Re:The aesthetics of science fiction spaceship design
by zlynx on Monday September 03, 2018 @02:09PM
(#17904035)
I liked that bit where the ship's Mind is replaying the battle in slow motion for the humans.
As I remember the story, the actual battle was a loud bang and a violent jerk.
Re:The aesthetics of science fiction spaceship design
by skookumchuck on Sunday September 02, 2018 @10:34PM
(#17899895)
> a close quarters battle is over in seconds
Reminds of Hollywood sword fights, where it's clang-clang-clang back and forth and leaping about. A real sword fight is two moves.
I'm also a big fan of the Culture series by Iain Banks, it's a lot of high-high-high-tech technobabble, but he gets some physical basics right, it doesn't matter if your ships is enormously more technologically advanced than someone else's, if they can project enough energy onto you, you will be vaporized. He also gets the timescales and distances correctly, because none of it runs on a human decision-making timescale, it's all sentient weapons and AI's, so a close quarters battle is over in seconds.