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Who looms large in scif and fantasy,in movies, televsion and literature.

Yes H G Wells did in his 1914 book World Set Free. Also of interest, he was planning a documetary about the Atomic Bomb at the time of his death in 1946. His great grandson Simon Wells is a director and I think he did one of the Tomb Raider movies and He did the 2002 remake of the Time Machine, which wasn't a bad film.
 
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I just looked it up, and Wells seems to have inspired physicist Leo Szilard to postulate the nuclear chain reaction, by predicting an "atomic bomb!" :eek:

I'm not a Wells scholar, by any means, but the only book of his I have read that deals with fighting wars from the air was Shapes of Things To Come, written in 1933. So, I would consider that evident by then. But, perhaps he wrote of it earlier.
 
No, I was thinking he might have been the first to postulate dropping a-bombs from something other than dirigibles (sp?), but powered flight by man has long been a dream, it most likely is from earlier.

And I wasn't going to say anything, but I was thinking I'd seen a special on some of the great science fiction writers, and it did mention that H. G. Wells' concept of the chain reaction inspired the first researches into making an actual atomic bomb. I thought that I must be misremembering: that would be too much of a skill at prediction.
 
Another writer of note that get talked about much is Stanley Weinbaum he wrote a number stories of Note was A Martian Odyssey written about 1933. It is great story The sad part is that this writer died at age 33 in 1935.This man had he lived to write more might have become one of the giants in the field of science fiction.
 
Ray Bradbury is who made me want to write. I remember opening up his book of short stories when I was 10: The October country. I was never the same. He's someone I look up to on many levels as a writer.

Along with Ray Bradbury, I think the obvious answers (also outside of novels) are:

George Lucas
Steven Spielberg
H.G. Wells
Gene Roddenberry
Orson Scott Card
Frank Herbert
Arthur C. Clarke

I also give definite credit to the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix) and some of the modern day sci-fi creative talents from today's television and movies.
 
Alluveal those are good choices , was wondering have you ever read anything by Either Harlan Ellison, if not you would love him. Also I recommend Clark Aston Smith anything by him but his greatest story Is Called CITY OF THE SINGING FLAME, the best fantasy short story that I have ever read. there are websites devoted to smith and one has all his stories on line. One book that I recommend to Everyone is Jack London's fantasy novel THE STAR ROVER it is a great book different then anything he ever wrote, not a well known book.
 
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I am not familiar with that story by Sturgeon. He wrote an Story called The Golden Helix which predicted the double Helix, if fact he wrote this story a couple of years before the double Helix was discovered. He wrote some incredible science fiction, Including The Dreaming Jewels and More Then Human both great.
 
Jade its funny you should mention The Shape of Things to Come was made into a very good and classic science fiction movie in 1936 H G Wells wrote the Screen Play, the film stared both Raymond Massey and Sir Ralph Richardson, it was directed by Alexander Korda. The acting is a bit stiff, but visually even by todays standard the film still rocks .Its got a great musical score as well. It is available on dvd and I think you would like it.
 
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I've seen it a few times. It plays on cable pretty regularly. It's a decent film. I was just thinking - I wonder if Korda directed any other sci fi?
 
considering how well known the name is among us B5 fans, i am really surprised nobody has mentioned Alfred Bester, "the stars, my destination" and "the demolished man" are two of the finest novels of the latter half of the 20th, with the latter inspiring JMS to create the psi-corps, thus the name check.
 
Ranger 1 Tyr Bester's Book The Computer Connection its less well known but its pretty good.

Clifford D Simak not so well remembered but he wrote some great stuff for example
1. City
2. All Flesh is Grass
3. Way station

One of his stories got made into an original outer Limits episode:cool:
 
Garovorkin said:
Ranger 1 Tyr Bester's Book The Computer Connection its less well known but its pretty good.

Clifford D Simak not so well remembered but he wrote some great stuff for example
1. City
2. All Flesh is Grass
3. Way station

One of his stories got made into an original outer Limits episode:cool:
Click to expand...

The original series? Which story, do you know?
 
The episode was called The Duplicated Man based on a story he wrote in 1951
Hypatia I don't suppose you have ever read The book LIMBO By Bernard Wolfe? written about 1955 I think. The best way to describe it is that its a 50's Cyberpunk novel. Its also a dystopia novel in the vein of both George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. It is a great read. As far as I know it is the only science fiction novel that this man ever wrote. I think he wrote a story or two for one of the Dangerous vision anthologies

Another one book science fiction writer was George R Stewart, he wrote on of the most beautiful apocalyptic novels all time It called EARTH ABIDES, written in 1949 it is the story of Isherwood Williams he is one few people top survive a plague that has decimated the population of the world, again it is a fantastic read. It's never been out of print. Like Limbo it's considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time.
 
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I vaguely remember "the Duplicate Man". I'm currently renting the series, disc by disc, so I'll run into it eventually. I saw from the episode guide it's one near the end of season 2 of the series.

Interesting, thanks for the info. :)
 
What about the Terminator Franchise which was given rise to 3 films ,and more on the way and a hit tv show on fox Chronicle of Sarah Connors, Cameron made an impact here but we can also credit to Harlan Ellison on this one as well, Ellison's Outer limits teleplays for his story Solider and Demon With A Glass hand were definitely strong influences here to say the least. He sued Cameron successfully over this one

Though Terminator was not the first Cyborg movie, There was French Italian Made sciece fiction movie made in 1961 called Planets against Us, Actor Michael Lemoine played five Cyborgs whose job was bring down all the governments on Earth and pave the way for an Alien Invasion.

Roger Cormans' !967 Movie Cyborg. Actor Micheal Rene Plays a Cyborg freedom fighter sent back in time to try prevent a certain technology from being developed which will lead to a machine like dictatorship in the future.:cool:
 
Garovorkin said:
What about the Terminator Franchise which was given rise to 3 films ,and more on the way and a hit tv show on fox Chronicle of Sarah Connors, Cameron made an impact here but we can also credit to Harlan Ellison on this one as well, Ellison's Outer limits teleplays for his story Solider and Demon With A Glass hand were definitely strong influences here to say the least. He sued Cameron successfully over this one

Though Terminator was not the first Cyborg movie, There was French Italian Made sciece fiction movie made in 1961 called Planets against Us, Actor Michael Lemoine played five Cyborgs whose job was bring down all the governments on Earth and pave the way for an Alien Invasion.

Roger Cormans' !967 Movie Cyborg. Actor Micheal Rene Plays a Cyborg freedom fighter sent back in time to try prevent a certain technology from being developed which will lead to a machine like dictatorship in the future.:cool:
Click to expand...

the premise was definitely based around second variety by Dick.
 
Second variety was written in Early 50's if i remember correctly,and was adapted into the Peter Weller Jenifer Rubin Movie Screamers, which was not a bad film.
 
We are also forgetting two films of note dealing more then androids/Robots. Westworld with a gunslinging Yule Brenner directed by Michael Critchton and it's sequel Futureworld, which you also had cloning as a theme.

Before the Borg we had Fred Saberhagen's ever nasty Killer machines Called the Berserkers, whose goal was the complete destruction of life, this series stated out in the 1960's They could have made a great film series out of this one.
 
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