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Well said. Great science fiction keeps the technology in the background and simply uses it to further the story. But excellent science fiction makes the plot
by Cyph0n 9y ago
Well said.
Great science fiction keeps the technology in the background and simply uses it to further the story.
But excellent science fiction makes the plot so believable that the tech just seems natural. My go-to example of such sci-fi is Solaris. I think it's much harder to achieve this in a single novel because it's typically less annoying to the reader when exposition is spread over multiple novels.
Examples of the former (in my opinion): Ender series, The Forever War, Xenogenesis series, Contact, Nexus.
Examples of the latter: Red Rising, Foundation, The Expanse, Three Body series, Ghost in the Shell (Japanese manga).
- sametmax 9y agoOr the excellent book "carbon altered", which they adapted this year as an beautiful tv show. In this novel, people can be immortal and that's almost like saying the can buy bread or drive cars. Of course it gives opportunities for a great plot. But even better, the civilization that is being built on top of that is very interesting.
- CodeMage 9y ago"Altered Carbon" is a great book and a mediocre TV show, precisely because the book explores the effect of its fictional technology on society, whereas the TV show mostly focuses on shiny visuals. I wholeheartedly recommend the book to anyone interested in exploring what our society might look like if we were to achieve our dreams of immortality.
- CodeMage 9y agoMy favorite sci-fi and fantasy books are those that come up with a world different from ours and then take that difference and explore its effects on society. I'd like to offer some examples: - "Hello Summer, Goodbye" by Michael Coney - "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood (the first book in the Maddaddam trilogy) - "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin (the first book in the Broken Earth trilogy) - "The Mechanical" by Ian Tregillis (the first book in the Alchemy Wars trilogy) - "Nexus" by Ramez Naam (the first book in the Nexus trilogy) - "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson - "Pandora's Star" by Peter F. Hamilton (part of the Commonwealth Saga) - "Hyperion" and "Fall of Hyperion" by Dan Simmons - "Lock In" by John Scalzi - "Blindsight" by Peter Watts
- Cyph0n 9y agoGreat list! I've read only a couple of them. Hyperion was intriguing but Fall of Hyperion was too slow for my tastes. Snowcrash was great. One of my favorite audiobook narrations too! You might also like Malazan Book of the Fallen and Discworld. Malazan especially is a masterpiece of world and history building. Oh, and the Ghost in the Shell series would definitely be a great fit for you. A good start would be the original animated film from the mid-90s. If you enjoy that, jump to the anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
- CodeMage 9y agoThanks, I'm already a huge fan of Discworld, but I'll definitely give Malazan a try!
- eesmith 9y agoI thought "Pandora's Star" did a poor job of exploring the effects on society. For a culture that is 350 or so years in the future, it felt remarkably like the 20th century, and in some cases 20th century suburbia. Part of the reason is that several of the main characters are from the 20th century. I rolled my eyes when one of the characters, when starting up a plane, said something like "atomic batteries to power; turbines to speed. ... I've been waiting a long time to say that."
- Abraxhas 9y agoThanks, great list.
- ratbr 9y agoI found E M Forster’s novella “The Machine Stops” in the same league as the above: it is about the human condition, and technology is just a setup to talk about that.