# Science fiction in the 1990's



## phase38 (Oct 6, 2006)

Interested in finding out about major works of sci fi in the 1990's.

A lot of influential sci fi stems from earlier... but I was interested in which pieces of science fiction are important to you guys.. from 1990 - 2000. Can be anything .. books, films, etc etc.


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## iratebeaver (Oct 6, 2006)

the 1990's hmm... did alien come out then?


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## shadow9d9 (Oct 6, 2006)

Star Trek:TNG came out in 1987 and ran a lot in the 90s along with its movies.. Stargate came out in the 90s, Farscape and DS9 came out in the 90s.  Quantum Leap ran partly in the 90s.


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## Harpo (Oct 6, 2006)

iratebeaver said:
			
		

> the 1990's hmm... did alien come out then?


Alien was late 70s


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## williamjm (Oct 7, 2006)

I think Babylon 5 is probably the most important TV series, showing how to do an arc-based science fiction story on a grand scale. Star Trek TNG was also important, without it a lot of the 1990s science fiction would never have been made, although it did start in the late 80s so maybe doesn't count. 

In terms of films I can't think of all that 1990s science fiction films that really stand, although The Matrix was certainly influential despite being partially a case of style-over-substance. 

Books? There was a mini-revival of the Space Opera genre with excellent books like Vernor Vinge's "Fire Upon The Deep" and "Deepness in the Sky" and Iain M Banks' "Culture" books. If we're including Fantasy as well then George RR Martin's "A Song Of Ice and Fire" series has to be mentioned as well.


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## mightymem (Oct 8, 2006)

Ben Bova series Great tour of the Solar System is very important to the genre as many of his visions of the future are actual possible, not all but many.


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## shadow9d9 (Oct 8, 2006)

williamjm said:
			
		

> I think Babylon 5 is probably the most important TV series, showing how to do an arc-based science fiction story on a grand scale. Star Trek TNG was also important, without it a lot of the 1990s science fiction would never have been made, although it did start in the late 80s so maybe doesn't count.
> 
> In terms of films I can't think of all that 1990s science fiction films that really stand, although The Matrix was certainly influential despite being partially a case of style-over-substance.
> 
> Books? There was a mini-revival of the Space Opera genre with excellent books like Vernor Vinge's "Fire Upon The Deep" and "Deepness in the Sky" and Iain M Banks' "Culture" books. If we're including Fantasy as well then George RR Martin's "A Song Of Ice and Fire" series has to be mentioned as well.



Babylon 5 is great if you like awful acting and awful writing!


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## phase38 (Oct 10, 2006)

Actually.. PD James wrote Children of Men in the nineties didnt she...


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## j d worthington (Oct 10, 2006)

phase38 said:
			
		

> Actually.. PD James wrote Children of Men in the nineties didnt she...


 
It was published in 1993, anyway....


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## phase38 (Oct 10, 2006)

She`s a mystery writer... well, a writer of mystery to put it correctly. Is this her first sci fi?


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## Milk (Oct 10, 2006)

The Hyperion Saga by Dan Simmons was written in the 90's,also William Gibson books. Also Neal Stephenson books.
The 90's is when I first started seeing 'cyberpunk' books crop up. William Gibson is considered to have started Cyberpunk novels... which to me means virtual landscapes and hackers and etc.

As far as movies or TV, nothing from the 90's comes to mind really, except possibly Johhny Mnuemonic which is Gibson based anyhow so thats redundant, oh yeah Terminator 2 was good actually . It might be my favorite decade for Sci-books but worse one for Sci-Fi movies and TV.


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## Loner (Oct 11, 2006)

Oh definitely William Gibson and Neal Stephenson.
And heaven forbid we should forget HARRY POTTER!

In terms of TV a lot of stuff was coming out which wasn't always groundbreaking but was making Sci-fi more generally acceptable : 
Stargate SG1
Dark Skies
Futurama
Space : Above & Beyond
Babylon 5
X-Files
SeaQuest DSV  
Quantum Leap
Sliders
Angel
Buffy 
Charmed 


For a good list of movies and books from 1990 - 2000 see : http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/timeline2000.html#90sFilms


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## manephelien (Oct 16, 2006)

Harry Potter is pure fantasy, but it did and does introduce lots of new people to the genre, so it it's good. However, it's not science-fiction.

Babylon 5 was pretty groundbreaking in that it had a planned 5-year story arc. It's unfortunate there were only 13 Crusade episodes released, it had the potential to be just as good.

Roswell marginally qualifies, as it started in 1999.

P.D. James hasn't written any other science-fiction since Children of Men, but she's one of my favorite mystery writers.


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## phase38 (Oct 24, 2006)

Cheers for all the replies.. some interesting stuff.


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## Parson (Oct 24, 2006)

How can we talk about influencial SF in the nineties without mentioning David Weber, who might just be the most read of the lot? He is about the only author I regularly purchase the hard cover edition being unwilling to wait for the paperback to come out. 

If I could choose a charcter that I would like to be in SF it would be Honor Harrington.


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## Ian Whates (Oct 26, 2006)

A few years back, I compiled a list of what I perceived to be the classic SF novels, going all the way back to 1818 for Shelly's Frankenstein and up to the then current day (about 2002). This was all for a projected web site that never happened. Others will doubtless have different opinions, but this is what I came up with for the period 1990 - 2000:

1990 *THE FALL OF HYPERION *DAN SIMMONS
1990 *EARTH* DAVID BRIN
1991 *JURASSIC**PARK*MICHAEL CRICHTON
1992 *DOOMSDAY BOOK *CONNIE WILLIS
1992 *A FIRE UPON THE DEEP *VERNOR VINGE
1992 *RED MARS *KIM STANLEY ROBINSON
1992 *SNOW CRASH *NEAL STEPHENSON
1992 *QUARANTINE *GREG EGAN
1994 *VURT *JEFF NOON
1994 *FOREIGNER *C.J. CHERRYH
1994 *MIRROR DANCE *LOIS McMASTER BUJOLD
1995 *FAIRYLAND *PAUL J. McCAULEY
1995 *THE TERMINAL EXPERIMENT *ROBERT J. SAWYER
1996 *SPARES *MICHAEL MARSHALL SMITH
1996 *THE DIAMOND AGE *NEAL STEPHENSON
1996 *HONOR AMONG ENEMIES *DAVID WEBER
1997 *FRAME SHIFT *ROBERT J. SAWYER
1998 *THE SPARROW *MARY DORIA RUSSELL
1999 *DREAMING IN SMOKE *TRICIA SULLIVAN
1999 *DARWIN**’S RADIO *GREG BEAR
1999 *TIME *STEPHEN BAXTER
1999 *A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY *VERNOR VINGE 
2000 *REVELATION SPACE *ALASTAIR REYNOLDS


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## phase38 (Oct 27, 2006)

Some interesting stuff on there Ian


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