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An aside about the article's author. His blog is very interesting and full of fantastic articles that will delight a science fiction fan, especially for those w
by cambalache 7y ago
An aside about the article's author. His blog is very interesting and full of fantastic articles that will delight a science fiction fan, especially for those who like their SF combined with "high" literature. He writes thoughtfully also on the craft of being an SF writer, showing discipline and care. Given all of that, I was really looking forward to read his first novel. Well, I wish I hadn't done it. It was terrible in almost every aspect: Pace, dialogue, characters, plot, and prose. It goes to show for the n-th time that to theorize about a topic is a very different skill that to practice it well.
- square_usual 7y agoOften theorizing about something makes it much harder to do it, because you get bogged down by constantly thinking about how bad what you're doing is.
- chongli 7y agoWhat sets science fiction apart from high literature is that it tends to emphasize the novum, that new idea or technology that distinguished the setting from the real world, at the expense of characterization. It’s any ideas, not people. Literary fiction is the opposite. It’s about people, their relationships and struggles, situated in reality. It tends not to deal with high concept counterfactuals which are the bread and butter of science fiction.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]