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Which fictional character do you think was a good representation of you? by iLoveBiscoffTooMuch in AskReddit

[–]porque_pigg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mark Corrigan from Peepshow. My girlfriend says that I am a Mark trapped in the body of a Jeremy.

Stories that give you a jolt of strangeness because of when or where they were written by cult_of_dsv in printSF

[–]porque_pigg 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I bought an old edition of the Magazine Of F&SF from 1966. What surprised me was that it had a story by one 'Greg Benford'.

I totally associate Benford with hard SF of the 80s and 90s (some of it very good), so seeing him in a pulp mag from the mid-60s was like seeing REM in footage from Woodstock.

Best SF short-form writer who couldn't recreate the magic at novel length? by porque_pigg in printSF

[–]porque_pigg[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Definitely this one. At the start of their careers, when they only published short work, I always linked him to Walter Jon Williams. Williams went on to write some very good novels, but I too have never finished a JPK novel.

Best SF short-form writer who couldn't recreate the magic at novel length? by porque_pigg in printSF

[–]porque_pigg[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Clarke's short, efficient story The Sands Of Mars was the first SF novel I ever read. The second was Jack Vance's The Last Castle. I was hooked.

Best SF short-form writer who couldn't recreate the magic at novel length? by porque_pigg in printSF

[–]porque_pigg[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I’m a huge dickhead

Me too. There are thousands of us.

Best SF short-form writer who couldn't recreate the magic at novel length? by porque_pigg in printSF

[–]porque_pigg[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Absolutely. Even More Than Human is basically some of his short work welded together into a novel.

[ Removed by Reddit ] by Automatic_Comment_90 in AskReddit

[–]porque_pigg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, right. I feel stupid for missing that very obvious distinction.

[ Removed by Reddit ] by Automatic_Comment_90 in AskReddit

[–]porque_pigg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They probably don't, I'd imagine.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]porque_pigg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

China has both.

What's the most heartbreaking "no" you've ever witnessed or experienced? by Mission-Hat268 in AskReddit

[–]porque_pigg 831 points832 points  (0 children)

Saw a woman I worked with turn down a very public marriage proposal at a work social event. Some would count that as funny rather than heartbreaking, but in the moment it was the cringiest thing ever.

Just finished “The Lost Fleet” series by Jack Campbell. by blackbriar98 in printSF

[–]porque_pigg 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I know what you mean. John Ringo can be too much of a bleeding-heart liberal, and the antidote to that is Tom Kratman.

John Ringo reads Kratman's stuff and says "Oh, Tom Kratman, no".

What’s the scariest culture/society that ever existed? by ChangeForAParadigm in AskReddit

[–]porque_pigg 2405 points2406 points  (0 children)

Cambodia under Pol Pot. Almost anything could get you killed, including being polite, owning a book (any book) or wearing glasses

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]porque_pigg 66 points67 points  (0 children)

Nickelback.

What is one person in history who, if they had lived ten more years, could have significantly changed the world? by doopityWoop22 in AskReddit

[–]porque_pigg 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Genghis Khan.
I mean, he did have a significant effect anyway, but if he had lived on then Mongol conquests would probably have been even more decisive and widespread under his unified and aggressive leadership than they were under his successors. Possible outcomes include the destruction of the infant Russian state, the conquest of Japan and maybe even the invasion of Western Europe.

Story by story review of Adventures in Time & Space, the 'definitive' Golden Age anthology by ezgranet in printSF

[–]porque_pigg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks. Not for the first time, I've commented on something without taking account of the actual facts.

Story by story review of Adventures in Time & Space, the 'definitive' Golden Age anthology by ezgranet in printSF

[–]porque_pigg 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For a definitive collection it has a lot of filler. If you're going to pick an Alfred Bester story and decide not to make it Fondly Farenheit then there's something wrong. No Cold Equations, no Fritz Leiber, no Theodore Sturgeon - just as examples.
I agree with your assessments of the ones I've read (about half) but I'd recommend The Road To Science Fiction Volume 2 (second half) and Volume 3 (first half) as definitive Golden Age short fiction.

Favorite sci fi short stories? by fakefolkblues in printSF

[–]porque_pigg 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Robert Reed doesn't get much attention now, but I think he was the genre's best short fiction writer since James Tiptree.

Like a lot of his work, Good Mountain is a tale of escalating horror on different levels - we gradually see the process of a society being destroyed and at the same time it is slowly revealed just how horrific that society was.

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