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Amazing & Amusing sci-fi ships encountered

For anyone who might want to have a side conversation...you're welcome here!
Re: Amusing sci-fi ships encountered
Post by phillies   » Sat Oct 18, 2014 6:19 pm

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Hutch wrote:Not sure if you meant Amusing or Amazing cthia.

The ships of the Lensman and Skylark series by E.E. "Doc" Smith from the 1930's/40's are the best of the pulp fiction era, IMHO. Huge, with awesome weapons, galaxy-spanning ability, counted in the millions (yes, millions) of ships...The Skylark of Space began as a small globe and by the end of the series was a 1000-mile sphere with the capability of destroying galaxies (and I do not exaggerate). Doc did not write on a small scale....

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention perhaps my first exposure to anime (back in the 1970's): Space battleship Yamato (carried here in the USA as Star Blazers).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Battleship_Yamato
, which actually used the Yamato (it was more successful against aliens than opposing the US Navy).

And for amusing, I would recommend Schlock Mercenary, a web cartoon that has been running daily for almost 15 years with a rather eclectic group of ships (from the "Touch-and-Go" to the "Post-Dated Check Loan" to truly huge Battleplates.


I believe that that was actually millions of space fleets, each containing thousands of ships. Smith seriously underestimated how large a galaxy is.
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Re: Amazing & Amusing sci-fi ships encountered
Post by Thucydides   » Sun Oct 19, 2014 3:34 pm

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Someone already mentioned INSS MacArthur from the Mote in God's Eye; the ship and its systems are described in a very high level of detail, to the point that it is character in the novel more like the HMS Surprise than the USS Enterprise (look up the reference :) )

Niven also had some pretty interesting starships in his "Known Space" series. The Kzin roamed the galaxy in ships powered by "Gravity Planer" reactionless drives, only to discover that the primitive Humans had a few tricks up their sleeves (damn monkeys!). The General Product hulls from later "Known Space" stories and novels are also interesting, even if they are not purpose built warships. They "Lying Bastard" from "Ringworld" is a warship disguised as an exploration ship (both to evade local regulations and to present a less threatening appearance to any natives. Little did the crew know....).

Niven also has some megalomaniac ideas such as vast fusion engines used to move gas giant planets around in "A world out of time"

One other interesting ship is the "Out of Band II" from Vernor Vinge's novel "A Fire upon the Deep"

Not really a ship per se, but Axis City, where humans inhabit "The Way" in Greg Bear's novel "Eon" is also quite interesting.

Enjoy.
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Anybody Here A Time Patrol Agent?
Post by HB of CJ   » Sun Oct 19, 2014 6:39 pm

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Anybody here a time patrol agent sent back in time to watch out for us? Don't we wish we had a good crystal ball to look into the future say, 100 years, 500 years, 1000 years, 5000 years, 25,000 years, 100,000 years and so on?

Wonder what we would see? What kind of star ships will develop? Big, small, civilian, military? What does the future hold for mankind? I love this Forum because it lets me just relax and have fun. HB of CJ (old coot) Cm.
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Re: Anybody Here A Time Patrol Agent?
Post by Michael Everett   » Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:59 am

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HB of CJ wrote:Anybody here a time patrol agent sent back in time to watch out for us? Don't we wish we had a good crystal ball to look into the future say, 100 years, 500 years, 1000 years, 5000 years, 25,000 years, 100,000 years and so on?

Wonder what we would see? What kind of star ships will develop? Big, small, civilian, military? What does the future hold for mankind? I love this Forum because it lets me just relax and have fun. HB of CJ (old coot) Cm.

...If you can time-travel, you wouldn't need much of a ship, you'd just need to be able to link and unlink your time-travel abilities from your astrographic location.

So, you need to get to the other side of the galaxy. You unlink your location anchor and go back in time until you reach the point where the area you want was travelling through the space you are in. You then re-engage the astrogaphic anchor and move forwards back to the present day, being dragged along with the universe so that you appear when and (approximately) where you need.

Simple.
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Re: Amazing & Amusing sci-fi ships encountered
Post by Joat42   » Mon Oct 20, 2014 4:37 am

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If we are talking about amusing, UNSF Hector Ramariez must be mentioned.

It was built as a duplicate of Idow's Mikon #4, but with some upgrades.

The ship is from the book Illegal Aliens by Nick Pollotta and Phil Foglio. The book is a tongue-in-cheek story about first contact, aliens and space-battles.

---
Jack of all trades and destructive tinkerer.

Anyone who have simple solutions for complex problems is a fool.
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Re: Amazing & Amusing sci-fi ships encountered
Post by Daryl   » Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:26 am

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Don't forget the Tardis.

Also in Niven's Known Space the Puppeteers had arranged their planets in a ring around their sun, and set sail with them in that configuration away from the galactic centre at a large fraction of light speed, so I'd imagine a high speed enhanced solar system qualifies as a very large space ship. The Ringworld was immobile and built by the Engineers in the same series, so probably qualifies as a large space station.
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Re: Amazing & Amusing sci-fi ships encountered
Post by Thucydides   » Tue Oct 21, 2014 8:40 pm

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For amusing starships (and movies, for that matter), you can't beat "Dark Star". Since the budget was pretty much $0 (this was before Kickstarter, after all), the ship is nothing to look at, but the idea of sending a bunch of blue collar goofballs around the universe to blow up planets with giant nuclear weapons.....What could possibly go wrong?
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