this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
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TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name
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It's something that really winds me up about scifi shows, and I know there are always budget restrictions... but it just feels really lazy to me, for aliens to be simply humans with plasticine on their foreheads.
I'm reading one of Iain M. Banks' 'Culture' series of hard scifi books, the depth and variety of not just alien species but 'post-human' modification is breathtaking. 'The Culture' is a far-flung hyper-technological society, no money, all wants and needs provided for, there are no drugs because everyone has their own drug gland. If you decide you want to try changing sex, off you go, the nanosuite will take care of it within a matter of days. Sick of being a humaniform? No problem, now you're the bush-like bundle of tendrils of your dreams. Bored with being a bush? Maybe you want to download your consciousness into a drone, or the solar sail drive of a starship? Again, no problemo!
For some reason, I only got the alert for your reply today!
I adore the Hyperion Cantos, it's one of my favourite scifi book series ever, and I hope one day it gets the TV treatment it deserves. Always felt it would make an amazing show.
Yeah they'd have to do a LOT of R&D to make sure the Shrike looks suitably terrifying. The speed of it wouldn't be a problem, they could get all the people who worked on The Flash!
I've been pleasantly surprised with TV versions of late. I didn't watch Foundation until S02 dropped, I just saw no way they could do a show set over aeons. They've taken a lot of artistic license and I've heard from many who loved the books saying they're unhappy with that, but I really enjoyed it. Three Body Problem season one was also fantastic, so fingers crossed that gets a second season (apparently it was very expensive to make so S01 may be all we get unfortunately).
Tbh I did strongly expect massive changes to the Asimov books. They were written quite some time ago in a different social climate... I read the entire Asimov collection over lockdown and while he's an excellent writer (reading other authors after a year of Asimov was like wading through treacle!), with massive inventive potential, I remember thinking to myself reading a lot of the stories "Well. That wouldn't wash in this century". Mostly casual sexism.
I imagine the showrunners read the source material and thought "Oh no, there's no lead women characters. That's not going to go down very well" and then the changes cascaded from there. Still a very enjoyable show, just have to try and disengage from the OG source material.
Fingers crossed for 3BP season 2! The bit with the ship and the military nanofibers was gruesome as fuck, I can get why the Augie character would've been very unhappy about that haha. But yeah I also found her character a bit annoying.
Yeah, this was the exact reason why I was so tentative about Foundation at first. After seeing how Altered Carbon S02 floated like a lead balloon, it became quite apparent that audiences, along with a sense of progression, want a sense of continuity. Audiences don't seem to gel with TV shows that have a different lead every season, so Altered Carbon really struggled as the audience had spent a previous season connecting to an actor who then disappeared at the start of S02. Of course, anyone who'd ever read the books was well prepared for this, but the 'average viewer' was not and sadly it was cancelled.
I assumed the same would be true of Foundation, where in the books you've got a different lead in practically every chapter! So that probably also played a hand in the changes.
And hell fuckin' YEAH Severance was incredible. Super weird. I love TV shows that create an inexplicable universe then go about slowly revealing it. Season 2 is a go, so I can't wait to find out how Mark reacts to the knowledge he gained in the finale.
Hopefully S02 Severance will be out this year. Obviously there was a big break because of the writers strike, they're currently filming right now and from the sounds of the statement I read, seem really keen to have it out ASAP.
And yes the Altered Carbon books are amazing! I feel like it's almost always best to watch the TV show / film first before the books, it's often a little disappointing the other way around as we've built our own internal universe of how characters look and sound. Plus the books by the nature usually have much more detail.
Have you read much by Iain M. Banks? It's classed as 'hard' scifi, but I think that's just because he refers to actual known physics quite a lot. Really really really cool worldbuilding, especially in the Culture series. The Xeelee series is also fantastic and there's a ton of books there!
OK for the Xeelee series (by Stephen Baxter), you're really spoiled for choice... the author designed all the books to be standalone, doesn't really do 'cliffhangers'. But he has a suggested reading order:
Vacuum Diagrams (collection of short stories which will set out the overal story of the universe)
Timelike Infinity / Ring (tells the story of a character integral to the series, Michael Poole)
Raft and Flux (incidents amongst the wider background)
Destiny's Children (three-parter in the same universe, exploring different evolutions of humanity)
Then whatever else you like the sound of.
As an example of the sorts of timescales he writes over, 'Xeelee: Redemption' is set between the years 4060 and 5,000,000,000! Personally I prefer long books over short stories, which to me always feel like they end just as they get going. So while Vacuum Diagrams is excellent, if the same is true for you, maybe jump in with Timelike Infinity. It's a shame all my stuff is in storage atm as I could post you some of these. Hopefully you can find them at your local library.
For Banks, there's an excellent reading order here: https://www.howtoread.me/the-culture-reading-order/