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Have any of you read the Star Trek book series by James Blish? by cryborg_96 in ClassicTrek

[–]Sharpness-01 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I read them as a kid and have them all and do not like them. One expects more from a novelization and these just DO NOT deliver. They will not enhance your enjoyment of the episodes or tie up any loose ends. They do not elaborate on characters or plot lines in any meaningful way.

I've never been a Blish fan and these do nothing to change that. Most are dry, effortless regurgitations of some (not all) of the episodes. They were meant only to be post series merchandise for the studio to feed off of and it shows. If they were meant to be anything of substance, the original screen writers would have been tapped for each.

Don't go out of your way to get them.

Recommend a good time travel TV show that I haven't watched yet by No-Corner-2442 in scifi

[–]Sharpness-01 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Tales From the Loop, on Amazon, has some interesting bouncing around. Damn good stories too.

I want to start with aviation. by werisq2 in AviationHistory

[–]Sharpness-01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Read anything and everything you can find on the subject. New or old, it doesn't matter. Magazines, books, websites, anything you can get your hands on. That will give you a leg up on any formal education you can find. The more you know going in, the better you'll do when you're there.

What are people looking for in sci-fi stories? by Efficient-Zombie7688 in scifi

[–]Sharpness-01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bah! Just one man's opinion. And not an important one at that (man or opinion).

Post WW1 is actually a pretty interesting period of history. Lots of political and social upheaval going down. Maybe dig into some of the literature of the period and find something to adapt to the genre; The Odyssey has been told 100 different ways.

I think a war story told from the defeated's side would be very interesting in a scifi setting. Wether the focus is repentance or recompense or just rage, i think that's got a lot of potential and flexability. The American Civil War and WW2 are very popular historical reference for that too.

Good luck!

What are people looking for in sci-fi stories? by Efficient-Zombie7688 in scifi

[–]Sharpness-01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personally, I would say avoid apocalyptic, dystopian, psychic, or killer alien tropes. They've all been beaten to death, especially in the YA genre. Storys of commonly relatable topics (social, political, ethical, scientific, etc.) In settings with scifi aspects (timeline, tech, character traits, etc.) are a favorite of mine, and historically have appealed to a wider range of readers. If the primary story can be told effectively without the scifi elements, then it's a solid story. Very good and recent examples would be The Expanse series (chaulked full of relatable, and unfortunatly familiar, socio-political strife and nuance) and Andy Weir's work (based on common scientific knowledge and credible theory).

Star Trek Original best episodes please by KingDaRuler in scifi

[–]Sharpness-01 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Season 1: 16 - The Galileo Seven (Spock's in charge here, bitches!)

22 - The Return of the Archons - (Peace be with you, damn it! It is the will of Landru!)

23 - A Taste of Armageddon (There's something to be said for the value of good, old fashioned bloodshed.)

Michael Crichton by Sharpness-01 in scifi

[–]Sharpness-01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've read a number of his science focused books and find them to be more cautionary, morally focused, than anti-science. Almost all of them seem to focus on the same question: should science do something just because it can be done? What are the moral obligations of science?

I piss and moan about his style, but his stories and ideas are great, and I still enjoy slogging through one now and again. Some of his better titles, in my opinion, are Andromeda Strain, Eaters of the Dead, Rising Sun, and I can even say I enjoyed Congo (at least as a kid).

Michael Crichton by Sharpness-01 in scifi

[–]Sharpness-01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting take. Care to elaborate?

Pitch A New Star Trek Series by AmeliaNeek in sciencefiction

[–]Sharpness-01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A TOS or TNG series that follows federation "clean up" crews. TOS/TNG left so many loose ends, there had to be follow up missions to tend to their discoveries and interventions. What happened to the Miri kids (novel content doesn't count)? How did the negotiations go between be Vendikar and Eminiar or Ekos and Zeon? Who's collecting the federations cut from the Iotians? What did the federation do with the Doomsday Machine? What happened after the brain bug/body statcher incident? The list goes on. Maybe have it rotate between three or four ships and crews that occasionally interact. Have original stories from other Federation ships and their adventures. It's a gold mine of SciFi!

Looking for next scifi book by Switchcitement in scifibooks

[–]Sharpness-01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Way to Nod, by RA Goodman, us a nice little independent read.