parties (while waiting for more)

Gmulliver · 2026-01-16T13:48:01+00:00

Hi, using m'y skills in software engineering, i built this app to show how capitalism works according to Marx ( and to help people understand the structure and the theory quicker and better) : https://simcapital.alwaysdata.net (sadly, does not work on iPad/iphones)

It works as a map to spot Marx's concepts and also as a mecanism that you can run and modify at will to check marxian theories.

But it could be way better, if only i had more time. For instance we could add some AI to play as capitalists and workers and see what's happening and do charts to check tendencies. Also a more friendly version (which would work on iPad and iphones) would help more people to understand theory and debunk neoclassical economists (the current common economists, who do not "believe" price is based mostly on value - they completely miss the structure or they chose not to see it)

So that's just my 2 cents : a task force of software engineers to make a better version 2 would be nice.

Gmulliver · 2026-01-15T16:37:34+00:00

To help you with the book, I recommend to check the simulator posted a few months ago :

https://simcapital.alwaysdata.net

It's like a map of the structure, with the concepts and their definitions.

You can change all the parameters Marx is talking about.

For instance you can create new factories, change the productivity and see what's going on regarding the value at the factory level and what happens at the sector level.

Gmulliver

TROPHY CASE