7 ms·

People have different opinions. I think the label "hard sc-fi" is too fuzzy with everyone having their own expectations. Personally I found the books to be imme

People have different opinions. I think the label "hard sc-fi" is too fuzzy with everyone having their own expectations. Personally I found the books to be immensely entertaining. There's a number of very intriguing thought experiments. What happens when a ship is sliced in half by an almost infinitely strong piece of string? What if people were able to enter and move around in 4-dimensional space, or if 3D space suddenly collapsed to 2D? What could happen if the speed of light dropped to 16km/s?

schwartzworld 5y ago
Sure. Just like harry potter explores what happens if you have a cloak of deception or time turner. What would happen if Dementors invaded Hogwarts? Forgive me, I haven't actually read the whole series. I've never heard a definition of hard SF that didn't require some effort to make the science part sound plausible. It's one thing to not hold up to the scrutiny of experts, but there were a number of times I looked up from TBP and thought "that sounds wrong". If TBP is hard scifi than so is How To Train Your Dragon.
- chaps 5y ago
  You definitely wouldn't like ball lightning. It makes some... stretches.
  - Breza 5y ago
    Agreed, though it was a bit easier to follow since it's shorter. The ending could be interpreted as a prequel to TBP.
    - chaps 5y ago
      Oh yeah, in TBP, the translation notes noted some references to Ball Lightning, so they're definitely within the same universe.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  Perhaps we need a Mohs scale for sci-fi hardness then. TBP and the rest of the trilogy aren't hard in terms of fully valid science, or even in terms of Atomic Rocket's[0] rule of "one scientifically implausible item per story". But they aren't soft either, not like (say) Star Trek. It's something in between. -- [0] - http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval.php http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval....
  - gs17 5y ago
    TV Tropes has an article titled exactly "Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness" which is probably a good approximation of what you're thinking of.
- Barrin92 5y ago
  most 'hard science fiction' is essentially high concept fiction or science fiction that adopts a sociological frame. It is, and never really as been, about 'plausible science'. just take the posterboy of American hard SF, Arthur C. Clarke. (whose writing resembles Liu Cixin a lot). A lot of his stuff is straight up fantastical or cosmic. Childhood's end for example (sort of TBP like) or The City and the Stars. The science in either one isn't really plausible. Hard science fiction was always distinguished by ditching characters and traditional adventure or hero narratives for ideas. It was never about writing a physics PhD thesis.
- Scarblac 5y ago
  Perhaps forget the idea that it should be hard scifi then? Seems all your criticism is that some label doesn't apply to it.
- goatlover 5y ago
  It's not hard scifi, but so what? Most scifi isn't hard scifi. Ben Bova's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy would count, I think. Nothing too fantastical there, just an extrapolation of existing science and technology to terraforming Mars. But then you don't get any aliens or speculative technology that way. Which most future science fiction is interested in. That or robots and galactic colonization. Dune and Foundation are just as fantastical in their own way as a Remembrance of Earth's Past. And yet, they're classics and cornerstones of modern science fiction.
  - ChillyWater 5y ago
    Red/Green/Blue Mars is authored by Kim Stanley Robinson.
    - goatlover 5y ago
      Oh right. It's been a while since I read them. I have Robinson's 2312, which I guess is a sequel to the Mars trilogy. Has a train city running along the dark side on Mercury propelled by the sun on the light side expanding the tracks. I got distracted and never finished the story.
coremoff 5y ago
> What could happen if the speed of light dropped to 16km/s? I've not read the books, but I have read the synopsis, and when I read this bit I was somewhat surprised as there are so many things that break that new limit - would our electrical minds work at that speed? What would happen to electron orbitals? What happens to the stars orbiting the galaxy at ~200km/s ?

schwartzworld 5y ago

Sure. Just like harry potter explores what happens if you have a cloak of deception or time turner. What would happen if Dementors invaded Hogwarts? Forgive me, I haven't actually read the whole series. I've never heard a definition of hard SF that didn't require some effort to make the science part sound plausible. It's one thing to not hold up to the scrutiny of experts, but there were a number of times I looked up from TBP and thought "that sounds wrong". If TBP is hard scifi than so is How To Train Your Dragon.

chaps 5y ago
You definitely wouldn't like ball lightning. It makes some... stretches.
- Breza 5y ago
  Agreed, though it was a bit easier to follow since it's shorter. The ending could be interpreted as a prequel to TBP.
  - chaps 5y ago
    Oh yeah, in TBP, the translation notes noted some references to Ball Lightning, so they're definitely within the same universe.
TeMPOraL 5y ago
Perhaps we need a Mohs scale for sci-fi hardness then. TBP and the rest of the trilogy aren't hard in terms of fully valid science, or even in terms of Atomic Rocket's[0] rule of "one scientifically implausible item per story". But they aren't soft either, not like (say) Star Trek. It's something in between. -- [0] - http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval.php http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval....
- gs17 5y ago
  TV Tropes has an article titled exactly "Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness" which is probably a good approximation of what you're thinking of.
Barrin92 5y ago
most 'hard science fiction' is essentially high concept fiction or science fiction that adopts a sociological frame. It is, and never really as been, about 'plausible science'. just take the posterboy of American hard SF, Arthur C. Clarke. (whose writing resembles Liu Cixin a lot). A lot of his stuff is straight up fantastical or cosmic. Childhood's end for example (sort of TBP like) or The City and the Stars. The science in either one isn't really plausible. Hard science fiction was always distinguished by ditching characters and traditional adventure or hero narratives for ideas. It was never about writing a physics PhD thesis.
Scarblac 5y ago
Perhaps forget the idea that it should be hard scifi then? Seems all your criticism is that some label doesn't apply to it.
goatlover 5y ago
It's not hard scifi, but so what? Most scifi isn't hard scifi. Ben Bova's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy would count, I think. Nothing too fantastical there, just an extrapolation of existing science and technology to terraforming Mars. But then you don't get any aliens or speculative technology that way. Which most future science fiction is interested in. That or robots and galactic colonization. Dune and Foundation are just as fantastical in their own way as a Remembrance of Earth's Past. And yet, they're classics and cornerstones of modern science fiction.
- ChillyWater 5y ago
  Red/Green/Blue Mars is authored by Kim Stanley Robinson.
  - goatlover 5y ago
    Oh right. It's been a while since I read them. I have Robinson's 2312, which I guess is a sequel to the Mars trilogy. Has a train city running along the dark side on Mercury propelled by the sun on the light side expanding the tracks. I got distracted and never finished the story.

coremoff 5y ago

> What could happen if the speed of light dropped to 16km/s? I've not read the books, but I have read the synopsis, and when I read this bit I was somewhat surprised as there are so many things that break that new limit - would our electrical minds work at that speed? What would happen to electron orbitals? What happens to the stars orbiting the galaxy at ~200km/s ?