Gubaba

How about EE "Doc" Smith's Lensman novels? it's more Space Opera then hard scifi but still very interesting.

Too bad he never wrote Book 7...it would've been, um, quite revolutionary.

But yeah, the books are a lot of fun if you can get past the paid-by-the-word pulp style...

Really? Kaifun managed that group?

I had no idea!

Yep. Apparently, that's covered in the comic that came with the album...I have no intention of buying it, so I'll never know for sure...

But there's also a reference here:

http://www.macross.co.uk/77077/English/Engcred.asp

Usually Basara and M7 gets a bad rep from the casual audience outside Macrossworld.

You wouldn't believe how many remarks I've seen about Frontier NOT being another M7.

That's to be expected. I think both fans and detractors will agree that it's a very unusual show which requires a large investment of time to watch, the first clutch of episodes are quite repetitive, the overall plot unfolds slowly, and the animation is generally just passable (even considering that it's almost fourteen years old). It's not a show for mech-addicts, the romance is almost invisible, and if you don't like "Planet Dance," it's almost a certainty you won't get past episode eight.

I like M7 okay, but I had to work at it (and I certainly don't like it as much as I wanted to like it), and if I hadn't already been a big Macross fan, I wouldn't have given it a second look.

Crap...I almost forgot. The Gap series by Stepehen R. Donaldson is absolutely stunningly brilliant. It's long, and it's REALLY dark, but it's among the best space operas ever. Plus, it's a "space opera" in more ways than one!

If you mean Kaifun's views on the military and violence I can kinda see where someone who didn't watch much of the series might get that impression but they're pretty dissimilar if you so much as scratch the surface.

I agree. Kaifun was not a pacifist; he was angry, violent, and self-absorbed, and his unspoken motto was "Whatever it is, I'm against it." He was against authority just for the sake of being against it, and luxurated in feelings of persecution.

Basara, on the other hand, puts his money where his mouth is, and strives to be consistent in all aspects of his life. Granted, sometimes he fails and ends up punching someone or launching a missle, and he has an annoying tendancy to blame others for his own mistakes, but there is none of Kaifun's hypocricy and opportunism in him.

And, speaking of opportunism, we all know that Kaifun was quick to jump on Basara's bandwagon by managing the completely execrable Fire Bomber American...make of that what you will.

Yeah...that yellow guy DOES worry a lot!

Yeah, in the sequels now all of a sudden it's like "Look! All the crap from the prequels just all of a sudden showed up!"

To me, the new Dune books seemed more like a marketing venture than an artistic one...I never touched them. Certain worlds are simply too personal to be carried on by someone else. Dune, Foundation, Mists of Avalon...hell, even Gone With the Wind...no matter how talented the sequel writers are (and the Foundation sequels were written by indisputably great writers), it feels like someone who used to be a friend who you just don't know anymore. Leave the sequels-by-other-hands to Star Wars and Star Trek.

Next up: Michael Valentine Smith Reborn, by New York Times Bestselling Author Kevin J. Anderson™ in "collaboration" with Robert Heinlein's wife's cousin's nephew, Jeffy!

Oh right. I don't think the point of Sci-Fi is *to* predict either. Rather, thoughtful speculation is integral to the story-telling. Do that enough and you're bound to get a hit. I would say that Asimov is readable and relevant because the speculations central to his stories still haven't occurred, although, even though some of the peripheral predictions seem outdated today.

And I think that list was really more of a "Oh, this is neat-- and these authors had great foresight." sort of thing, and not so much, "No flying cars? FAIL."

Yes, but really...No flying cars? In 2008? Seriously? EPIC FAIL for the human race! The Jetsons is WAY better than reality.

He's just a character dude, so therefore not real, so who cares?

I am sure that there are plenty of idiots worse than him in reality anyway.

Don't Panic

Taksraven

Damn, no wonder he never answered my fan letters...

Yes. Sheryl clearly didn't care or show any empathy for the safety of her fans. Whereas Minmey bravely stayed and sang during a Zendradi attack (albeit at Kaifun's prompting, but what counts is that she didn't ignore him) and Basara actually went out to the enemy to sing - Sheryl acts like a typical phony manufactured celebrity and runs away as soon as things get dangerous.

Also, when she brushes off that princess guy who accosts her for doing so - she only shows how low she is.

I would be more sympathetic if Sheryl were shown as being scared - but she is just shown as being concieted.

Sometimes one line of dialogue is enough. Granted, she can redeem herself - I'm not silly enough to condemn someone on the basis of one episode --- but the fact is, the first impression that she makes, in contradistinction to Mao or Sara - is not good.

Sara wasn't scared of a soldier sticking a sharp object into her face (that it was a "love letter" didn't matter - Sara could obviously tell that it was sharp and potentially dangerous - but she wanted to maintain the demeanor of a brave leader of her people and so didn't flinch - and Mao was very empathetic from the get go).

So to recap: Sheryl sucks.

VFTFQ

YOU WILL LISTEN TO SHERYL'S SONG!!

LET'S NOMU!!

Most of the SF I've read is the stuff everyone's read (Asimov, Heinlein, Herbert, Card...), but on the somewhat obscure side, I really liked Gregory Benford's Galactic Center books. They were out of print for a while, but I thnk they've been reissued in the past couple of years. In the Ocean of Night is the first book, and there are six books in the series. It gets a bit wonky at the end, and the second one ends on a maddening cliffhanger which is not resolved for a while, but they're really, really good.

I unfortunately didn't get a picture of it, but when I was in Odaiba last fall, I saw a great sign that said, "Winter has come! GO! GO! LAUNDRY!"

Actually much of SF, especially hard-SF, does concern itself with speculating on human, societal, and technological development and what it means for the human condition. And much of SF written by the likes of Philip K. Dick were commentaries and responses to societal trends at the time of their writing. Authors like Clarke do more than provide vehicles to tell a story. In fact, their speculations on technology and humanity *is* often the story. Sci-Fi is also known as "Speculative Fiction" by those who like to downplay the teen-male-geekiness of the genre, although sub-genres of Sci-Fi like Space Opera don't always concern themselves as much with realistic speculation and pertinant social commentaries (not that they can't).

I completely agree with you, so maybe I didn't make my point well enough...Simply put, I think there's a big difference between "What if by the year 2050, we had X...what would happen?" and "By the year 2050, we WILL have X, and this is how it will change things." The first is a game that all SF writers play, the second is a house of cards waiting to get toppled by whatever unforseen advance comes along to render the speculation invalid. The question for any SF writer is not, "Will X happen?" but "If X happens, will it have some interesting consequences?"

Most of the best SF is, as you say, social commentary or speculation, but not usually outright prediction. Which is why Asimov (to pick one of MANY examples) is still readable today, even though a lot of his speculations are outdated. Or why we can still watch Macross, even though an alien spaceship didn't crash in the South Pacific in 1999, and (I hope) none of us ever expects to see an F-14 that can turn into a robot.

Macross is crap as prophecy (why doesn't anyone have a cell phone? And why is Minmay making RECORDS?), but the "What if...?" game is thought out well, and it's a damn good story. Which, in the long run, makes it good SF.

Well...ANY list like this is bound to be flawed...most SF is not designed to be "prophetic," it's simply a vehicle to tell a certain story, wrestle with a certain idea, or illuminate a certain character. Making a list most prophetic SF movies is kind of like making a list of most historically accurate fantasy novels. What's the point?

I like Beautiful Dreamer and Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor, but I hate Dallos and Stray Dogs and some of his other works. It's definitely hit and miss.

Beautiful Dreamer and Patlabor are awesome...I thought Ghost in the Shell was good, but I couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that Manga Entertainment gave Oshii a bunch of money and said, "We want another Akira." Ihaven't seen Dallos or Stray Dogs.

I tried to watch Talking Head...but it was raw, and my Japanese simply isn't good enough to keep up. I can't imagine I'd like it much better subbed, though...

Anyway, Oshii is definitely an auteur, and like most auteurs, his output can be really inconsistent. God bless 'im when he's good, though.

Good point, we may never hear about a connection, but like Edgar, I think their intent is pretty clear.

I suppose we can be grateful that EVERY black character isn't named LaSalle, unlike a certain extended Grant family...

I do understand Basara's point of view... and I find it to be hopelessly naive. If you agree with Basara, I'm sure that makes him more likeable, but as I said before, the mark of a good character is that they're dynamic. They're affected and changed by the events around them as the story unfolds, for better or worse. This is why Gamlin was such a good character... at the beginning of the series, he was concerned with being an elite and was irritated by Basara's presence in battle, but he learned to take pride in any duty that meant protecting others, he learned that the military wasn't always right, and he learned to believe in Basara's song. On the other hand, characters don't get much more static than Basara. I could accept the power of song from Gamlin's point of view, but I see the series as reinforcing Basara's naiveity by reinforcing his ideals.

But Basara DOES change...as the show goes on, he becomes more Basara-y.

I haven't seen as much of Oshii's work as I should have, but I love Beautiful Dreamer...it's weird, it's slow, it feels like it's twice as long as the running time states it is, but it works!

I'll definitely be checking Sky Crawlers out.

I think they should wait until after Macross F finishes...if they released it now, there would be too much stuff about it that they wouldn't include.

GGemini, Hi. How do you know that Macross VFX-2 pilot Aegis Fokker doesn't have any relationship with Roy Kokker: They are both blonds and elite pilots.

Also, the LaSalle one.

And the Nome's girls....

Is not a coincidence

***

No, of course it's not a coincidence...but that doesn't mean the characters are related.

Remember way back when Macross Zero Vol. 1 was released, and we all thought, "Hey, Edgar has the same last name as Claudia! There must be some connection!"...?

I'm getting deja vu...

Yep, we've noticed. No flies on us.

And yet, people decry George Lucas for doing the same thing with Star Wars...

For the record, I am completely unsurprised at this. Eva has been miilked for every dime it can earn since Day One. Why would they stop now?

Hey, no one's been forcing people to buy NERV coffee mugs and Eva Doritos...if there's a market for it, why not?

At least they haven't been cranking out inferior sequels and side stories every year or two. There's the series, there were the previous movies, now there are new movies. If you want a complete Eva DVD collection, it's not going to cost a fortune. If you want a toy of every Eva Unit, it's quite possible to do so; more possible than Gundam or Macross.

And Evangelion 1.0 was damn good. If they had done some Greedo-shooting-first-type changes, I would have decried it. But they kept true to the characters and the story, extended it in some interesting ways, and made it look spectacular. Why should I be suspicious of future ventures?

OK, further impressions:

• Love Spits in Cosmic Wave? Yuck!

• Wow, the music is really growing on me.

• People talk a LOT less than in RT and for the most part seem like more normal people, instead of fast talking freaks who say odd things because they match lip flaps.

• Yikes! Naked Yellow, I did not need to see that.

• So many scenes were cut from Robotech that would help this show make sense – didn;t realize Carla's boyfriend was quite SO evil!

1. Hmmm...the subtitles say "Love SPIRIT in cosmic wave," but is that really right?

2. Hell, yeah!

3. GoshScottWeBetterBeCarefulOrElseTheInvidWillFindUsHuhDon'tYouThinkSoTooDon'tYou? ...you mean you don't talk like this? I sure do!

4. I found topless Mint more disturbing than naked Yellow. Mostly because, when he grabs Sorji during his bath, I always expect him to say, "Don't look down, but I think I love you."

5. I don't remember RT well enough...what was different?

Actually, I'm realizing I've forgotten quite a lot from RT...I completely forgot about the entire epiosde with the old guys (or maybe I just never saw it initially?), and a few things are ringing distant bells that I can't quite recall.

So are you finished with it yet? I'm up to episode 18 now.

Obviously, this is a skewed poll given the fact that this is a Macross fan site judging Robotech. Having said that much and looking at the entires as objectively as I can, I must say that Robotech still takes the cake for worst anime adaptation simply because of the perpetuation of the horrible English edit. The dedicated attempt to disallow consumers from seeing or purchasing the original Macross also plays a major part in my vote. Granted progress has been made in recent years, but that in no way dismisses nearly two decades censorship.

Runner up would be Nausicaa. Ironically, Nausicaa was the first anime film I had ever seen

Agreed. I believe that for pure hack'n'slash editing, Battle of the Planets is clearly the worst, but Warriors of the Wind is the biggest offender in that it took a classic film and REALLY dumbed it down.

At least in Robotech, the storyline remained largely intact, and characters were allowed to die.

And I dislike Robotech INTENSELY, so for me to say something is worse means that it's REALLY bad.

EDIT: typos.

HOT DAMN!!!

Now that's a great collection!