headvoid
Can I have Ops?
This is one for the Sci Fi nerds like me
Peter Hamilton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_F._Hamilton
Alastair Reynolds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds
I went to a book store last night and saw both of these guys do a talk about their new book. I have always been a fan of this "sub genre" of Hard Science (or Space hopper as Reynolds called it). They were promoting a new book each and had decided to tour together which was quite interesting.
The sub genre is perhaps most known for Iain M Banks and his culture novels. There are many others but he is seen (and was mentioned in the evening) as a real beacon of these genre. Also mentioned was the recent Ann Leckie books (Ancillary Justice etc.) Stanislaw Lem and, of course, Asimov.
The Crowd:
Imagine a Comicon for old men. Although Adrian Tchaikovsky was in the audience - recent winner of the Arthur C Clarke award for Children of Time - review to follow.
Peter Hamilton is on the left, Alastair Reynolds is on the right.
Peter Hamilton
Like his novels, very flamboyant. He wore a rather dapper waistcoat and was the more outgoing of the two. He was charming and self deprecating. If I am honest I find his novels more of a fun romp but I never regret buying them. They both write very long novels (hard work) with lots of human detail that I enjoy. I asked him about bringing human specific detail into far future stories and he discussed extrapolation from learned behaviour - (example being we all automatically silent our phones in public places now). He also had a very funny example of someone buying enhancements in his novel which was a direct steal from a frustrating conversation he had in PC world with a 20 year old sales guy. I really liked him.
Alastair Reynolds
I really liked Peter Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds was immensely likeable but also exceptionally interesting. An ESA (European Space Agency) scientist who decided to write novels. (Normally it's people who can't do science make stuff up in novels). I find his stories more challenging that Hamilton but that is a personal thing. Hamilton did state that Reynolds produced harder science which is obviously from his background. They had a good bit of dialogue with each other that felt like conversation but clearly was rehearsed to some degree. It was an interesting evening.
Reynolds response to my "specific details" query was that he remembered a Stanislaw Lem scene where two characters on a planet were trying to fix something and it wasn't going well. One of them patted his pockets trying to find his cigarettes. This detail immediately brought to mind two blue collar workers not really caring about fixing this thing and gave him a real insight into what the scene was about. A very good answer IMO.
Clearly both of them are very bright individuals that love their job.
Peter Hamilton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_F._Hamilton
Alastair Reynolds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds
I went to a book store last night and saw both of these guys do a talk about their new book. I have always been a fan of this "sub genre" of Hard Science (or Space hopper as Reynolds called it). They were promoting a new book each and had decided to tour together which was quite interesting.
The sub genre is perhaps most known for Iain M Banks and his culture novels. There are many others but he is seen (and was mentioned in the evening) as a real beacon of these genre. Also mentioned was the recent Ann Leckie books (Ancillary Justice etc.) Stanislaw Lem and, of course, Asimov.
The Crowd:
Imagine a Comicon for old men. Although Adrian Tchaikovsky was in the audience - recent winner of the Arthur C Clarke award for Children of Time - review to follow.
Peter Hamilton is on the left, Alastair Reynolds is on the right.
Peter Hamilton
Like his novels, very flamboyant. He wore a rather dapper waistcoat and was the more outgoing of the two. He was charming and self deprecating. If I am honest I find his novels more of a fun romp but I never regret buying them. They both write very long novels (hard work) with lots of human detail that I enjoy. I asked him about bringing human specific detail into far future stories and he discussed extrapolation from learned behaviour - (example being we all automatically silent our phones in public places now). He also had a very funny example of someone buying enhancements in his novel which was a direct steal from a frustrating conversation he had in PC world with a 20 year old sales guy. I really liked him.
Alastair Reynolds
I really liked Peter Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds was immensely likeable but also exceptionally interesting. An ESA (European Space Agency) scientist who decided to write novels. (Normally it's people who can't do science make stuff up in novels). I find his stories more challenging that Hamilton but that is a personal thing. Hamilton did state that Reynolds produced harder science which is obviously from his background. They had a good bit of dialogue with each other that felt like conversation but clearly was rehearsed to some degree. It was an interesting evening.
Reynolds response to my "specific details" query was that he remembered a Stanislaw Lem scene where two characters on a planet were trying to fix something and it wasn't going well. One of them patted his pockets trying to find his cigarettes. This detail immediately brought to mind two blue collar workers not really caring about fixing this thing and gave him a real insight into what the scene was about. A very good answer IMO.
Clearly both of them are very bright individuals that love their job.
