The best spaceships in written SF
My analysis of Pitch Black is going to have to wait another day, as my thoughts on another weighty topic have appeared in SF Signal, alongside those of Alastair Reynolds and Allen Steele, among others. Thanks to John De Nardo for the invite. . .
May 5th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
David, I’d say it’s a good thing you really like the ships in your book. Is the cover art really close as to how you imagined them?
May 5th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Pretty interesting list from everyone involved there. I would have to give a shout out to Dahak from David Weber’s Mutineer’s Moon. I mean seriously, how freaking awesome of a concept is it to have our moon turn out to be a sentient battle planetoid from a long extinct empire?
It sounds like I need to read Gateway judging by 90% of the opinions.
May 5th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
@Alex — I’d say the cover art captures the “shock and awe” emotional power of the ships, but they’re not exactly how I’d envision an Orion style ship looking (based on what I’ve seen in the book George Dyson) .. .
http://www.amazon.com/Project-Orion-Story-Atomic-Spaceship/dp/B000FUTQFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273086016&sr=8-1
i.e., the art by Randall MacDonald on my website is more accurate.
But personally I think that any writer who nickle and dimes the *accuracy* of their cover is missing the point — which is “does it or does it not look cool?” Bantam’s kicked ass for me three times in a row in that regard. . .
May 5th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Hey David – Who did the art for Machinery? I think it is seriously the best cover of the trilogy. I really like the color palette being much brighter whereas most sci-fi books seem to go for that dark look.
May 5th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
Raphael Lacoste is the artist. He really knocked it out of the park . .
More art from him here:
http://raphael-lacoste.deviantart.com/
May 6th, 2010 at 7:13 am
I’m surprised that the spaceship from The Forever War wasn’t in there. Although the first what they used didn’t have a name (I don’t think it had a name) the second one was called the Anniversary. Without that ship the story wouldn’t have been what it was. It was there ticket to war, and the constant jump into the future that ended the story with such a loud bang. The ending is one of the best stories in the science fiction, and I felt like I could picture myself living on the ship with all of the other soldiers. It didn’t have a presence like the Millennium Falcon, but it was there throughout the entire story.
May 6th, 2010 at 7:14 am
I’m surprised that the spaceship from The Forever War wasn’t in there. Although the first one they used didn’t have a name (I don’t think it had a name) the second ship was called the Anniversary. Without that ship the story wouldn’t have been what it was. It was their ticket to war, and the constant jump into the future that ended the story with such a loud bang. The ending is one of the best stories in science fiction, and I felt like I could picture myself living on the ship with all of the other soldiers. It didn’t have a presence like the Millennium Falcon, but it was there throughout the entire story.
May 6th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Forever War’s a flat-out awesome book. I liked it so much I tracked down the long-out-of-print boardgame, wondering how the hell they dealt with spaceships from different epochs maneuvering through collapsars.
Turned out they didn’t, they just made a game that features ground combat on one of the planets. Reducing it to Generic Status as far as I’m concerned.
http://www.amazon.com/Forever-War-Game-BOX-SET/dp/0425066223
Yawn . . .
May 7th, 2010 at 10:50 am
David, I have to agree with that assessment. The Cosbolt on the cover of my book isn’t exactly how I envisioned it, but artwork rocks, and that’s all that really matters.
May 9th, 2010 at 9:25 am
Same thing I posted over there (thanks for the link!):
I think this discussion starts and stops with Null Boundary in Linda Nagata’s Vast. With Deception Well, of the greatest series ever, IMHO. I only wish she had written one more to close the circle re: the Cult virus and the origins/outcome of the Chenzeme war that trickled over and destroyed human space. Or even a prequel detailing the creation of a Hallowed Vastie.
Zindell’s Lightships and Reynold’s Nostalgia for Infinity are high up on my list as well!
May 9th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Gotta admit I’ve never read Nagata. Will have to check that out. . .
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/vastrev.htm