Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about this topic.\u00a0 What makes a great science fiction story?\u00a0 Can it be a great science fiction story if the story\u2019s not great?\u00a0 How about if the science isn\u2019t great?\u00a0 I think you know what I\u2019m saying.\u00a0 A great story, meaning great fiction, has characters drawn in a way that makes them compelling.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have to be Shakespeare but it can\u2019t be two-dimensional cut-outs that wouldn\u2019t make it through a toothpaste commercial.\u00a0 And by the same token, what if the science is just stupid?\u00a0 Sure, you can just say it\u2019s fantasy instead and then the sky\u2019s the limit.\u00a0 But let\u2019s stick to science fiction.<\/p>\n
When I was a kid, I would have said that \u201cgreat\u201d science fiction needed the science but the fiction was not that important.\u00a0 If there were enough star cruisers and anti-matter bombs and giant amoebas then all was right with the world.\u00a0 In fact, the fewer human relations involved in the story, the better.\u00a0 I was much more interested in the non-human characters acting \u201crealistic\u201d than any dialog between humans.\u00a0 And the male\/female dynamic was completely off the table.\u00a0 The last thing a Lensman needed before, during or after a battle was a woman getting in the way.<\/p>\n
Suffice it to say that time changes things.\u00a0 I look at some of the \u201cclassics\u201d of the golden age and I see a flatness to the story.\u00a0 Now, this isn\u2019t an all-encompassing criticism.\u00a0 There are plenty of stories from the day that have nuanced characters and plots that reflect actual human personality types.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s not black and white.<\/p>\n
Now, the modern literary science fiction has been described as having the opposite problem.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about human feelings and relations.\u00a0 What isn\u2019t as important is the \u201cscience.\u201d\u00a0 When that\u2019s the case I will just declare that if a story doesn\u2019t have any science at all then it isn\u2019t a great science fiction story because it isn\u2019t science fiction.\u00a0 Period.<\/p>\n
And without a doubt if a story has an exciting plot and memorable characters and also a clever science fiction premise then without a doubt it\u2019s great science fiction.<\/p>\n
So that leaves the other extreme.\u00a0 What if a story is built on incredibly imaginative science fiction plot devices but the characters are cardboard cut-outs of human beings?\u00a0 Can that be a great science fiction story?\u00a0 In this category the works of Arthur C Clarke comes to mind and specifically 2001: A Space Odyssey.\u00a0 Here is an epic tale stretching all the way from the dawn of Man to the first human interstellar voyage.\u00a0 And yet the most human character in the book is HAL9000; a schizophrenic homicidal computer.\u00a0 Now, is it an interesting story?\u00a0 Well, yeah.\u00a0 There are cave men and monoliths and moon bases and worm holes.\u00a0 But honestly, do you find yourself rooting for anyone?\u00a0 There\u2019s just something so inhumanly stolid and wooden about everyone in the story that I feel that each one being murdered by HAL might be his happiest moment.\u00a0 At least liveliest.<\/p>\n
But anyway, I want to pose this as a question.\u00a0 Can a technically engrossing sf story be considered great if the characters are ciphers?\u00a0 What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about this topic.\u00a0 What makes a great science fiction story?\u00a0 Can it be a great science fiction story if the story\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,2510,1263,237,4,242],"tags":[4439,266,76,265],"class_list":["post-35441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-literature","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-2001-a-space-odyssey","tag-arthur-c-clarke","tag-fiction-writing","tag-science-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\n