Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
I consider it a win when SF (particularly on TV, but books do it as well) actually acknowledges distances in space and that it takes a long time to get anywhere at reasonable speeds, TBH! It also depends what sort of SF we're talking about. If we're talking the sort of super-powered tech we see in Iain M. Banks' Culture books (where, just to give a simple example, a ship hides from its enemies by staying in the outer layers of the system's star) then I'm happy to let that ride, because the entire setting has that sort of ridiculous stuff happening. Conversely, something like the Expanse works best when it's at its most realistic (albeit the Epstein drive is still pretty much magic).
While it's been a while since I've read a Culture book, I do remember hat their sublight engines weren't quite so insane, I'd have pegged them at mu;tiplr gs but probaby not undreds. Also I believe the hiding inside the star was a 'wth moment' in-universe as well, and that most civilisations that have reached that level die before putting it into practice.

But like, you can acknowledge distance without being quite so insane.

Quote Originally Posted by Cazero View Post
Ho, please. Energy is a non-issue when compared to the fact that this would kill all of your human crew almost instantly.
Space magic, Or 'inertial damping'.

Which Revelation Space actually has, but it also points out that unless you absolutely perfect it it'll probably be very uncomfortable and you might just want to deal with the higher acceleration you've snagged out of affecting part of your ship. instead of messing with your own inertia.