I am reading a series of kindle novels called STAR CARRIER. These are very good and I'm working my way through book three (of seven).

Humans learned how to do warp drive, but they don't have tractor beams, transporters, or subspace. If you want to talk to someone on Ophiuchi-3 you send a ship there, which might take a week or two for a fast mail boat and a month for warships.

You must drop out of warp drive on the edge of a solar system you go to. Then you start accelerating to travel around inside the solar system.

Ships are hard to turn (unless you stop), can build up to 50% of light speed.

Fighters can reach light speed in a few minutes and can maneuver pretty well by shifting the tiny black hole in front of their nose to one side or the other.

So entering a solar system your arrival is announceced by a flash of light. Enemy ships in mid-system won't see if for hours, but they know when they see the flashes of an arriving fleet that fighters and lightspeed rocks are only minutes behind the light flash. The enemy ships won't be here for nine hours by which time the fighters will be out of weapons and probably drifting off into remote space. Fighters carry dozens of dial-a-bomb nuclear missiles (20 to 50 KT) along with railguns, particle beams, and sandcasting defensive missiles.

An enemy empire contacted earth 60 years (or so, I forget) in the past and delivered an ultimatum. Join the empire and give up all technology development or become extinct. Early said "bug off" and war began, but war proceeds slowly in strategic space. The Earth is "unified but divided" as the geographic and political factions of a united Earth congress battle for power. There is a small but growing peace faction which says "surrender before we die" and a war faction that wants to keep fighting until something happens (perhaps a technology breakthrough allowing them to win).

Citizens 400 years in future have computers implanted in their brains and wires in their fingers so you can fly a fighter by just touching the control (no movement needed) and converse with somebody a thousand miles away by just thinking it.

By Jon Murdock (Xenocide) on Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 04:44 pm: Edit

I read a few of those books. I enjoyed them but at the time there were not that many. I should probably continue the series.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 06:09 pm: Edit

Star Carrier series by Ian Douglas.

By Richard Wells (Rwwells) on Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 08:59 pm: Edit

Ian Douglas is one of the many pseudonyms employed by William Keith.

By Bill Steele (Bill83501) on Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 11:47 pm: Edit

Tech reminds me of the Honor Harrington series. I enjoyed reading them.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Friday, June 15, 2018 - 03:11 am: Edit

Thank you Richard Wells I did not know that.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, June 26, 2018 - 09:16 pm: Edit

Apropos of nothing, but Star Wars: The Last Jedi is now on Netflix. If you hadn't seen it due to bad word of mouth or something, it's now free to watch! FWIW, I liked it better than TFA (#7) if only because it did bother to try something new. Still, I'd rather watch any of the prequels (MAAAAYbe not Episode 2) over it - it's not really going to be anyone's favorite Star Wars movie.

Still, if you hadn't seen it yet - free to see, now, so...

By Marc Michalik (Kavik_Kang) on Tuesday, June 26, 2018 - 09:46 pm: Edit

Star Wars and Star Trek are both dead too me. They were good while it lasted, for most of my life, but they are both over with now.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 - 04:25 am: Edit

Eh...while TLJ and TFA aren't good of the new Star Wars movies, honestly both 'Rogue One' and 'Solo' are incredibly solid, and they DO fit well within the spirit and feel of the "original trilogy" Star Wars films. I can easily see the more 'purist' fans...to whom Star Wars is ONLY the first three movies, West End Games RPG, and the Thrawn novels...accepting those last two into a sort of 5-movie-set.

NuTrek is having a bumpier time of it. The movies are nearly a total wash - the first 5 minutes of the initial JJ-Trek are amazing, it gets okay-but-mediocre pretty much until Kirk joins the Academy, then goes straight to shite. Nobody speaks of the second movie. 'Beyond' is...okay, again. It feels the most like it could pull off being an episode of the original series with twice the required run time and massively more money to spend. FWIW, the TV series 'Discovery' does a better job, although it's also so different it can be hard to see the connection sometimes, but it's also SO well done (vs the movies) that the gap is worth working through.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 - 08:44 am: Edit

Like Xander, I'm enjoying the production value of Discovery, as well as some of the storylines and portrayals. Mudd was simply fabulous, their treatment of the Mirror Universe was very much in line with what we've seen both in TOS and in ST:E, and the reason that their crazy go-anywhere drive didn't become the default for everyone has become very, very readily apparent (much like how the computer-controlled ship ran into a very big sticking point in TOS).

I'm eagerly waiting to see their portayal of Pike on the Enterprise when Season 2 hits. It's sad that they had to change the classic Connie, but the studio absolutely required -- for copyright/trademark reasons -- that the ship not be identical to the original, that there be a certain percentage of difference. Seems the deal between Paramount and CBS wasn't absolute in what they could use. Even so, the redone Enterprise looks strikingly good (so very much better than the bloated kawaii monstrosity in the recent films).

Star Wars... isn't my gig. Never has been. Saw the original in a drive-in the summer it was released, and likewise the first sequel, but they just didn't grab me like Star Trek did. It was fantasy rather than sci-fi, and I like my space epics to be sci-fi.

Now Battlestar Galactica? That was a pretty amazing concept (if awfully campy in its original version). For those interested, there's a short film called Blood & Chrome that came out well after the reimagined series, and it's a lot of fun to watch.

By Wayne Borean (Wayne9999) on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 - 10:00 am: Edit

This article made me rather unpopular among Star Trek fans after the first movie came out. I was told, “We have to love it — it’s Trek,” by the panelists at a convention after I mentioned the clangers.

https://www.zauberspiegel-online.de/index.php/english-facts-multilingual-494/21089-how-the-new-star-trek-failed

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 - 07:32 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

It's sad that they had to change the classic Connie, but the studio absolutely required -- for copyright/trademark reasons -- that the ship not be identical to the original, that there be a certain percentage of difference. Seems the deal between Paramount and CBS wasn't absolute in what they could use.

---

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 - 07:47 pm: Edit

Perhaps they are avoiding some sort of royalty payments to those who built/designed the original?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, June 28, 2018 - 09:26 am: Edit

More likely they wanted to create a new IP to sell products like toy ships and t shirts.

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, June 28, 2018 - 12:41 pm: Edit

Exactly.

https://trekmovie.com/2018/04/17/star-trek-discovery-uss-enterprise-design-change-clarified-as-creative-decision-not-a-legal-one/

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Thursday, June 28, 2018 - 12:42 pm: Edit

Thank you for that correction, Will!

By Jon Murdock (Xenocide) on Thursday, June 28, 2018 - 12:51 pm: Edit

Or, as Yogurt pointed out:

"Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made. Spaceballs-the T-shirt, Spaceballs-the Coloring Book, Spaceballs-the Lunch box, Spaceballs-the Breakfast Cereal, Spaceballs-the Flame Thrower."

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Thursday, June 28, 2018 - 02:06 pm: Edit

The whole "legal restrictions" about the Discovery version of the 1701 was always bantha poodoo. Both CBS and Paramount are owned by National Amusements.

By Jon Berry (Laz_Longsmith) on Thursday, June 28, 2018 - 09:11 pm: Edit

Harlan Ellison has passed on.

https://deadline.com/2018/06/harlan-ellison-dies-sci-fi-writer-was-84-1202419133/

By Michael Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, June 29, 2018 - 01:46 am: Edit

Reading his obit, puts me in mind of Cordwainer Smith.

The Ballad of Lost C'Mell, and the Game of Rat & Dragon are two of my favorites.

By Wayne Borean (Wayne9999) on Saturday, June 30, 2018 - 05:34 pm: Edit

Ellison was a great writer. To most SF fans he was the irascible uncle we all loved, even when he was an ass.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, July 23, 2018 - 06:06 pm: Edit

A batch of new Arrowverse trailers went up over the weekend: for Arrow season 7, The Flash season 5, Supergirl season 4, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow season 4.

Also, this clip includes a teaser for this season's main crossover event, which may lead into yet another new series if The CW decide to pick it up.

Meanwhile, season 2 of Black Lightning is also on the way, though it has yet to be confirmed or denied whether that show is in fact a part of the broader Arrowverse or not.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Monday, August 06, 2018 - 05:43 pm: Edit

Kind of a dark warning: BLACKOUT - Science Fiction Kurzfilm

Unless you speak German, turn on the closed-caption.


Garth L. Getgen

By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Sunday, August 26, 2018 - 07:39 pm: Edit

I just finished Dead Night of Space: Volume 1: The Hybrid Crew by Scott Palter. The huge title is because I am not sure which is the title proper and which is the (hoped for) series. Still, I found myself getting caught up in the story, although I am not sure I will ever have the same attitude about penguins.

This is solidly in the science fiction genre, and I'd count it as space opera. My only problem with the book is I want the sequel Right Now! I love the beginning of the book where we are introduced to the characters. (It is part of the "Look Inside" on the Kindle book.) It gave me a feel for what I was getting into. After finishing the book, I went back and reread the character descriptions; the author played fair with them.

The universe of this book is in the far future where Earth is pretty far back in the past. There are hints of the history (some of which totally made me giggle). The present is certainly not all sweetness and light; there is definitely grittiness to it. The characters are not the folks you would meet walking the corridors of the Enterprise. I found myself liking Winnie and Captain Mam Bridget Finnmark.

(By the way, the penguins are two meters tall and genemod killer penguin companions to the bad guys in this universe. Yikes!)

If you like science fiction with action and a hint of space opera, this should be on your reading list starting now. Then you can join me in my chant of "Write, Scott! Write more now!"

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Sunday, September 02, 2018 - 09:54 pm: Edit

Sci-Fi Short Film "Seam"

Fantastic. Just brilliant. Well done.


Garth L. Getgen