the brilliance of Arthur C. Clarke

gjmalcyon

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Read The Nine Billion Names of God (a collection of Clarke's short stories, including "The Sentinel", the basis of 2001: A Space Odyssey).

It had an enormous impact on me as a 10-year old when I first read it. I re-read it every couple of years and it still thrills me 50+ years later.
 

GAD

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Brilliant writer and my all time favorite during my teen years.
 

adorshki

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A true visionary. My fave might be "Rendezvous With Rama"

But Vonnegut and Heinlein always resonated more with me. :)

"Cat's Cradle" Ice 9, baby, source of the name of one of the Dead's publishing companies..:D

The movie version of "Slaughterhouse Five" while pretty good, still fell a bit short, bet Kubrick coulda aced it, he loved to do novels. Think he was putting together "Clockwork Orange", so maybe a net gain overall. :)

First "real" sci-fi novel I ever read as a kid (after "Danny Dunn") was Heinlein's first novel, "Red Planet".

And the movie version of "Starship Troopers" (and the first couple of sequels) was magnificent. Hit the nail squarely on the head.

Gotta love them bugs. :D
 
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walrus

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Oh yes, Robert Heinlein! And let's not forget Isaac Asimov! I have shelves full of the paperbacks of these authors, it's one of the ways I survived being a teenager in the '70's...

walrus
 

spoox

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A true visionary. My fave might be "Rendezvous With Rama"

But Vonnegut and Heinlein always resonated more with me. :)

"Cat's Cradle" Ice 9, baby, source of the name one of the Dead's publishing companies..:D

The movie version of "Slaughterhouse Five" while pretty good, still fell a bit short, bet Kubrick coulda aced it, he loved to do novels. Think he was putting together "Clockwork Orange", so maybe a net gain overall. :)

First "real" sci-fi novel I ever read as a kid (after "Danny Dunn") was Heinlein's first novel, "Red Planet".

And the movie version of "Starship Troopers" (and the first couple of sequels) was magnificent. Hit the nail squarely on the head.

Gotta love them bugs. :D
So the very first time Vicki talked to me was when I mentioned I'd read "Look Homeward, Angel" and she started asking me questions about
what other books I'd read besides Thomas Wolfe. I replied "Uh, well, mainly science fiction...". There was of course a look on her face of
disappointment, but after talking some more she said that she'd bring something for me to read the next day that was an SF story that she liked,
and I said I'd bring an SF piece I was sure she'd like. The next day at the beach we'd brought 2 different stories by Richard Matheson. Through
the years I'd keep trying to have her read various SF novels and short stories, usually she'd quit them after 20 pages or so--NOPE! After I read
"Rendezvous With Rama" I told her that I knew she wouldn't give up on it. She read it in a day and said that if more of the things I'd tried to
get her to read were of that same quality she'd read more science fiction.
My favorite SF writer by the time I was in high school was P. K. Dick. Unfortunately, the way his books have been watered down and changed by
Hollywood is disturbing. I refused to watch "Man in the High Castle" when I found out it had been simplified to merely an anti-Nazi thing.
And while "Blade Runner" is O.K. visually, it's so different from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" I've never felt the need to watch it
again. I think Dick's paranoia is what helped get me through high school--the characters in his books were stuck in world even worse than mine.
 

fronobulax

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I was more of a Heinlein kid!
Ditto. I remember checking out every Heinlein book that was on the shelves in my elementary school library and then buying new books as they were published as my age and allowance increased. I discovered and read Asimov sometime thereafter and eventually Clark but he never quite had the favorite "OMG, New Book, Gotta BUY!!!!" status of others.

That said, 50+ years later the vintage (classic?) scifi I talk about most often is Asimov's story The Feeling of Power which still resonates with someone who made a career that spanned mathematics and computers.
 

chazmo

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Oh yes, Robert Heinlein! And let's not forget Isaac Asimov! I have shelves full of the paperbacks of these authors, it's one of the ways I survived being a teenager in the '70's...

walrus
(y)I was gonna' mention Asimov and Heinlein too. Anyway, that was back in the era when sci-fi was for geeks. I'm proud to be one. :D
 

gjmalcyon

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The only other science fiction author to affect me like Clarke is Neal Stephenson.

He hooked me with Snow Crash. I brought a copy of Crypotonomicon with me on family vacation to The Land Of the Small Furry Mammal in Orlando, started reading it on the plane, and ended up in trouble with She Who Must Be Obeyed and Things One and Two when I refused to go anywhere or do anything until I binge-read it to completion.
 

jp

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I like so many, but Heinlein, Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, William Gibson are some of my faves. I consumed a ton of sci-fi in high school which led me straight to the cyberpunk authors in the 80s and 90s.

I find it so ironic how difficult it used to be to talk sci-fi with people who didn't read it years ago and even poo-pooed it. Now, however, we are living in an age built on technology envisioned and conceived by sci-fi authors and thematically, it dominates the majority of video games, films, TV shows, and young adult books. Kind of curious how that happened.
 

JohnW63

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I read more Asimov than Heinlein. I read Larry Niven a good amount. I mostly read Ursula K Le Guin for her Fantasy Fiction series " Earthsea " .
 

GAD

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I like so many, but Heinlein, Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, William Gibson are some of my faves. I consumed a ton of sci-fi in high school which led me straight to the cyberpunk authors in the 80s and 90s.

I find it so ironic how difficult it used to be to talk sci-fi with people who didn't read it years ago and even poo-pooed it. Now, however, we are living in an age built on technology envisioned and conceived by sci-fi authors and thematically, it dominates the majority of video games, films, TV shows, and young adult books. Kind of curious how that happened.

We nerds became mainstream when it started becoming clear that we could make millions in the new computerized world. Plus, when *everyone* needs a computer, you're not just the nerdy freak talking to all the other nerdy freaks about computers. Suddenly you're the guy with the answers to questions people never had before.
 

gjmalcyon

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A new movie adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune appears in theaters in about a week. Another book that affected me deeply.

Turns out that Dune has been on military reading lists for quite some time:

 
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