Ask Lemmy

I wouldn't say it was my favourite FTL but it has some interesting implications.

The artificial wormholes of The Algebraist by Ian Banks. I can't say too much if you haven't already read it, but it's artificial wormholes that have to be transported sublight.

All the new wormholes are of course lovely and high capacity, but much of the network is still the original tiny little ones first installed. So your military at least uses kilometer long needle ships that can fit through these small points.

Think fitting an aircraft carrier through a Stargate.

My favourite one is Red Dwarf when they see the future. Requires a fair amount of "dont think about it" but its still a great plot.

I like the kind where they didn't try to explain it. Trying to show how they make their sausage never works out well. I can suspend disbelief for FTL but not for their stupid explanations

in mass effect, the core can manipulate the mass of a surrounding ship, making lightspeed travel possible.

The Infinite Probability Drive from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

I liked the wormholes from the Bobbyverse. You had instantaneous travel across interstellar distances but you had to get there via slower than light speed first. So no matter how technologically advanced you became your interstellar civilisation still grew at a rate of one or two systems per decade.

Hyperdrives, sg1,sga,sgu. wormholes, and interdimensional teleportation, bsg is one such one. Warp is basically just "manipulating the space around it, using subspace(an alternate dimension for both sg1 and star trek). apparently its the slowest form of ftl. compartively to the likes of borg. even caretaker has a very advanced intergalactic ftl( interdimensional rift) later in sg1,sga, they have access to intergalatic hyperdrives which are superior to interstellar ones. with hyperdrives they arnt restricted to the limit of travelling faster than light speed in the normal universe. they explained hyperspace does not have such a limit, and isnt subjected to time dilation effects of approaching close or faster than light speed.

it seems ftl that requires traveling through a medium like warp hyperspace have limitation of power requirements and engine designs. Teleportation seems dont have that limit, aside from power requirements.

trek also have other form of quirky ftl, like the vortex drive of the xindi, coaxial and the rift generation. most other shows use teleportation, or interdimensional portals.

Recently read Hayden’s World and there’s some FTL in there that (mostly) obeys relativity and the associated time dilation issues, so that was fun to see. Also, a generally unpleasant experience for the humans on the craft. Otherwise I liked KSR’s Red/Blue/Green Mars, how the story developed travel technology organically on a timeline.

I love the Farcaster network of the World Web from Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos (for anyone who hasnt read the books, they're essentially frameless stargates that are always on). Such a cool concept of being able to build a series of them linking the main commercial streets of the biggest cities on different planets together; thus making one gigantic and near endless market across hundreds of worlds... and anyone can just walk from one planet to another across hundreds or thousands of light years.

What I really like about that book series though is that the Farcasters are not the only means of FTL... and that there are sound reasons to use another method over them OR even to oppose your planet getting connected to the Farcaster network. Just seriously good world building.

The exact mechanics are never explained, but I’ve always loved “fenestering” in David Zindell’s Neverwhere and Requiem For Homo Sapiens trilogy.

A pilot, in a one-person “lightship”, interfaces with their computer, merging their minds into one. They then solve maths equations which have never been solved before and prove new mathematical theories. This opens up a window underneath the ship, which it falls in to, into hyperspace. They then need to do more novel maths to open up the window to where they’re going and fall through that.

It’s weird and it’s nerdy and it’s poetic and it’s mystical, like everything in the books, and it’s just so incredibly cool.

Does L space in the Discworld novels count?

The Mirrors in Book of the New Sun. Basic idea is to surround yourselves with mirrors until you create an infinity room and then, through 'exactly aligned' lights, the light waves don't cancel out but instead 'push' objects out of the universe, returning at the destination when the light slows down to universal speeds.