Well, I’ve entered a really busy time not only in my authorial world, but also in my regular day job. The novella I’m working on is going well and I just received back beta comments that have forced me to take a closer look at the story. Nothing I can’t handle. All I need now is the ability to stop time!
This week, I wanted to point you in the direction of great post by lovely author, Roz Morris, who is asking if we have forgotten what science fiction is. I commented and here’s what I had to say.
For me, science fiction is all about creating a reality (not fantasy)world that doesn’t exist yet. That can be achieved through human interaction or technology, but preferably both. A story heavily immersed in technology is usually referred to as hard science fiction. I don’t read it and I’m a science fiction nut who also happens to write SF. My preference is softer sci fi and I get my fix through different means: television and films.
I agree that a book like the Martian is at the lower end of what we regard as sci fi, but it is still sci fi as people haven’t travelled to Mars or lived there for any length of time. In 20 years, it may be classed as fiction. I also have no problem with books creating new worlds/planets, because I have done the same in my own fiction. But it’s nicer when there’s an attempt to create something out of the ordinary to make readers think.
It’s easy to say what science fiction should be, but what does it mean to those who enjoy the genre? Should we specifically define a genre at all as one bookseller in the comments suggested we do? Should readers not choose what it is they want to read? The post got a lot of responses! Here’s a snippet. You can read the full article by clicking on the link below.
What makes a story science fiction? Is it an otherworldly location, the science, the time in which it is set?
I’m thinking about this because of a review I saw this week of a novel billed in The Times as science fiction, which sounded rather disappointing – and it’s put me on a bit of a mission.
I haven’t read the book so it would be wrong of me to name it, but it concerned a new planet populated by humanlike aliens. The main threads are the bringing of God to the indigenous people, and the exploitation of its resources by mining companies.
It seemed this story could have been set anywhere. The human challenges were no different from those in a historical novel. The other-world setting didn’t add anything fresh, except maybe to save the writer some research. (I see a lot of science fiction – and fantasy – novels that are written for this reason. If you invent the world, you can’t be accused of getting it wrong.)
But shouldn’t we be doing something better with science fiction (and fantasy)?
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