Comments on: MIND MELD: Whatever Happened to Interstellar Travel in Science Fiction?

By: Neal Asher

Neal Asher — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:46:48 +0000

But then, we live on a freaking huge world that has been reduced in apparent size by trains, planes and high-speed world-wide communication. The size of the universe apparently shrinking with the effect of FTL and an ansible or two is just an extrapolation of the same effect.

By: tam

tam — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:41:29 +0000

Welcome to Sfsignal, Brass Man.

By: X2Eliah

X2Eliah — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:01:03 +0000

Completely agreed. I’d say it is due to the fact that Reynolds’ universe still has the lightspeed barrier – so any travel between planets still takes forever; that still-existing separation really hammers home the fact that the characters are travelling across the big freaking huge space.

By: Neal Asher

Neal Asher — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:22:28 +0000

“many of them make the whole experience so SMALL” – very true. The one I do get the sense of scale from is Reynolds – maybe peering through a telescope should be compulsory for an SF writer.

By: Michael O.

Michael O. — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:42:55 +0000

I actually liked your answer the best.

By: Fred Kiesche

Fred Kiesche — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:21:59 +0000

I don’t think I’ve written about Baen here, but I did an interview with David Drake about one year ago that was podcasted here (So try searching with just “David Drake” or click on the “podcast” category for the entire archive). I brought up some Baen suggestions in a few other episodes that I participated in, so, heck, listen to the whole archive! Patrcik will be happy!) For a better sense of what I’ve read, click on the link (via my hyperlinked name) to get to my website and poke around there.

By: tam

tam — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:30:16 +0000

I’m serious. I’d read a ‘Creme of Baen’ post. How do I bring up your Baen reviews?

By: Fred Kiesche

Fred Kiesche — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:23:37 +0000

Anybody who knows me knows what publishers get most of my money. That’s never been a secret. On the other hand, when I see something I don’t enjoy there, they hear it as well.

By: Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Bryan Thomas Schmidt — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:33:05 +0000

LOL I had the same reaction, Fred.

By: M.P. Gunderson

M.P. Gunderson — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:17:42 +0000

Typo there. Should read: “Science and technology taken for grant today, such as cell phones and the internet, were inconceivable realities two hundred years ago.”

By: M.P. Gunderson

M.P. Gunderson — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:09:46 +0000

Science and technology were take for granted today, such as cell phones and the internet, were certainly inconceivable realities two hundred years ago. To think that in 1000 years we won’t have figured out some means of interstellar travel appears to me to be shortsighted and dogmatic, give the exponential growth of technology in the last century. Given this, I really don’t believe interstellar science fiction should be considered passe or unrealistic; rather, I think it’s progressive and perhaps even probable. I recently published my novel on Kindle, The Planet Keepers, which is about a far flung civilization. Frankly, I don’t care if it’s unrealistic. I think it’s more interesting to study civilizations other than our own with a sense of imagination.

By: Paul Connelly

Paul Connelly — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:13:05 +0000

The trouble with stories about interstellar travel and galaxy-spanning civilizations is that so many of them make the whole experience so SMALL. And so past-looking. When interstellar wars are portrayed as Napoleonic era naval battles with the wooden ships replaced by spaceships, when galactic empires have the same communications capabilities and social organization as Victorian England or Eisenhower’s US, when intrigues are carried out by James Bond stand-ins who hop worlds as easily as 007 could skip around continents, then the setting loses what should make it inspire awe and wonder–namely: immensity of scale, the unpredictability of encounters with both danger and beauty, the incredible contortions that will be necessary to adapt to such a hostile environment, the hopes and fears of finding strange new lifeforms and the high likelihood of being lost between the stars without ever having done so.

And one has to at least play at making plausible the economic and social imperatives that would motivate such endeavors, given the enormous energy costs. If you had the energy resources at your disposal to send ships to the stars, with any probability of just getting there (much less back) in a meaningful human timescale, what couldn’t you do with such energy resources right here at home? There would have to be a reason for a society to devote its resources to interstellar travel other than trading with ETs for handwavium or combatting ennui in a post-singularity economy of super-abundance. Otherwise you end up fighting 18th century wars and subjugating 19th century colonies on a canvas warped and shrunk from a cosmic scale to that of the seven seas.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:02:40 +0000

Interstellar travel what was science fiction is now becoming reality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSkxPghXTCg

By: tam

tam — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:34:00 +0000

@Fred Kiesche – Do I sense a Baen appreciation post coming?

By: Fred Kiesche

Fred Kiesche — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:27:07 +0000

There’s Weber, Drake, Ringo, and more but they probably get dismissed because it is “just Baen”.

I tried some of the WH40K books and actually enjoyed them. Fun stuff.

Who knows what we’ll have by the third Greg Egan “Clockwork Rocket” book.