The War at the Beginning of Time | Revelation Space
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series stands as a masterpiece within the realm of space opera, captivating readers with its expansive world-building and mind-bending science fiction concepts. In this video, we embark on a deep exploration of yet another intriguing concept from this series-an enigma that delves into the early stages of cosmic civilization within the vast expanse of the universe. Brace yourself as we unravel the mysterious origins of an ancient race of lifeforms, whose existence now lingers only in the form of scattered machines spanning the galaxy, designed with one sole and devastating purpose. However, I must issue a word of caution: this video contains some significant spoilers for the intricate lore of the Revelation Space Saga. If you are averse to having any aspect of this captivating series spoiled for you, I implore you to click away. However, if spoilers don't deter you or if you have already delved into the gripping narrative of at least the first book, then join me on this journey of discovery.
Let us embark upon our odyssey by delving into the very fabric of the universe itself. In the cosmic overture, there existed the singularity-a point of infinite density that held within it the entirety of existence. In an awe-inspiring instant, a matter of “plank” time, this singularity expanded exponentially, swiftly encompassing the size of our solar system and then spiraling outward to encompass the entirety of our galaxy. As this cosmic symphony unfolded, particles of matter and antimatter were released, engaging in a cataclysmic dance of annihilation upon collision. Yet, in the cosmic scales of fate, matter emerged triumphant, for it possessed a slight advantage over its antimatter counterpart, that being that there was simply slightly more matter than antimatter. Thus, the surviving matter laid the foundations for the intricate tapestry of our universe, persisting through the eons to the present day. This primal clash of matter and antimatter marked the genesis of the first war-a conflict that reverberated throughout the corridors of time. However, the universe is not solely a stage for astrophysics; it holds much more within its vast tapestry.
Within the pages of the Revelation Space series, we learn of the Dawn War-a conflict of unprecedented magnitude that reverberated across the Milky Way galaxy. No galactic war in the billion years that followed could ever hope to rival its monumental scale and profound impact. The Dawn War extended its vast tendrils across countless civilizations, stretching its shadowy grip to encompass myriad worlds. Its ferocious embrace endured for an inconceivable span of time, leaving no involved party unscathed and many civilizations entirely erased from existence. As the cosmic sands of time ebbed and flowed, an uncountable number of beings and cultures were lost to the eternal obscurity of forgotten history.
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I am currently correcting the audio error at: 5:14 and at 6:49! TH-cam's built-in editor is a bit slow! Thank you all so much for watching! Check out my new podcast, The Cosmic Chronicles, for an audio glitch-free experience! :) th-cam.com/video/8gGFeUtuzPE/w-d-xo.html
damn it! Yet another post that I can't watch because I'm 1/2 way through the book!
Gosh i'm CRAVING you review The Book of the New Sun cycle...
Do you do any voice-over work? I'd love to listen to a book narrated by you.
Thank you for your hard work, I really appreciate it. 😌☺️😊😄😃🤩 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
This needs to be developed into a show. Thank you Quinn, you're helping me distract my self from an ear infection brought on by a cold.
Finally a new Quinn video, you’ve quickly become one of my new favorite channels on TH-cam dude keep it up.
It's good stuff, huh? He gets better and better
Yep, it takes SO MUCH for me to sit and read like... multimedia is far too tempting to me, I have a hard time reading voluntarily unless I'm like, unable to connect to the internet
But I love getting exposure and hearing at least the broad strokes, and interesting aspects puled from, these stories that I'd never be exposed to otherwise
I doubt people like me were ever the target audience, but I enjoy the videos very much nonetheless
Agreed
I knoooow, did I wish he uploaded more lol
@@wolvo5441 eh you know, he's got to sit and read books and all, find something he wants to talk about before he can make anything. Yeah more would be nice, but I think we get as much as we can
What I liked the most from Revelation Space, was the ship Nostalgia for Infinity. Described as ancient and "stupidly huge", Reynolds really nails how such a ship would have an incredibly complex history in a sub-lightspeed civilization. Way too much to handle for its crew of 5, the majority of the ship has become unfamiliar territory. Most of its cavernous sections have fallen into disrepair, some places quarantined entirely from threats that are beyond the crew's ability to excise, and you may even find a ghost or two in some of the operating systems. It's a wild, dangerous untamed jungle as much as it is a ship.
And there’s the matter of what actually powers its engines.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I want a lighthugger
So, a ship made for space travel before Hyperspace/Lightspeed was attainable?
Interesting, yeah you're so advanced that the old stuff is hardly recognizable.
John the revelator
This channel holds a special place in my heart as being one of the few channels still dedicated to the underrated and underappreciated art of science fiction.
Dude. So glad you’re doing these. Even the worst of Reynolds is just wild. Compared to the other hard space opera authors he’s like a whale among minnows.
"the other hard space opera authors" other than The Expanse writers and Ian McDonald (Luna series), I legit can't think of many other contemporary authors who even deserve that title at all. Every other space opera author eventually falls back to FTL, psionics, and other 'soft' concepts (which are great, don't get me wrong...we love sci fi of all flavors!), but Reynolds refuses to cave. He carries hard sci fi on his shoulders, Atlas-style, with intelligent writing and BDE
@@andrewk9267TBF I don’t think there’s a hard (excuse the pun) and fast rule for what constitutes _hard SF,_ because what would be considered "hard SF" a hundred years ago would in some ways be considered pretty soft now; and our "hard SF" might be considered soft in some ways a hundred years from now, for example. I do agree with your general point however, as I watch a lot of Isaac Arthur videos, and after inculcating them are left wondering where all the O’Neill/Mackendree cylinder space habitats are.
I read all the books in the Revelation Space Universe and Reynold's stand-alone sci-fi novels. I also read hundreds of other sci-fi books (all the classics and then some). The Revelation Space Universe gave me a sense of ever-looming danger and desperation that no other author yet invoked in me. It's fascinating and scary at the same time to me. I consider the Revelation Space stories to be among my Top 10 sci-fi books/series.
Edit: Oh yeah, what got me into sci-fi: I read Jules Vernes "20 000 leagues under the sea" when I was 9 years old and have been hooked ever since. I even wrote my last University work in Anthropology about Cyborganthropology (based on Donna Harraway and Bruno Latour).
What I like about Reynolds is how he has parts of the lore in his short stories too.
I loved a lot of the RevSpace books, but maaaan Absolution Gap left me pretty cold. It made me feel like Reynolds really had no idea how to wrap things up.
Awsome
@@SuperSecretAgentNeinyep, that was his biggest fail. However, I think he has made up for it with his other works
To me, the most sorrowful parts of the Revelation Space series are the few holdover aliens that survived the early days. They're usually the last of their kind, doomed to be surrounded by beings that they don't understand and don't understand them. I'm thinking of the solitary Grub in Yellowstone, or the craven Amarantin survivors hiding in the Shrouds, or the burrowing ice-worms acting as neurons for a glacially slow brain.
Alistair Reynolds is one of my favorite sci-fi authors, if you enjoy the Revelation Space series and the Dreyfus off-shoots; try Pushing Ice by Reynolds, it's an excellent book.
@@walkingcontradiction223Pushing Ice was to me was very much like reading his spin on the entire Rama series from Arthur C. Clarke in one book.
My favourite stand alone Reynolds book is House of Suns
@@pierstewfik7858 I just reread it last month. Still holds up!
The Culture is easily, hands down, the best science fiction series in my opinion. I plan on making videos about its science and how some of the technologies in it might be in the cards here in reality. Besides that though, the entire premise is invigorating - it’s galvanized me to pursue a career in STEM to help better the world around me
Biggest surprise about the culture, I never expected some of my favorite characters would be ships.
@@electricmessiah3932 developing a love for hyper intelligent AIs was definitely a big plus I got out of the series
The ideas are good, but it's the characters that really make the Culture series great. In my opinion of course.
Revelation space was the first real sci-fi series I read based on a friends recommendation. And it’s held onto my attention ever since. I rarely stop thinking about it. John Lee (the narrator) is also the voice of sci-fi for me in audio books. His narration style brings me right back into the universe.
Same here with John, I've bought numerous audio books just because he's the narrator and rarely been let down. Except for the weird thing where there's no pause between sections which seems to be an issue on many of his .
Can i just say, i like your selection of music and your narrative voice in these videos so much
It just sets the perfect atmosphere for the subject matter
I love the Revelation Space books! As a universe it is so difficult to explain, I don't think there is an easy way to get all that worldbuilding in there. I think Diamond Dogs remains the best part to get it, it's fairly short and gives a good overview over the entire thing.
Yep! When I want to recommend Reynolds to someone I usually have them start with Diamond Dogs. It’s hard to get through something as dense as Revelation Space if you don’t know what you’re getting into.
Love this series. Please delve DEEP into this series. You did a phd on the Three Body Problem and Blindsight was just a footnote…. the alien life described in Blindsight was profound. So profound that I can’t think of another book like it. The life in David Brin’s Uplift series is worth a look as it’s quite fun
So happy to see more RS material.
If you haven't read his Pushing Ice, you should. Then make a video for it. Great novel that explores deep time.
Pushing ice is a great book.
bit of an audio artifact at 5:14 and at 6:49
Could you give your opinion on Peterr F Hamilton. He's more spsce opera orientainted but creates such a rounded universe despite relying on wormholes.
@QuinnsIdeas I wonder if you have read the Greg Mandel Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton? For those in the UK it's especially recommended reading and may be all too prescient with it's predictions of the near future 😀
Mate, you've singlehandedly pushed me into becoming a much more avid sci-fi literature enjoyer.
I've only ever read fantasy fiction, and have only read the Forerunner saga by Greg Bear -- who I knew was a well respected sci-fi writer, but I never really had the desire to branch out to ther stories and works.
Some of your videos changed that -- mainly the one on the threebody problem.
Ever since then I've been on a binge.
I think these books greatly influenced the Mass Effect series. Especially the Inhibitors = Prothians
Redemption Arc is my all-time favourite sci-fi opera book, closely followed by Revelation Space. So thanks for this video!
I still like your old intro tune better...but the graphics ARE better. I will read this series and come back to this video...thanks for the suggestion tho
Nice intro hope it gets you more noticed: I'm reading the culture series of books thanks to your recommendation. Thank you
I’ve never been much of a sci fi guy my entire life, always been a fantasy nerd, but the way you present these books is soooo good bro, I had never read a single sci fi book until you showed up in my algorithm and got me on the three body problem.
You’re the man, keep it up, is there a playlist for this series? Don’t see one but the thumbnail looks interesting about to listen now
There were some weird audio artifacts in this video.
Great overview of the story! Love your presentation style.
terrifying if we are alone and terrifying if we are not. always haunting that one.
Absolutely love the new intro my guy!
My first book I got into Sci-Fi was Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke. I also saw "Lawnmower Man" at a similar time to reading "Flowers for Algernon", which have similar themes, and similarly got into Star-Trek and Stargate, and it all came together. I also tried to get into B5 and Farscape, but I was a bit young to appreciate the themes. Rewatching both as an an adult, and like them both. I tend to like Sci-Fi as a vehicle to explore greater themes, with "Living Witness" for Star Trek Voyager my favourite singular episode of any sci-fi I can think of, which explores Racism and revisionist history in a really beautiful way.
Would you ever consider covering The Dark Tower? Or does that have too many feet in fantasy land for the channel?
"God is dead" was more Nietzsche saying that the position that religion had in society was crumbling away. It was once the glue that held it together, but over time its relevance has been systematically stripped. So people will instead find other pursuits to fill that void.
the nature of *"The Wolves"* ALWAYS makes me shudder, and the story of *"The Dawn War"* is horrifying.
Ehi Quinn, this might come as somewhat unrelated, but I find that you have a pretty nice reading voice.
Have you ever thought about creating a second channel, specifically around the reading of science fiction books? I dunno... "Quinn's Library" or "Quinn's Readings" or something like that XD Sorry, I'm not very creative for names XD
Then, as an audience, after having "heard" the books in your second channel, we can all come back here for the actual discussions, commentaries, thoughts and... well, the ideas XD
It must be dawnting to fight against the algorithm but your work and episodes are top tier, you are a great ward of sci fi.
Please god do more long form videos that explain the entire story in a longer form. The best thing about literature analysis is being able to sit back for an hour and half and get engrossed in it.
If I may be permitted, I would like to speak to R's question...
I believe there may be a critical flaw in the premise. Would it not be more true to say that adaptability is the true force behind success, instead of cooperation? Non-conscious organisms are merely "doing" -- with chemical reactions or instinct. These things are tempered by the organisms' environment and fragility in that environment. Most organisms only cooperate to the point of stability. Once stability for procreation can be maintained, it becomes a competition for resources. I dare say viruses don't cooperate; they just procreate and adapt. Apex predators tend to be more solitary and territorial, depending on how "tough" they are. Jackals cooperate to compensate for weakness in the presence of apex predators. Prey will live in groups and procreate a lot to compensate for whatever their weaknesses are -- until they exceed the resource limits of their environment. Humans cooperate because we are very fragile and we are sentient. But groups of humans that are big enough to survive and reproduce will fight with other humans over resources, until such time as their control is overextended, or the groups are equally matched. The UN is the result of adversarial humans reaching limits in our ability to conquer each other/destroy ourselves... but we can keep others from becoming stronger than we are.
If humans expand beyond this planet, we will be seeking more natural resources (places to live, energy to harness, etc). And we will likely behave the same way we do now -- conquer when we can, negotiate when we must, fear "The Other" taking our stuff (see Immigration Policies). Since we only have our planet to go by, we have no reason to believe that other sentients will not be the same. Thus, there will probably be no negotiations unless the competitors are equally matched enough to stave off conquest.
Alistair Reynolds is my favorite author of all time. I still believe his book House of Suns is the most likely outcome for humanity. We will conquer the galaxy below light speed and create thousands, millions of civilizations and new human species. That today is just the prologue of the great human story.
Side note, if extraterrestrial life exist which it probably does, even if it used the same molecules for DNA we would still be completely incompatible. Like matter and anti-matter there are two mirror images of every molecule. All their proteins could be completely mirrored. Imagine landing on a planet and eating a sweet fruit but you end up starving because the glucose is mirrored and your body can’t interact with it. Just something I find interesting.
So basically the inhibitors are the "Anti-Spirals" from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
im currently working through the three body problem series an am about 2/3rds of the way through deaths end
and i wouldn't have known about it if i wasn't for your channel
Great series, Revelation space is one of my favorites. One thing I loved about the series is the shear immensity of space it felt so lonely as Nostalgia for Infinity traveled across the decades.
I totally agree with your idea on the topic of UFOs and how we are living in "post-God" society and we are waiting and looking for something new to come and give us meaning - to make sense of this infinite universe we have now become infinitesimally small part of.
A lot of this was written by chat GPT, I'm certain, I recognize it's language
I started to buy some books because they appeared in Quins videos . Content of books and videos is interesting.
Did you see Tencent's adaptation of The Tree Body Problem?
10:50 makes absolutely no sense. What does killing intelligent life has to do with the merger of 2 galaxies
Gonna miss the old intro but this one is good too
I would love to know your thoughts on Crowley's philosophy of astrological ages.
I am a bit in awe of the REVELATION SPACE series, and adore how the intimate interplays with the cosmic. Part of what I walk away with is that life ends, sooner or later. Let us try to live well, and long, and do not dwell overlong on vastness. After all, are not the Inhibitors the essence of mindless planning with no concern for individual lives? Yet what is life if not a vast number of individuals interacting with each other, experiencing one another in uniquely valuable ways?
Wonder if you will ever talk about David Brin's EARTHCLAN series?
Yes! Revelation Space is one of my favorite scifi series.
Crap, I can't watch this video till I finish Absolution Gap, but here is a comment and a like so the Algorithm notices you :)
I like the intro music. Thanks for linking the artist.
Ahhh... the Old Ones, C'tan and the Necrontyr.
I love Revelation Space because it addresses a question I have had since I was a child. Given the size and estimated age of the Universe, are we as a species late to the party?
Maybe we are late, or maybe we are too early, both possibilities are real actually. Early universe was a bit too volatile of a place, stars were relatively short-lived and less stable, and given that our earth required 2 billion years of uninterrupted existence to achieve sustainability of complex lifeforms - and then 3 billion more for humans to appear and gain sentience - it is not impossible that we are indeed one of the first guys who had enough time to evolve without being wiped out by a random supernova or solar flare. Maybe we are indeed among the "progenitors", at least in our local interstellar neighbourhood
I'm Hoping Alastar Reynolds continues the Revelation Space books, loved them.
Since you asked...
Poul Anderson wrote The Enemy Stars (also published as We Have Fed Our Sea) which has a wonderful resolution. I don't even want to tell you the theme he's exploring as it would be a spoiler (funny thing: the Hugo Award for best novel went to another book exploring similar territory, but terribly; he was ROBBED.)
Gordon Dickson had a few that I found really compelling. One in particular played with the concepts of bridging conceptual gaps across alien cultures (The Alien Way). I also enjoyed Naked to the Stars and Hour of the Horde (takes a moment to get going) for different reasons.
Recently, N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy, an extremely satisfying trilogy.
Hugh Howey's Half Way Home is an absolute must-read. Wonderful.
I'm in danger of listing a lot more. Gonna run away now...
Oh snap when did Quinn remix the theme music???
I like your idea of reading the book before watching the movie -- one can get a better feel for what the author was creating, as opposed to what either a studio's management thought would bring in the most money or that they could afford to film. As for the question about cooperative organizations, I'm pretty much convinced that the more complex the organisms forming the organizational entity, the more difficult the formative act becomes and the shorter-lived the overall new entity (at least in terms of effectiveness/vitality, if not actual lifespan). In human history, most such groups (eg., the EU or the UN, or almost any empire) seem to fit into one of the following categories: 1) We're gonna grab as much as we can get before anyone else does; 2) We're gonna push back against the #1 group to undo the damage & theft; 3) We're gonna set up an organization to prevent organizations like #1 from becoming active and/or successful, and 4) We're gonna try to band together so we're strong enough to hold off #1 and not be forced into joining #2 or #3 while living the way we chose -- and we'll fight 'em all if that's what it takes.
99.3% of the time books are vastly superior to their televised or movie adaptations, just look at Game of Thrones or even the moderately decent adaptation of The Expanse.
I love this channel so much❤❤ the storytelling, his voice, the visuals…perfection
Love the love for Reynolds. For me, Reynolds is one of only a few authors that consistency deliver surprise and complete awe with each new book.
A tidbit from the books: homo sapiens evolving in the first place was a sign of the fall of the Inhibitors. Initially, they were so adept that they could prevent complex intelligent life from evolving in the first place with no need to deploy the dramatic techniques suffered by the characters in the books involving exploding stars or causality-disrupting dogfights. For example, its implied that life on Earth remained at the unicellular purple sludge stage due to Inhibitor meddling. However, either through equipment degradation or segments of themselves forgetting their mission, dinosaurs were allowed to evolve on Earth which necessitated messy ineffective methods such as throwing an asteroid at the Earth. Although most Earth life (except for those that find refuge in the Juggler ocean biocomputers or places like the Shroud) goes extinct, the survival of a small group of refugees (led by Remontoire and collaborating via telepathy with other refugees across the multiverse) for millenia is evidence that the Inhibitors have lost their edge.
Humanity eventually survives, but they never manage to defeat the Inhinitors. Instead, the galaxy the Inhibitors attempted to prepare for the Andromeda collision is lost during the events of Galactic North to the Greenfly which transform the galaxy into a myriad of jungle habitats that stain the galaxy starlight green. Since the greenfly are human-made terraforming machines, it could be said humans indirectly defeated the Inhibitors, but they do not respect human or Inhibitor technological artifacts, mindlessly converting all mass into more jungle habitats.
The intro was written in AI. I mean it's not a criticism, but the telltales are very evident.
Humans need to work more to integrate AI content less conspicuously.
Or, as they call it in Stellaris, a War in Heaven.
...I wonder how much of that piece of galactic pre-history in Stellaris was taken from the Revelation Space series. Stellaris openly and purposefully takes from every piece of fiction they can find, but I don't think I've ever seen Revelation Space listed as an inpsiration, yet the similarity is striking.
Im completely drunk but i love u so much your thé n'est, please continue yur work for ever and ever.
From France !
I so drunk, i dont understand a word but il sure its profond and cool.
I think i must stop post message but i cant...
Shuttt m'y Friends are sleeping , i should shut m'y Mouthe, yur thé n'est Quinn im gonna look your vidéo tomorow because now its really weard
Loved the Revalation Space Saga.... I would love to hear your takes on the culture and tech of this universe. Hopefully youll do a couple more. More people should know about this 'verse. This has got me thinking it's time for a re-read. Its been a few years. Thanks Quinn.
OMG You're doing Revelation Space universe now?! Awesome!! My favorite
The final two questions of the Q&A and their responses were so wonderfully juxtaposed from one another. Appreciate source material, but be willing to drop the link to the source material.
Not a criticism, if anything I'm just impressed by the galaxy-brain tactic there!
Also, Q&A = Quinn & Answers?
love the new music Quinn!
Well, I just learned there was a fourth in the main series. Cheers.
My fav from him is Diamond Dogs. Fascinating but depressing.
I’d love to see your opinion on Neuropath, possibly the most depressing book I’ve ever read. That or Evolution of Prime Intellect. That one is pretty brutal.
i keep going back to the Revelation Space stories as the characters are so compelling and their dealing with each other is relatable. I want figures of the characters, and ships for my desk top ^_^
**Spoilers for Revelation Space series** Oh man, such a good series. I remember pieces like a Tetris game falling into place and clearing up all the confusion like so many multicolor blocks diapering after dropping a vertical line. Finding out Cal wasn't only a hologram with a certain level of consciousness; but a dub Selveste's father (in a very nonchalant way I might add). I heard him call it dad a few times but didn't know what to make of that until I was speaking with the archivist. And when I heard how old the shard was that was pulled from Khouri's head I yelled out "No way, she can't be alive!". Sure enough It went on to explain how Carine, Selveste's research colleague that he kinda abandoned after they visited the pattern jugglers and was lost in the shroud. It was indeed her, our what was left of her. The vindictiveness and border line hidden rage and zeal of the mission to take out Sylveste. There are so many of these epiphany moments sprinkled throughout the books.
I like his style of doing this far more the Gene Wolfe's, not saying he's not a good author, far from it.
Anyway. I wanted to say you reignited my passion in a lot of these books. And my love of reading that was dormant for so many years. I'll always give you props and like your videos. It's the least I could do.
Stay up & take care of yourself.
The story in the long-running webcomic Schlock Mercenary seems to have been inspired by a lot of these grand ideas.
TRUE! AppleTV’s Foundation is NOT Asimov; but, it’s interesting, entertaining and likeable.
I love the original Foundation books. I love this “Inspired by” AppleTV series.
Hey QUINN!
Have you ever done a video on, or read, The Grand Daddy of All Killer Doomsday Machine series-
Frank Saberhagen's BERSERKER series of stories from the early 1960's to the early 2000's?
These are some of the first "franchised" stories where other writers were allowed to play in Saberhagen's sandbox, and as a result they can vary widely in both quality and even genre depending on who wrote them.
But the stories written by Frank Saberhagen were always the most creative and frightening. The Berserkers themselves are horrifically brutal machines often employing "negative feedback" (read torture) to get they want from captured humans. On rare occasion they would temporarily spare humans that they referred to as "Goodlife" for as long as they were useful in their goal of destroying ALL life, even microbial life, in the universe. They're good stories. Just don't start one if you have to get a full night's sleep! ;-)
Most of these galactic war concepts are ridiculous and usually don't really make sense. Resource wars are especially ridiculous as there are more resources in a single solar system that any civilization could possibly use, let alone in countless solar systems. As technology advances it actually becomes more efficient and more effective reducing the actual resources required to maintain growth of the civilization.
Domination wars are also ridiculous because there has to be an overarching reason to expend the resources tequired to maintain confict. War is expensive, inefficient and diverts resources from growth to maintain the war effort. Most wars are conducted for the purpose of resource acquisition which is not an issue for a space faring civilization. It isn't reasonable to conduct a war for resources when resources are just so plentiful. The exception to this is an extremely rare resource such as Spice. Dune only works because Spice is found only on a single planet.
The only other reason a Galactic war might be conducted is Xenophobia. If a particular civilization has a religion predicated on the species being divinely intelligent and therefore divinely special, and they encounter other intelligent species, this would create a deep crisis within the civilization. This could be enough to create a situation where the heretics and imposters must be destroyed to preserve the purity of the race and their beliefs. In this case any amount of resources expended in the effort could be justified.
There is a third reason for interstellar war and that is rarity of habitable planets. However, you couldn't really have a galactic civilization if habitable planets were rare as life itself would be rare. Galactic wars require that life be common in the galaxy so this isn't a valid justification either.
The two exceptions I mentioned are really the only reasons that a galactic war makes sense. However, only the case of a vital rare resource would actually trigger a large-scale war. The Xenophobic race may initiate the war, but the other members of the galactic civilization would band together to subdue the Xenophobes to preserve their own civilizations. Even if the Xenophobes were technically advanced, there is no hope they could succeed against a large galactic coalition.
While galactic war sounds cool it just isn't viable story device if you trying to create a believable galactic society.
People aren't seeking a new god. People seek to understand how they, how one, naturally populate this universe. God was the best our ancestors could come up with in this regard. {LIVE Science; Forums, History and Culture; Culture History & Science; What is a living individual and is it naturally universally mobile?}
This series has piqued my interests and I'll be scopin it out. I just wanted to offer up a short sci fi trilogy I've read multiple times. The set and setting is much smaller in scale than some other well known sci fi series, including the one presented here in your video. John C. Wright wrote "The Golden Oecumene" trilogy in the esrly 2000's. The first book in the trilogy is titled "The Golden Age". I find the series, and Wright's other works to be quite entertaining. Maybe, if you're not already familiar with the book, you'd enjoy it too. 👍🏻
Hi Quinn! I've watched your vids for a long time, wish I had the money to support you. Thought you might like to know you've inspired me to take back up my own interest in science fiction. I've read a lot of these books, but it's time to read some of them again. I've just reserved Revelation Space from the library and I'm excited to get back on it! Hope you won't mind if I comment a bit here and there.
In that vein, one thing about the postulations about the early universe ignore the Quasar Boundary. I am wondering how Revelation Space will deal with this, if at all. Namely that roughly 500 million light years out, quasars start vanishing. The radiation from quasars would have made the universe up until then very hostile to carbon based lifeforms. This could mean the Cambrian Explosion, when lifeforms on Earth absolutely exploded in diversity and habitat colonization, was 500 million years ago: roughly coincident with the Quasar Boundary. I have tried to get attention for this elsewhere to no avail, and its actually my answer to the Fermi Paradox. I call it The Starting Gun Hypothesis. Namely, that all, or at least most, carbon based life was suppressed by quasar radiation until 500 million years ago. Roughly speaking, only 4% of the universe's existence would have allowed for any carbon based life to even begin evolving. That doesn't preclude some other life form we don't understand to have evolved during the era of quasar radiation, and even may have been dependent on it, but if we're waiting for something like us to show up we should think we all may be on a similar timeline.
Again, hope I'm not being too loquacious for you. Keep up the great work.
Why can't everything be as AWESOME as SCIENCE FICTION?!
Aaah! At last!!" You have followed my recommendation. Many thanks and RESPECT Mr Quinn!
In my 20's i got into science fiction audiobooks. I listened to alot of open domain books from older eras. They tended to have a bright and optimistic view of space. Think The Jetsons.
Then I found Revelation Space. It's gritty. Alot of mistrust, cheating and exploiting of humans. The lighthugger is probably one of the coolest "ghost" ships out there. Skylar Houseman... "I want you to pay attention so you fully understand what I'm about to do"
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream was my first sci-story. Just to rep aussie music, I’d also like to recommend Murder of the Universe, an album by KGTLW, it tells the story of a futuristic AI robot that plugs himself into a flesh body he builds, only to cascade and cause the vomit death of the universe. Wild shit.
@Quinn's Ideas: Long time watcher and I always try to make sure I give that thumb's up. I've enjoyed watching since you were discussing the HBO version of Game of Thrones. I have a simple question. Have you read any Fred Saberhagen? Book of Swords or the Berserker series are two good spots to start!
Glad to see more content on the Revelation Space universe! It's the setting for my favorite Alastair Reynolds short story: Diamond Dogs. I highly recommend it!
Quinn...I love ya...I love your channel...I will always be a loyal subscriber...but...the new intro that sounds like a bad version of the OG DR. WHO TV intro is an interesting choice! That being said, looks like I have a new book to add to the list!
Suggestion, Stephen Baxters Manifold trilogy.
What a nice soundscore
Quinn and others, I need help finding a the name of the series or author of a sci fi series unread long ago.
The aliens had a thing called “bhadur” if i remember right. Their society classes used this gift to pilot etc. But it was finite. Their bhadur would burn out. They found humans could take it and rejuvenate it then give it back. I cannot for the life of me recall the series or author. Help lol
Ah, this is another one that's been collecting dust on my shelf, giving me those guilt-inducing looks whenever I scan my sci-fi shelf.
Great vid and great shirt.
"Countless space faring civilizations. Numbering in the thousands."
> What?
This book or series of books sounds AMAZING!!
1) What’s the complete series called?
2) where can I find how to best read ie in what order? Release or chronological? I like reading as they were released
To answer your question about what started me read SF. It was Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke. This was when I was 13. Then I read Asimov’s Foundation. Then I read all other things they have written, and then more and more other authors. I could not wait for the books to come in the shops so I got to the company who printed the books and bought them there. At that time SF was quite popular in Sweden so it was translated. Not only from English but also Russian like the Strugatskij books. Then people started to like Fantasy more and that became what was translated, not SF. I have never been a big fan of Fantasy so I had to start reading books in English. Almost everything I read or watch are SF, preferably high tech with sense of wonder.
Nice new intro music!
I love these books, they're not the best things ever written or anything but Reynolds created one of my favourite universes, (probably second only to Peter F Hamilton's Nights Dawn universe) and it was one of the first series I read in my reading odyssey 20 years ago!
There's a new trailer for Dune 2 by the way!
Adding on to the Fermi paradox wuestion: a “successful” intelligence species/civilization will coexist with its environment, and would not have a need to to traverse the stars.
“Failed” civilization may be the ones with a cancer-like growth and resource consumption rate, forcing them to look for new hosts.
The Dawn War sounds similar to the War in Heaven, between the Necrontyr and the Old Ones, of the Warhammer 40k mythology, but only in terms of the level of destruction, not the reason behind the conflict
I'd have to say my favorite works of science fiction are "The War of the Worlds" and, my favorite book of all, "Starship Troopers"
I liked Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space when I came across it because you rarely see Scifi not have some form of FTL travel, so it was weird getting used to how Light-Huggers operated and how that changes how people think about everything we normally take for granted on a planetary scale. Jack L. Chalker's Wellworld series is what really made me a huge scifi fan. Also Ben Bova's Orion series, Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series and Keith Laumer's Bolo series. More recently I've got into David Weber's Honorverse and Peter F. Hamilton's Void and Commonwealth series.
God Damn-it....WHY won't these writers grow up ??? The whole story ruined in the very first sentence.
The merger of these galaxies is not projected to be disastrous. And even if it were, destroying starfaring civilizations for 4 billion years is just crazy. Perhaps the Inhibitor's programming was corrupted. Or their creators were insane
I agree with @QuinnsIdeas take on the Foundation novels vs the TV show. You basicly have to thinkn of the TV show as something completly diffrent. If you do then it's a rather enjoyable show. The only thing in common with the books are a few names.
I'm glad to see you covering this series. It's been one of my favorites for a long time!
I Read the first three as they came out. The way you've teased out The Dawn War, and how deep you went with The three body problem, I'm looking forward to your long-form Reynolds treatment. It's truly deserving. It's been a long time since I read it but one of the conjoiner antagonist I think her name is skade who computes herself into a space-time implosion always captured my imagination and it's a primary image I carry from the series I hope you elaborate on that cuz it was wild.
A suggestion for future, that almost works as an antidote to the three body problem, as it focuses on interesting and well thought out alien cultures that aren't necessarily *all* murderous, yet Earthclan is a poverty stricken newcomer in a hugely successful multi-galactic culture, who only evades species indenturement through sheer luck and pluckiness, and an untested galactic law presumption.
David Brin: Startide Rising/uplift war + the three Jijo books which complete the cycle. MASSIVE SPACE OPERA filled with fascinating, believable, thoroughly imagined cultures where humanity is constantly on the verge of being eaten alive by older aggressive, litigious races.🎉