The Invincible - first-person retro future sci-fi thriller based on Stanislaw Lem

[Rocket-Propelled Game]

To add onto Zed's list:

-Neuromancer by William Gibson, basically solidified if not invented the cyberpunk subgenre.
-Starship Troopers by Heinlein, love it or hate it a big share of military science-fiction traces its way back here.
-Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, it would be amiss to mention 1984 in this thread but forget about another dystopian classic.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

One story from the 50s that always weirded me out and struck me as one of the most nightmarish things I ever read in the genre was The Pi Man by Alfred Bester about a guy who is inexplicably controlled by the rhythms of the universe and does random, incredibly violent things that might have patterns unknowable to humans that he has no control over. It works as a first rate SF-horror story because it's so mysterious and some of his violent acts are left ambiguous to the reader like his mutilation (but not killing) of a young woman where he keeps a memento (never described) of one of her body parts. This short story came out a year before J.G. Ballard's similarly themed novella The Voices of Time and might have been an influence on Ballard. It turns out Bester likely wrote the story as a reaction to his own severe alcoholism and the horrors of delirium tremens that he either was experiencing at the time or had just overcome.

 

[Rincewind]

One story from the 50s that always weirded me out and struck me as one of the most nightmarish things I ever read in the genre was The Pi Man by Alfred Bester about a guy who is inexplicably controlled by the rhythms of the universe and does random, incredibly violent things that might have patterns unknowable to humans that he has no control over. It works as a first rate SF-horror story because it's so mysterious and some of his violent acts are left ambiguous to the reader like his mutilation (but not killing) of a young woman where he keeps a memento (never described) of one of her body parts. This short story came out a year before J.G. Ballard's similarly themed novella The Voices of Time and might have been an influence on Ballard. It turns out Bester likely wrote the story as a reaction to his own severe alcoholism and the horrors of delirium tremens that he either was experiencing at the time or had just overcome.

Oh man, thank you so much for reminding me that I still haven't read everything written by Bester, like this short story you mentioned. Ballard is great too; I loved The Drowned World.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Rincewind

Care to elaborate on the Solaris remake? Now I saw it only once way way back, before I even saw the Tarkovsky one, and I recall next to nothing from it. But I did see some folks claiming how it is alright as a remake.

The 70s one is my least favorite Tarkovsky film to WATCH due to visually lacking much of his usual magic, what with most of it being set in few drab or disheveled rooms and coridors on the station. But it is one of a kind movie for sure.

The Hollywood/Soderbergh version seems to be based on the Soviet/Tarkovsky version rather than directly on the novel; since it is considerably shorter than its predecessor, most elements aside from the romance are removed (though there is one late reference to an Ijon Tichy story, but that twist doesn't really work for Solaris). Even the Soviet/Tarkovsky adaptation blundered horribly in its structure and pacing by taking more than an hour for Kelvin to arrive at the station, which happens in the first chapter of the book, though the Solaristics background material would be difficult to adapt into the medium of film or television regardless.

Best to read the novel.

 

[yellowcake]

Rincewind

Care to elaborate on the Solaris remake? Now I saw it only once way way back, before I even saw the Tarkovsky one, and I recall next to nothing from it. But I did see some folks claiming how it is alright as a remake.

The 70s one is my least favorite Tarkovsky film to WATCH due to visually lacking much of his usual magic, what with most of it being set in few drab or disheveled rooms and coridors on the station. But it is one of a kind movie for sure.

The Hollywood/Soderbergh version seems to be based on the Soviet/Tarkovsky version rather than directly on the novel; since it is considerably shorter than its predecessor, most elements aside from the romance are removed (though there is one late reference to an Ijon Tichy story, but that twist doesn't really work for Solaris). Even the Soviet/Tarkovsky adaptation blundered horribly in its structure and pacing by taking more than an hour for Kelvin to arrive at the station, which happens in the first chapter of the book, though the Solaristics background material would be difficult to adapt into the medium of film or television regardless.

Best to read the novel.

AFAIR both movies are love stories where the woman is a figure for THE OTHER, whereas the book is about the OTHER where woman is one (particular) of the manifestations. Similar yet totally different.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

The original novel Solaris is probably the only SF novel I read all the way through in a single sitting. It just breezed along with many enigmatic images and ideas and excellent pacing. The efforts of the sentient planet trying to communicate with the scientists but were beyond human comprehension were quite spooky, especially that part where it's apparently trying to learn how to create human simulacra. The movies are overlong and bloated (at least Tarkovsky's; didn't see enough of the Clooney version) and totally lack the economy of the novel. I wish I had first read the novel of The Invincible (not the Ackerman translation) instead of trying to listen to it on a second-rate audiobook.

 

[Rincewind]

The original novel Solaris is probably the only SF novel I read all the way through in a single sitting.

The exact same thing happened to me with The Invincible. Couldn't put it down!

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Maxie]

gee, were Rohan, Horpach, Ballmin, or fucking Lauda... women all along?!

 

[Darth Roxor]

gee, were Rohan, Horpach, Ballmin, or fucking Lauda... women all along?!

and so were einstein and copernicus

 

[Nifft Batuff]

gee, were Rohan, Horpach, Ballmin, or fucking Lauda... women all along?!

Russian women.

 

[Beowulf]

gee, were Rohan, Horpach, Ballmin, or fucking Lauda... women all along?!

Russian women.

Soviet women?

 

[Infinitron]

Coming November 6th:

 

[Maxie]

read it again to refresh myself
how do you make a game out of that is beyond me, it's a plot point that you can't fight off the cloud
a sci-fi horror maybe

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Alienman]

8K Jesus.

 

[Infinitron]

https://af.gog.com/en/game/the_invincible?as=1649904300

 

[Maxie]

https://af.gog.com/en/game/the_invincible?as=1649904300

what's so 'punk' in this 'atompunk,' both Niezwyciężony and Kondor are military fleet ships

 

[Naraya]

Huh. This is the first game in a looong time that I want to play but I simply can't due to my PC specs being too low (8GB).

 

[toro]

Huh. This is the first game in a looong time that I want to play but I simply can't due to my PC specs being too low (8GB).

That was your first mistake. It's a walking sim, there is no gameplay.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

How on earth some janky walking simulator has higher demands for hardware than CP2077 or RDR2.

 

[Alienman]

Just 2023 things.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

8GB vram requirement I can handle but I'd rather play RoboCop Rogue City. If I'm going to be forced to walk along slowly, I at least want to be able to blow things up real good every chugging step of the way.

 

[Modron]

Huh. This is the first game in a looong time that I want to play but I simply can't due to my PC specs being too low (8GB).

How low are we talking? I wouldn't discount 6gb vram cards, the demo ran fine on my 1660s. It's not a game where the minspecs are for 25 fps on 720p on minimum settings affair.

 

[Naraya]

Guys - I said RAM not VRAM. The game's GOG store page says 16GB is the minimum.