tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-437730534870026306.post6088374470660952515..comments2023-10-02T03:52:13.931-04:00Comments on Saving My Sanity for Posterity: Five Things on Friday - Intro to Sci Fi EditionJessihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00777169606653222027noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-437730534870026306.post-89141875525843457562013-02-11T09:09:38.209-05:002013-02-11T09:09:38.209-05:00Suze - Hunger Games is totally Sci Fi. And awesome...Suze - Hunger Games is totally Sci Fi. And awesome. You should re-read Ender's Game and the new series (starting with Ender's Shadow). They are so good. I've never read Anna Karenina, although it's somewhere on my list.Jessihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00777169606653222027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-437730534870026306.post-69660524992238096112013-02-10T20:16:18.976-05:002013-02-10T20:16:18.976-05:00This isn't normally my genre. Would you call H...This isn't normally my genre. Would you call Hunger Games Sci Fi? I think I would, and I loved those books. And Ender's Game rocked, though I read it in high school and don't really remember it now. My mom read The Sparrow, which is kind of a stretch for her.<br /><br />I'm deep into Anna Karenina now, which isn't SciFi of course, but I'm liking it a LOT more than I thought I would.Suzehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05090954944438450837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-437730534870026306.post-78165466640123715752013-02-09T17:22:45.956-05:002013-02-09T17:22:45.956-05:00Good suggestions. I guess I have a pretty open con...Good suggestions. I guess I have a pretty open concept of plausible, though.Jessihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00777169606653222027noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-437730534870026306.post-76074576902064839242013-02-09T10:58:55.361-05:002013-02-09T10:58:55.361-05:00One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to ...<i>One of the biggest roles of science fiction is to prepare people to accept the future without pain and to encourage a flexibility of mind. </i> -Arthur C. Clarke<br /><br />For me personally, what makes Sci-Fi Sci-Fi (or as Clarke would have preferred to call it SF), is plausibility. <br /><br />A general rule of thumb for SF writers is that you are permitted one impossible thing (faster than light travel, instantaneous communication, etc.)and then everything else needs to be rooted into reality. Star Wars is clearly fantasy. Greg Bear novels are clearly SF. <br /><br />As for your question, what SF novels that work well for the uninitiated, I have a few suggestions. <br /><br />A Greg Bear novel. EON, Blood Music and Darwin's Radio are all excellent choices. EON will blow your mind on the scale of the universe. Darwin's Radio is a navel gazing exercise that humbles you and shocks you at our potential. Blood Music.... well Blood Music is so shockingly weird, beautiful and scary that forever after, whenever you hear about improvements in nanotechnology, your skin will crawl a little. <br /><br />Almost any Heinlein. He was an arrogant ass, but damn he is fun. Juball in Stranger in a Strange Land is still to this day who I strive to be like when I grow up. <br /><br />The Doomsday Book. Not only does it encapsulate the SF rule of only one impossible thing (a time machine) but is the best history lesson you will ever receive on life in the 14th century. <br /><br />I am going to gone a limb and suggest something that verges on fantasy, but it does only possess one impossible thing. Zombies. World War Z by Max Brooks offers such a refreshing and unique take on the genre that it is tragic that Hollywood is going to butcher it in a few months. Strangeitenoreply@blogger.com