They found a big Black Hole, and now I want to read a good novel.

@NTM said:

Event Horizon isn't a good movie as it seems a lot of people on here make it seem.

It's a cult favorite, and with cult favorites they are either amazing movies that are not main stream, or there kinda crappy, but they do something that not many other movies do. Event Horizon is one of those kinda crappy movies, and i can easily see why someone might not like it, but it is worth a watch.

Inherit The Stars. It's by James P. Hogan and it's about a dead guy they find in a spacesuit on the moon who turns out to have been there for like 20,000 years. It takes a couple chapters to get interesting, but once it does it's fantastic. I haven't read the other books (it's a series) so I can't speak for them.

The Forever War has a few nice space-pointers.

Edit: And yes, Planetes is amazing. It is about 26 episodes I think.

One word - Gateway. http://www.amazon.com/Gateway-Heechee-Saga-Frederik-Pohl/dp/0345475836/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_ttl_in

One of the best sci-fi novels I have read.

Basic plot: Humanity has found the husk of an alien space station in orbit around one of the rocky inner planets. Next to nothing remains on board except thousands of ships, fueled and ready to fly. The catch, so far scientists have only figured out how to start the ships but not steer or stop it, if a ship goes out it may never return, it could return with the crew laden with valuable artifacts or it could return with a crew starved to death. The book follows one of the people who volunteers to fly the ships.

@Lego_My_Eggo: It's one of those films you don't need eyes to see.

The universe: incomprehensibly vast and just all around fucking insane

@clstirens said:

@Subjugation: Yep. me too.

There's a "game" called Space Engine (it's free) that you can fly around the known universe

I was absolutely terrified of accidentally flying into a black hole... And when I finally found one, I could barely look at my monitor.

My God. That space engine thing is... well, it's bloody amazing. What happened when you flew into the black hole?

Event Horizon is an amazing movie, much like Starship Troopers. Anyone who says differently doesn't like the guy from Jurassic Park in a weird ass somewhat campy role.

@believer258: Unfortunately nothing. The game has no physics for your ship, so you pass through anything (maybe by now they have physics. it's been a while.)

But they did have a very convincing graphical effect for the black hole. It was a shader that bent light around the hole

@Lego_My_Eggo said:

@NTM said:

Event Horizon isn't a good movie as it seems a lot of people on here make it seem.

It's a cult favorite, and with cult favorites they are either amazing movies that are not main stream, or there kinda crappy, but they do something that not many other movies do. Event Horizon is one of those kinda crappy movies, and i can easily see why someone might not like it, but it is worth a watch.

I know the film is a cult favorite. I pretty much just think minus the hellish turn it takes in the end, the not-so-great visual effects by the standards of today and for me personally, not caring much for the characters, it's an OK movie. I just don't understand how so many people can recommend it over other great sci-fi films first, that was my point.

Go watch other greater sci-fi films before that, that can come later; I don't mean you should flat-out not see it. When I said that the visuals aren't great by today's standards, I meant exactly that, but I want to also note that it has nothing to do with how old it is, 'cause a film like 2001 still amazes me with what that does.

@NTM said:

@Lego_My_Eggo said:

@NTM said:

Event Horizon isn't a good movie as it seems a lot of people on here make it seem.

It's a cult favorite, and with cult favorites they are either amazing movies that are not main stream, or there kinda crappy, but they do something that not many other movies do. Event Horizon is one of those kinda crappy movies, and i can easily see why someone might not like it, but it is worth a watch.

I know the film is a cult favorite. I pretty much just think minus the hellish turn it takes in the end, the not-so-great visual effects by the standards of today and for me personally, not caring much for the characters, it's an OK movie. I just don't understand how so many people can recommend it over other great sci-fi films first, that was my point.

Go watch other greater sci-fi films before that, that can come later; I don't mean you should flat-out not see it. When I said that the visuals aren't great by today's standards, I meant exactly that, but I want to also note that it has nothing to do with how old it is, 'cause a film like 2001 still amazes me with what that does.

Wasn't it a big inspiration for Dead Space, though? I can definitely see the parallels after reading the Wikipedia article on it. It also sounds a hell (ha!) of a lot like Doom 3, which I've already beaten twice.

But yes, I'd like to see it for myself one day. Just not now. My family has a copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey somewhere that I forgot about and nobody in here has ever watched. No clue why we have it or where we got it, but its presence makes it first on the list of "space movies to watch"

@believer258: It was, kind of. Sure, although I see the parallel of Dead Space to Alien and Dead Space 2 to Aliens more than I (want to) see Event Horizon to Dead Space. I also think this way because Dead Space as a game is of much higher quality than Event Horizon is a movie. I do recommend 2001, it's best in HD of course, and once you watch it, I hope you enjoy it. It's one of those weird movies that has people that absolutely love it, and then others that think it's downright boring, like Blade Runner.

@Sinusoidal said:

@HerbieBug: But, but, Hamilton's dumb makes his books all the more special! That and I hear if you put his books together on a bookshelf, their combined mass collapses into a black hole... I'll have to check out this Corey fellow.

A Fire Upon the Deep is awesome, but I liked A Deepness in the Sky better.

James Corey is good stuff. Guaranteed. Especially if you like Hamilton and Vinge. He`s in the same wheelhouse.

Funny you mention that about A Deepness in the Sky. I agree with you there. It's definitely the better story. A Fire Upon the Deep has a more interesting sci-fi hook, though, which is why I listed that one specifically for this thread.