With the death earlier this year of Arthur C Clarke, the last of science fiction's Golden Age giants, and with mainstream literature becoming increasingly speculative and futuristic, is science fiction as a genre dying out?They have a page where you can vote for your favorite science fiction book. Naturally, I might have a few suggestions of folks who should be on their radar.We plan to explore this question in a special edition of New Scientist out on 15 November – as well as reviewing the best new science fiction books and talking to some of the world's leading writers.
Friday, October 03, 2008
The Future of Science Fiction
The New Scientist is devoting an entire issue to the Future of Science Fiction. They write:
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3 comments:
Great link for the NS vote.
I voted Use of Weapons which so far stood the test of time - in the 15 years since I've read it originally I reread it 10-20 times and I still enjoy it a lot each time.
I am curious in another 15 years if I would still take UoW as top, but right now the only novel I can see competing with it is Anathem - but though I've read it 5 times since I snagged an arc in July it is too early to fully assess it, I can only say that it is a once in a decade novel for now since it is all about what sf is and is great fun and an easy read once you get what's what - and on top of that it has a super-twist a la UoW too :)
If it were a series Night Dawn would take my top spot and again it's a series I've reread several times, 3000 pages and all, and it stood the test of time well so far
You have read Anathem 5 times since July? And that's not the only thing you've read since then either I'm betting. Man, you make me weep. Reading Anathem would probably take me to next July.
The first 300 pages have a somewhat steep learning curve - though for me it was more of understanding the equivalences between Arbre and Earth than the ideas themselves - I read quite a few science books on those topics including the superb but difficult Road to Reality by Roger Penrose which makes a great companion to Anathem btw - after that it's just an easy, fun though with tragedy and suspense too ride to the end.
Someone put a sound bite of Anathem being JK Rowling meets Plato and while I would add Penrose to the mix since the natural philosophy in the book is thoroughly modern, I kind of agree with that. Harri Potter for adults, though here our hero is just an enterprising apprentice of the world saving wizards
Watch the 2 minute book trailer since it has several scenes from the book, the actors playing the characters are exactly how I would imagine them and is superb overall
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=41718483
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