Just wondering if anyone here is an avid sci-fi reader, or has any experience writing the genre. If you do let me know, I may pick your brain about a few things.
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Just wondering if anyone here is an avid sci-fi reader, or has any experience writing the genre. If you do let me know, I may pick your brain about a few things.
not quite avid, but I do like Arthur C Clarke, and have read some stuff.
Any one of the late Ursula Le Guin's books. If you haven't read any of them start with the dispossessed.
Academically, the Dune series, even the ones written by his son are really good, on a purely entertainment level though the pacing sucks, and their length are incredibly long, very lore heavy, but at the end of the day they're really good.
I like sci-fi, though not nearly as much as fantasy; I’ll admit that don’t have enough real grasp of the harder sciences to write anything beyond soft sci-fi, but I’ve made some efforts. Have you read the Chanur novels? I’d recommend them. Ray Bradbury is also excellent, but I think that’s common knowledge.
My brother might have a better grasp of the genre, come to think of it.
I've dabbled and read some of the core - what are you looking for Breaker?
I like sci-fi, but I lean towards space opera and trashy cyberpunk.
Hey, this is cool! I wasn't expecting to get so many responses. I guess I'll just throw a few questions up here and y'all can respond at your leisure. I'm sort of dipping my toes into science fiction with a paranormal thriller I'm currently writing. All you really need to know is; alien vampires.
1. What do you like best about science fiction? What attracts you to the genre and what keeps you coming back to it?
2. How much explanation of technology do you prefer? Is it enough to understand what's happening, or do you tend to want a scientific explanation for how things work?
3. Is there anything you dislike about science fiction, or any pitfalls to the genre you think a writer should avoid?
All responses are appreciated! I may come up with other questions but even just a few answers to number 1 would be helpful.
1. What do you like best about science fiction? What attracts you to the genre and what keeps you coming back to it? There used to be a formula to SciFi it went Story and Characters first, Social Commentary second. Two good examples are Dune, and Star Trek . In this way SciFi gave glimpses of the future, or possible futures, from the technological utopia of Star Trek, to the more realistic Babylon 5 it's always what might be. Also big damn explosions!
2. How much explanation of technology do you prefer? Is it enough to understand what's happening, or do you tend to want a scientific explanation for how things work? It all depends, I don't know how a light saber works to know it's cool, on the other hand I want to know why a civilization capable of building a Dyson sphere would want to.
3. Is there anything you dislike about science fiction, or any pitfalls to the genre you think a writer should avoid? Ok in reference to my response in question one, modern scifi has turned the formula on its head where now you have at Political Agenda first, followed by social commentary then in a dead, did not finish last place story/characters. You now have weak stories, thinly veiled rants, and the social commentary is decidedly biased. Also slow paced and plodding discussions and technobabble.
1. What do you like best about science fiction? What attracts you to the genre and what keeps you coming back to it?
I'm a big fan of the 'just over the horizon' or the 'terminal' type of sci-fi. A reason I loved Arthur C Clarke is because he wasn't afraid to dream BIG about his sci-fi. Moving stars? child's play! On the other hand, there are more tame examples of sci-fi where it's sort of just beyond humanity's technology to dream or imagine. Most of that sci-fi is more humanity with a twist, but still, it feels nice to look at certain writing and plot devices through the lens of a subtle shift.
2. How much explanation of technology do you prefer? Is it enough to understand what's happening, or do you tend to want a scientific explanation for how things work?
I prefer more explanation, but the thing I like most is an idea that I haven't encountered before. This might be because at heart, I'm really interested in how things work, but still. one of the more major differences between sci-fi and fantasy (in my humble opinion) is that sci-fi has more explanation as to how things got done. Those big ships? they need yuuuuuge shipyards. it always helped in my mind to establish just how huge or transcendent or incredible the technologies of the day are, and make comparisons to those feeble men who could barely split the atom and such. At least for me in high sci-fi.
3. Is there anything you dislike about science fiction, or any pitfalls to the genre you think a writer should avoid?
Eh, I have encountered pieces of writing where the explanation is shallow, and it just seems like magic with some set dressing, but that's a minor concern I think.