rogermccarthy
SOC-12
Would also highly recommend Jack Vance's Demon Princes and Gaean Reach novels - above all for the dozens of exotic human and alien societies depicted.
Books with that "Traveller feel"
- Thread starter Finarvyn
- Start date
M
Malenfant
Guest
Definitely agree. He's by far the most Travelleresque new sf author I've read. At least from a Scouts point of view.
FreeTrav
SOC-14 1K
I think stofsk has the right of it in his comment re: Harrington. There are other characters in the series who have had vignettes that DO tap on the Traveller! bell, though none really strongly. That's not to say that I don't consider the series a good read, just that it's not Traveller to me.
I've never gotten any sort of Traveller feel from PERN, although I've often considered the possibility of transplanting the planet into a Traveller universe. Again, that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy reading them.
I've not read Well of Souls, but Lords of Diamond doesn't work as Traveller for me simply because it relies on tech gimmicks that I can't square into a Traveller universe. Good reads, though.
Bunch and Vance have not been on my reading list, nor has McDevitt.
Legacy of the Aldenata was mentioned earlier in the thread, I believe; I'd classify that as 'almost works', as there's a level of reliance on IMO problematical tech gimmicks, and I have some problems with the characterizations of the various aliens. Again, good reads, just not Traveller to me.
Some of the basic premises of James White's Hospital Station universe are incompatible with Traveller, but this is a series that I really truly wish I could make work within a Traveller framework. Surprisingly, if Star Trek had been about Doctor McCoy instead of Captain Kirk, I think it could easily have ended up being a screenplay version of this series. Color me boggled that the same series of books seems to appeal to two very different SF universes.
Having said that, I have to admit that there are SOME novels from the Pocket Books imprint Star Trek set that I think one could file the serial numbers off and turn into Traveller adventures. The first one that comes to mind is Uhura's Song; The IDIC Epidemic is another. There are also novels in the set that rather than being adventures are more stories-cum-Landgrabs, the three most notable of which are The Final Reflection, The Romulan Way, and Spock's World - turn the Klingons, Romulans, and Vulcans respectively into minor (probably human) races, and you're presented with well-developed but most definitely non-'default' cultures to use as a background for potential adventures.
I've never gotten any sort of Traveller feel from PERN, although I've often considered the possibility of transplanting the planet into a Traveller universe. Again, that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy reading them.
I've not read Well of Souls, but Lords of Diamond doesn't work as Traveller for me simply because it relies on tech gimmicks that I can't square into a Traveller universe. Good reads, though.
Bunch and Vance have not been on my reading list, nor has McDevitt.
Legacy of the Aldenata was mentioned earlier in the thread, I believe; I'd classify that as 'almost works', as there's a level of reliance on IMO problematical tech gimmicks, and I have some problems with the characterizations of the various aliens. Again, good reads, just not Traveller to me.
Some of the basic premises of James White's Hospital Station universe are incompatible with Traveller, but this is a series that I really truly wish I could make work within a Traveller framework. Surprisingly, if Star Trek had been about Doctor McCoy instead of Captain Kirk, I think it could easily have ended up being a screenplay version of this series. Color me boggled that the same series of books seems to appeal to two very different SF universes.
Having said that, I have to admit that there are SOME novels from the Pocket Books imprint Star Trek set that I think one could file the serial numbers off and turn into Traveller adventures. The first one that comes to mind is Uhura's Song; The IDIC Epidemic is another. There are also novels in the set that rather than being adventures are more stories-cum-Landgrabs, the three most notable of which are The Final Reflection, The Romulan Way, and Spock's World - turn the Klingons, Romulans, and Vulcans respectively into minor (probably human) races, and you're presented with well-developed but most definitely non-'default' cultures to use as a background for potential adventures.
Dear Folks -
The most Traveller-esque I've read would have to be E. E. "Doc" Smith's "Family d'Alembert" series, complete with soon-to-abdicate Emperor, Empress-in-waiting daughter, Grand Dukes in charge of huge sectors of space (= domains), and the PC's as undercover agents in the "Service Of The Empire" (S.O.T.E.).
It gets even more eerily close the further you read through the series.
The most Traveller-esque I've read would have to be E. E. "Doc" Smith's "Family d'Alembert" series, complete with soon-to-abdicate Emperor, Empress-in-waiting daughter, Grand Dukes in charge of huge sectors of space (= domains), and the PC's as undercover agents in the "Service Of The Empire" (S.O.T.E.).
It gets even more eerily close the further you read through the series.
Andre Norton's Solar Queen series (the original & the new ones) & any of her books that deal with the Thieve's Guild; Keith Laumer's Retief Stories & Galactic Odyssey; Jack Vance; H. Beam Piper (though his weapons were dated even when he wrote); The Planet Pirates stories by Elizabeth Moon & Anne McCaffrey; Elizabeth Moon, particularly the Vatta War series; A. Bertram Chandler; & James White's Sector General series; & Murray Leinster's Medship series; H. Harrison's Planet of the Damned & the 1st Deathworld novel.
On film & TV very few. Forbidden Planet; Enemy Mine; Farscape; Firefly/Serenity; the Aliens series. Anime: The Dirty Pair; Sol Bianca (though the S.B. would be an artifact ship in Traveller); Iria: Zeiram the Animated.
On film & TV very few. Forbidden Planet; Enemy Mine; Farscape; Firefly/Serenity; the Aliens series. Anime: The Dirty Pair; Sol Bianca (though the S.B. would be an artifact ship in Traveller); Iria: Zeiram the Animated.
I find it interesting that several authors have been mentioned who I always thought of as "fantasy only" storytellers, yet they would appear to have SciFi type elements contained therein.
To me, a Traveller story shouldn't have too much fantasy. For example, Star Wars without the Force is pretty Traveller-like. I haven't read Pern, but it seems like a dragon-heavy setting would be as far from Traveller as I can imagine. Hmmmmm.
To me, a Traveller story shouldn't have too much fantasy. For example, Star Wars without the Force is pretty Traveller-like. I haven't read Pern, but it seems like a dragon-heavy setting would be as far from Traveller as I can imagine. Hmmmmm.
FreeTrav
SOC-14 1K
Re: Finarvyn's comment about dragons not being Traveller...
Only because you're used to dragons being associated with magic. But the Pern series doesn't DO magic, and with only limited exceptions (temporal teleportation), the not-exactly-magical capabilities of the dragons there are really fully explainable within the documented framework of Traveller psionics. Given that, Pern simply becomes a low-tech planet with an interesting but plausible difference in a Traveller milieu.
Only because you're used to dragons being associated with magic. But the Pern series doesn't DO magic, and with only limited exceptions (temporal teleportation), the not-exactly-magical capabilities of the dragons there are really fully explainable within the documented framework of Traveller psionics. Given that, Pern simply becomes a low-tech planet with an interesting but plausible difference in a Traveller milieu.
Fantasy can be relative. Years ago at various cons (particularly a World-building panel at the 1977 SF Worldcon in Miami) is was noted that the magic in Andre Norton's Witch World series comes off more like psionics, whereas M Z Bradley's psionics in the Darkover books come off more like magic. I've often thrown in psionic priesthoods in some of my Traveller.
Jeff M. Hopper
SOC-14 1K
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle are both good either seperate or as a collaborative effort. Also take a gander at Allen Steele, a relatively new author, whose interstellar colonization trilogy 'Coyote' is well worth the price.
FreeTrav
SOC-14 1K
Just as a side note, anyone who's not already participating in it may want to read the other thread here, Required reading...., as it seems to be a parallel discussion in many ways.
M
Malenfant
Guest
That's not even his best one IMO (though it has a lot of Travellery things in it) - Chindi and Omega are much more "Scouty".
Jack McDevitt?
Just finished Polaris, it was very good. I thought the lead in was a bit long, but by page ~200 it didn't matter. Chindi is next.
I liked the premise of Alex & Chase's business and loved the idea of Radio-archeology. This should spark some ideas for the old regular traders who come upon salvage.
Antichrist
SOC-8
A lot of Drake's "Hammer's Slammers" is kind of like traveller from a ground action POV.
I just finished Starship: Pirate by Resnick (my first book by him I read ) & liked it quite well. I especially liked the observations that piracy is easy, unloading your loot isn't.
Supplement Four
SOC-14 5K
I don't know what I'm missing, but I couldn't finish Chindi. It started off OK, but it just go so doggone boooorrrring.
I gave it to a fellow scifi reader at work, and he returned it, halfway read as well.
I decided wouldn't pick up another McDevitt book again.
Somebody want to clue me in on what I must be missing with his writing?
Similar threads
