Is is just me, or is FTL dead in SF?

[BWV]

My point is that any sort of Space Opera interstellar travel is far-fetched. No spoiler-Hamilton's books center around humans mastering wormholes. Its no more or less far-fetched than any other form of FTL

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Never read Horatio Hornblower, nor Pandora's Star... but some of the premises in the WP entry for PS look a bit far-fetched

Having read your pre-deleted comment I’ll reiterate that what you’re calling “far fetched premises” are the mysteries that drive the plot. In-universe people have trouble understanding and figuring out what’s going on. That’s why the story is good, it doesn’t really matter what the premise is it’s how the characters react to it that is important.

 

[Ibix]

Honor Harrington is fun, but that assessment depends on your tolerance for thinly disguised military history. The universe's physics is designed so that broadside combat makes sense, although at least ships form the wall of battle, rather than line of battle. I did find the bad(ish) guys being ruled from Nouveau Paris by Rob S. Pierre, Chairman of the Committee for Public Safety to be a bit heavy handed.

I enjoyed Hamilton's books. His standalone Fallen Dragon is probably my favourite.

 

[profbuxton]

Not really FTL stuff, but I like the premise of the Dune series mode of interstellar and intergalatic travel. Just ingest enough drugs(melange) and you will be able to "bend" space to travel anywhere safely. That idea overcomes many technical issues that bug scfi FTL travel, although it raises a similar amount of other questions. No need to spend a lot of time on dodgy tech explanations on how it works getting around limitations on FTL travel.
Can't say I like the idea of the "ingester" being "transformed" into something else though.

 

[BWV]

Space Fantasy does not get enough respect - Dune is a great story

 

[member 656954]

But read Revelation Space

Absolutely agree that the Revelation Space series is read-worthy, sci-fi, though in the context of this thread, the books lack FTL. Lighthuggers race up to relativistic speeds - with all the complexities of time dilation - to carry freight and passengers between solar systems.

I've reviewed most of Reynolds work lower on amazon.com since those brilliant books burst onto the scene, and especially the Poseidon's Children series (again, no FTL in these stories, but that did not really contribute to the flaws). Also felt that The Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies lacked that Glitter Band zing. Revenger was a cracker, but the second in the series, Shadow Captain wasn't nearly as good. Neither of those had FTL, either, Reynold's having noted that he prefers to use physics as we know it unless it just doesn't work for the plot.

Back on topic, I'm almost through Neal Asher's latest, The Warship, which has both FTL ships and comms, and it's interesting that I'm having tachyonic antitelephone tickles as read it. Asher glosses over that pretty well, but I've also recently read Michael Wallace's Blackbeard Superbox, where small alien ships go FTL in-system as part of their offensive capability, and light delay is really badly handled. The tachyonic antitelephone was ringing loud chapter by chapter!

 

[member 656954]

Yeah, but I save at least 2-3 HVAC dollars per year from the half a foot of cellulose covering a couple of the walls.

Cheaper to just wear a tin-foil suit, surely? Don't they provide insulation and RF protection

 

[Dr Wu]

I hadn't seen that quote from Asimov about paying the bills, but I can't believe that is the whole truth - he must have enjoyed the fiction writing to some extent.. Looking back on it now, I am not sure whether Asimov's fiction or non-fiction had the greater impact on me. Some of his fiction I still re-read for pleasure, such as End of Eternity and The Gods Themselves (middle section only).

It is the lack of computers, not FTL, that make his Foundation series unreadable nowadays - and his later stuff extending the Foundation series and merging with the Robots was a bit strained, I thought.

Oddly enough I've had no such problems with the Foundation Trilogy, which I did read from start to finish recently - and enjoyed as well (with minor quibbles). This, however, could be a case of retreating into a kind of 1940s mindset when reading it. Possibly this placing-oneself-in-the-time-of-the-book's-creation reading strategy has worked with other period-piece SF - still more venerable works like The Time Machine, and Out of the Silent Planet, for instance? On the other hand I have before me a brand new hardback edition of Dune. It's a brick of a book I've not revisited since the early 1970s, and to be honest the prospect fills me with trepidation.

The later Foundation spin-offs I did find pretty much unreadable, for the most part. This was due to far too much dialogue at the expense of action/description. On occasion it was like ploughing through a script intended for a radio play, and I'm afraid much of Heinlein has the same effect on me. Re-reading Asimov's The End of Eternity after a gap of several decades was a richly rewarding experience, however.

As for FTL space travel, it's likely that long-running TV/film franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars have covered many of its bases, or else degraded them, depending on one's point of view. It's possible too that all the astounding discoveries our robotic probes have made about our solar system during the intervening years have pushed FTL travel into the shade, at least for now. That's how things look from this patch of our local heavens, anyway :)

 

[Michael Price]

Oddly enough I've had no such problems with the Foundation Trilogy, which I did read from start to finish recently - and enjoyed as well (with minor quibbles). This, however, could be a case of retreating into a kind of 1940s mindset when reading it. Possibly this placing-oneself-in-the-time-of-the-book's-creation reading strategy has worked with other period-piece SF - still more venerable works like The Time Machine, and Out of the Silent Planet, for instance? On the other hand I have before me a brand new hardback edition of Dune. It's a brick of a book I've not revisited since the early 1970s, and to be honest the prospect fills me with trepidation.

The later Foundation spin-offs I did find pretty much unreadable, for the most part. This was due to far too much dialogue at the expense of action/description. On occasion it was like ploughing through a script intended for a radio play, and I'm afraid much of Heinlein has the same effect on me. Re-reading Asimov's The End of Eternity after a gap of several decades was a richly rewarding experience, however.

As for FTL space travel, it's likely that long-running TV/film franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars have covered many of its bases, or else degraded them, depending on one's point of view. It's possible too that all the astounding discoveries our robotic probes have made about our solar system during the intervening years have pushed FTL travel into the shade, at least for now. That's how things look from this patch of our local heavens, anyway :)

I also tried Dune and swiftly gave up. (Enjoyed the film, though.) I agree, you have to put yourself into the mindset of the era - I too enjoyed rereading The Time Machine (several times). Perhaps I'll give the original Foundation Trilogy another go.

Agree 100% about End of Eternity - still an outstanding work.

 

[Lord Crc]

Another Life, the Netflix show, features FTL somewhat prominently, but I would strongly suggest avoiding it if you care about physics or non-braindead characters.

 

[pinball1970]

Another Life, the Netflix show, features FTL somewhat prominently, but I would strongly suggest avoiding it if you care about physics or non-braindead characters.

Bullied into watching it, awful dialogue, hammy acting, derivative plot (we played spot that derivative and got up to 4 or 5 derivations) but FTL travel as per the OP request.
Bailed after episode 4 or 5 at my request with no objections.
Rubbish.

 

[member 656954]

Another Life, the Netflix show, features FTL somewhat prominently, but I would strongly suggest avoiding it if you care about physics or non-braindead characters.

Entirely concur with @Lord Crc's assessment. I missed this post and started watching Another Life recently. It is beyond nonsensical - a light years wide dark matter clump that they can't see through? Sure, why not, that's what the term means, right? No? Dang, oh well, we need it for the plot, keep it in. - but in terms of FTL, not only do they have FTL travel, they have FTL comms, including real-time holographic calls to their mobiles!

FTL is not dead in SF, but in Another Life, it should be!