Broadening someone's sci-fi horizons

[Vormaerin]

CJ Cherryh's Merchanter books are very Traveller, but they are novels rather than Short Stories. They aren't generally very long, but they are novels. Merchanter's Luck is a great free trader story.

Poul Anderson's Polysotechnic League stories are a collection of short stories (several of them). John Falkayn is probably more approachable than Nicholas Van Rijn.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Andre Norton has some good ones too.

 

[mavikfelna]

I love almost all of these.
For the traveller merchant princes out there, might I add the Tales of the Solar Clippers universe by Nathan Lowell. Fantastic slice of life stories. The Captain Wang books are pretty much him going through character gen as adventure and the Run trilogy is basically a Scout and Merchant having adventures.

 

[Absinthe]

Some of Asimov's short stories. The Singing Bell is very good and is easy to make into an adventure for the Travellers.

 

[CordwainerFish]

In the film department, I'd pick Outland. Sure, the plot is straight up Western - it's consciously a remake of High Noon. But it is an excellent depiction of space as an uncomfortable, dangerous place to work but hey, a guy's got to make a living.

CJ Cherryh's Merchanter books are very Traveller, but they are novels rather than Short Stories.

I flat out adore Cherryh - meeting her was the intellectual analogue of a street tough meeting Bruce Lee [1] but entirely cordial - but at the end of every one of her novels I feel thoroughly exhausted and not entirely certain of what just happened. Which is appropriate because that's also how her protagonist feels at that point. (In the last act of one of her books one character manages to ride a subway and it's described like an explorer hacking his way through the Darien Gap, and due to his background it's about that astounding a feat.)

She has written some short fiction, but it's not very like the Union/Alliance/Compact stories. (Some of them are explicitly set in that continuum, but in a faraway place and are not in the least bit Travellery. They can also only be comprehended by reading several other stories by several other authors, in parallel.)

[1] I was not Bruce Lee.

 

[rinku]

I'll also suggest Bujold, but if the military side of things isn't her bag maybe go with the same entry point I stumbled into and start with Komarr? I went back and filled it in the other books, but Lois deliberately wrote Komarr as an alternative entry point, and there's a phase change in the series between Mercenary Miles and Inquisitor Miles.

Stainless Steel Rat is another worth reading. Now THAT's a book that really deserves a screen version. They could literally use the 2000AD comic as a storyboard!

(And yes, I am aware it was optioned during Harry's lifetime and sank in development hell)

 

[paltrysum]

In my Traveller campaign I have a player whose exposure to Science-Fiction has been limited to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm looking for recommendations for DVDs to watch that might broaden those horizons. I'm thinking of Serenity or Firefly but I am open to other suggestions.

You said DVDs, so I'll assume you specifically want film, not books.

• For the urban feel on high-population worlds, Bladerunner and its sequel Bladerunner 2049.
• The Alien films and recent show for the gritty feel of starships and the depersonalized feel of civilized space. Aliens is good military sci-fi. A lot of people hate Alien: Resurrection, but the pirate crew does have the feel of a group of shady Travellers. Alien: Covenant is quite good and captures some of the dangers of planetary colonization.
• Firefly captures the essence of Traveller, which others have cited.
• Outland, a 1981 space western starring Sean Connery captures the feel well.
• For actual westerns that could be Travellerized, see Silverado, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Magnificent Seven (the original, not the crappy remake).
• Starship Troopers, the 1997 Verhoeven film is a little dated, but pretty good military sci-fi and mimics the deadliness of Traveller combat well.
• The imagery and technology in the recent Foundation TV series was good even if the execution was a little off.
• The Expanse TV series is an excellent Traveller primer.
• Dark Matter is Travelleresque.
• Raised by Wolves was weird and interesting, but sadly got cancelled after only two seasons. Worth a watch.

 

[Condottiere]

I'd say Lower Decks, but you need to have watched some Star Trek to appreciate the humour.