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Greg Bear Solves Halo's Greatest Mystery
10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels

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Don't Make Me Ang Lee. You wouldn't like me when I'm Ang Lee.
04/07/09

In reply to Greg Bear Solves Halo's Greatest Mystery
Forerunners = crew of BSG.

duh...
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ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.
04/07/09

@Belabras Voted 5: See, I read the book and fell in love with the universe, played the games and decided they were fun, but had nothing at all to do with the books. also, I was trying to figure out what anything I was doing had to do with any of the overarching plotness, and whether the Halos were deathstars or stargates.
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Pessimippopotamus
04/07/09

In reply to Greg Bear Solves Halo's Greatest Mystery
I love the Halo mythology. Many others hate it. But in any case, for a storyline for a shooter game, it's come pretty far.
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ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.
04/07/09

@Pessimippopotamus is at 0% productivity: I love the mythology, I hate that it is not explored in the games.
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Pessimippopotamus
04/07/09

@ggodo: That's what the books were for, silly.
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Slatz_Grobnik
04/07/09

@Pessimippopotamus is at 0% productivity: I get funny looks when I say it, but I totally agree. Even the tone and feel of the SF is spot on, and something somewhat rare for the form.
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Pessimippopotamus
04/07/09

@Slatz_Grobnik: It's the tone. Fo sho. It's the tone.
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ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.
04/07/09

In reply to Greg Bear Solves Halo's Greatest Mystery
Wasn't it implied that the Forerunners were just humans a Long, Long time ago? They went through the ringworld to a new Floodless universe. Maybe? I only read the first book and played the games, none of them made any sense after the first.
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Johnny Dactyl
04/07/09

@ggodo: They created the flood, built the rings to contain them, stored all the DNA to all life in the galaxy into said rings, built uber death laser into rings so when activated it would wipe all life (now flood infected), including themselves from the galaxy and seed it anew.

The one huge flaw is why bother to preserve the thing you're trying to kill?
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Pessimippopotamus
04/07/09

@Finstern: The biggest flaw was that despite destroying all sentient life in the Galaxy, the Flood still survived, making the Halo event pointless. Maybe they could only be contained, and not destroyed?

I'm sure he'll delve into the origin of the Flood as well.
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TehLastTimeLord
04/07/09

@Finstern: It's theorized they had the flood in containment while studying them, but ran out of time to eliminate the few they had locked up due to unforeseen reasons (maybe they had to activate the rings sooner than they anticipated?). This of course resulted in the flood escaping and running rampant on Delta Halo (from Halo 2) well before humans/Convenant landed there, though how a Gravemind formed and then sat waiting for thousands and thousands of years on that particular installation is something I still don't quite understand....
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Johnny Dactyl
04/07/09

@TehLastTimeLord: I think gravemind probably started out as an infected sentient and then over the thousands of millennia he fed off plants (constantly regenerating) and stuff to survive. what is crazy is that he formed on delta halo and once you gets off it hes suddenly in command of all the flood in the galaxy.

If you read all the terminals in halo 3 you get a glimpse of an AI that seems to be infected by the gravemind, really interesting stuff.
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TehLastTimeLord
04/07/09

@Finstern: I thought the Gravemind could only form after infecting a significant amount of sentient life? Also, it's not surprising that it's in command of all the Flood, I suppose - they basically went right on the warpath against the Covenant and then Earth as soon as they got off the Halo, never having time to really sit back in one spot/spots and create multiple creatures (unless I missed something, or I'm completely wrong).

I also thought the AI came to the conclusion itself to do what it did during the Forerunner's Great War, and then had 100,000 years to repent and feel remorse and stuff. Hm. I'll have to re-read those terminals.
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ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.
04/07/09

@Finstern: Then what happened in Halo 3? where the hell did the Chief go? Where did you get that information? I don't recall it being anywhere in the games, but they really aren't known for they're storytelling.
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Johnny Dactyl
04/07/09

@TehLastTimeLord: I think you definatly understand the gravemind more than I do lol but I'm definitely sure there were two A.Is in the game and one was going to the dark side.
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ggodo, the man from R.O.A.C.H.
04/07/09

@Finstern: you guys got the terminals to work? I found three, an only one did anything.
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Slatz_Grobnik
04/07/09

@TehLastTimeLord: I don't know about the Gravemind issue, but there's at least a narrative logic to the Flood's survival. When there's a weapon meant to destroy all of life, probably the safest place you can hide is on the weapon itself.
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zenpoet
04/08/09

@Finstern: They didn't create the flood, only succumbed to it.

[blog.ascendantjustice.com]
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scifiMD
03/10/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
"between Pygmalion and" ..and what?? For some reason, I HAVE to know.
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Charlie Jane Anders
03/10/09

@scifiMD: Oh crap. The end of that sentence got eaten! Fixing it....
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southernbitch
03/10/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
pft. im sorry, the fountain was not an underrated masterpiece, it was bloated, self-indulgent, and poorly executed. pi would be a far, far, far more interesting read.
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twophrasebark
03/09/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
What a neat article idea. Thanks, Charlie!
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holographicProfessorMoriarty
03/09/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
Unless I'm missing my guess...

12 Monkeys was a written story before it became a movie. It wasn't an original idea of Gilliam, he just expended it a bit.
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MinervaAlpaca
03/09/09

@dOk:

No, 12 Monkeys was NOT based on a short story. It was based on an earlier short film, "La Jetee."
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twophrasebark
03/09/09

@MinervaAlpaca: Which was based on an episode of The Flintstones.
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twophrasebark
03/09/09

Okay, maybe not.
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GitEmSteveDave_RockinLabCoat
03/09/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
One of the best novels I read was The Abyss by Orson Scott Card. It was pretty much the movie, but more. And more in substance, not things that could have been explained on screen.
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Grey_Area
03/09/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
Oh, how about a novel set as a sequel to Blade Runner by K.W. Jeter?

No, that actually happened and really sucked.
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Grey_Area
03/09/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
WHAT?! This is an OUTRAGE! How could a mere novel ever capture the filmaker's vision? How would they do the special effects, the soundtrack...ARRRGH! PEKING. DUCK...

Hee, hee, hee.

Hell, I dunno, Liquid Sky by John Shirley? Nah, too obvious.
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4ndreVV
03/09/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
Cormac McCarthy's *Eraserhead*
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Charlie Jane Anders
03/09/09

@4ndreVV: Wow, that would be something.
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zerofish
03/09/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
Didn't Elizabeth Hand do 12 monkeys? What was that like?
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Charlie Jane Anders
03/09/09

@zerofish: Really? I thought I searched to make sure none of these movies actually had a novelization.
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Charlie Jane Anders
03/09/09

@zerofish: Oh man, you're right! I am crestfallen. [www.amazon.com]
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Pegritz
03/09/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
Aaaaand I just bought the last--the ONLY--used copy of Priest's novelization of Existenz available on Amazon.com. I absolutely LOVE that movie, and though I'm not the biggest Christopher Priest fan, I'm really interested in seeing how Priest converts the sheer mindfuckery of the film into text.
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Discodave: R.O.A.C.H. M.O.T.E.L.
03/09/09

@Pegritz: I actually thought the film of The Prestige was much better than the book. Interested to see how it goes the other way round, though.
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Charlie Jane Anders
03/09/09

@Discodave: I didn't see the movie of the Prestige because I liked the book, but didn't think a movie could improve on it. And I heard the movie's ending was frustrating and telegraphed, the same way the book's was.
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mad_hatter_md01
03/09/09

In reply to 10 Movies That Would Make Awesome SF Novels
Primer is too much of a mind fuck to read. You need to watch to it to be able to understand it.
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Meredith Woerner
03/09/09

@mad_hatter_md01: you figured it out?
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