# Favorite kind of sci-fi?



## Guest (Aug 3, 2011)

What is your favorite kind of sci-fi? What elements do you look for? What kind of tone do you enjoy? How much science do you like and how much fantasy do you want?


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## OldGrumpy (Mar 21, 2011)

I dont know what 'tone' i'm looking for, but characters that you can distinguish between, wether you like them or not, you have to know the diffrence between them. 
I dont know exactly, but some form of movement, with distances  in. So that all is not just going on in one small area like a crime story/romance. 

Also since i've startet with indie books, i feel it's important that the story have developing story from different persons/groups, and not just a start to end story seen from one person, it pulls it down for me, and gets boring. 
I want to know it's fantasy or sci-fi, i as a rule dont want to mix these two too much. 

Well, for my top list of best sci-fi book you can probably see what i mean: 

Dune, Frank Herbert, not the other ones in the series. 
The Player of games, Iain M. Banks
Surface Details, Iain M. Banks. 
Now Wait for last year, Philip K. Dick

These are the ones that stand strongest in my memory of best Sci-fi.


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## Straker (Oct 1, 2010)

I like what is commonly known as "space opera," although I also enjoy some works by Mieville, Stephenson, Gaiman etc. which are sometimes characterized as "The New Weird." I avoid dystopian or post-apocalyptic novels. Both genres have been done to death.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I don't think that I have one favorite kind. I've enjoyed light, humorous books with minimal "real" science, such as Harry Harrison's "Stainless Steel Rat" books, but I've also enjoyed highly scientific books such as Robert L Forward's _Dragon's Egg_. I loved Roger Zelazny's science fiction novels that were much more about character, tone, and style than they were about the science, which was just assumed to work (and often was difficult to discern from magic). Sometimes I just enjoy a rollicking space opera that assumes we'll somehow crack the light speed barrier, as will several other intelligent races in our galaxy.

About the only thing that gives me some trouble (outside of just plain poor writing) is science fiction that depends on pseudo-scientific things such as ESP, as for my understanding of all the solid scientific study in such fields, that is really fantasy, rather than science. It's really just a personal prejudice of mine, as I have enjoyed other mixtures of fantasy and sci-fi (see Zelazny again), but for some reason "psi" powers in contemporary science fiction tend to reduce my willing suspension of disbelief.

Also, because of the lemons life has been handing me, I'm currently not in the market for stories dealing with largely dystopian futures.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

I love learning more about the biological details of other off-world species and other civilizations & societies..what makes them work, what doesnt work (including day-to-day details)? I love future Earth scenarios. I like futuristic technology, not as much into warfare. I also like stories where different sentient species/planets/civilizations have first contact or develop relationships. I like intergalactic anthropology.

I'd like to keep the fantasy out of it as much as possible. I like things to at least to attempt to be based in plausible science as much as possible.


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## dielenator (Aug 3, 2011)

I'm a hard sci-fi fan. My favorite sci-fi, or perhaps better called, speculative fiction, is not so much authors, but specific books. One of my all time favorites is Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's The Ice Limit. I also enjoyed Titan by Stephen Baxter. Jurrasic Park my Michael Crichton is another.


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## Libby13 (Jul 31, 2011)

I've been experimenting with reading sci-fi.  I'm easily entertained in spec fic realm.  I don't mind a lot of science as long as the info dumps are well placed.  I'm having a hard time with Heinlein but enjoy Philip K Dick.  I like Douglas Adams (does he count?).  I have some Orson Scott Card to try next.


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## jason10mm (Apr 7, 2009)

I like both "hard science" sci-fi with lots of real world tech and physics and space opera/military sci-fi. Occasionally I'll dip into the Philip K. Dick style speculative sci-fi short story. But what I look for now are things to avoid. Stuff like an impossibly evil alien empire, stereotypic homogenous races (all the Tell'cHEC'iara are awesome engineers, the brutish Gr'afghe'aRge are ALL soldiers, yet humans remain wonderfully diverse and mixed), clear indications that the world is just a historical one given a thin sci-fi skin, stuff like that. I tend to stick some tried and true favorites like Peter Hamilton, Neal Stephenson, Vernor Vinge, Christian Cantrell.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I love such a wide range of Science Fiction I can't narrow it down even to specific types .... I love the different *punks like Gibson or Mark Budz as much as I love space opera a la Star Trek or science Fantasy (I'm re reading Jack Chalker now) .... and the list goes on from hard science to alternate histories.

My thing is the story itself is well crafted and its interesting ....


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2011)

Time-travel I like especially. That's why I write about it a lot. Part of growing up watching "Back to the Future" all the time, I guess.

I enjoyed Crichton's books a lot. Can't get into Dune at all. I liked Ender's Game, but Orson Scott Card's dialogue in the follow-ups is so horrible that it took away from the story. Also, I didn't like the direction that Speaker for the Dead took. I felt like Card was forcing the story in the direction he wanted it to go. His choice, but not my preference.

I read Blind Lake recently too, but if a sci-fi book is supposed to make a statement about human nature or society then it should not be so didactic. I felt like Blind Lake was trying to force-feed philosophy. So I may not read Robert Charles Wilson's other books (although I heard Chronoliths is good, so who knows?).


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Z.D. Robinson said:


> Time-travel I like especially....


Forgot about that . . . as one of the plot devices I'm pretty tired of. For me, I think it's mostly due to a sense of "been there, done that before" (ironically?), and somewhat due to the fact that most current indications are that time travel, if truly possible, would require _huge_ -- literally astronomical -- amounts of energy along with technology incredibly beyond anything we're capable of in the foreseeable future.

That's not to say I cannot still enjoy a time-travel story, but it's going to have to have a lot going for it in all other respects to overcome that hurdle (just like a vampire story is going to have to have a lot more going for it for me to overcome the triteness of using vampires in a story).


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2011)

NogDog said:


> Forgot about that . . . as one of the plot devices I'm pretty tired of. For me, I think it's mostly due to a sense of "been there, done that before" (ironically?), and somewhat due to the fact that most current indications are that time travel, if truly possible, would require _huge_ -- literally astronomical -- amounts of energy along with technology incredibly beyond anything we're capable of in the foreseeable future.
> 
> That's not to say I cannot still enjoy a time-travel story, but it's going to have to have a lot going for it in all other respects to overcome that hurdle (just like a vampire story is going to have to have a lot more going for it for me to overcome the triteness of using vampires in a story).


I understand your concern. A colleague heard I was writing a time-travel novel and he immediately listed all the problems he has with time-travel as a genre. Little did he know that I was already aware of the inherent problems and had already solved them for my story.

I think a reader needs to suspend some disbelief when reading sci-fi. I see too many readers get upset when their sci-fi isn't accurate enough. I'm not talking about disrespecting official canon (like with Star Trek) but complaining about how the time-machine is supposed to work. Since it doesn't - and probably never will - exist, I usually don't get hung up if the author uses some artistic license on how technology works.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I think I'm with Nogdog on this one... I can't say I have a favorite kind of science fiction (and I'm talking SF written word, not sci-fi like movies/tv) as long as it either follows basic principals of science, or has a darned good reason for not doing so. I willing to suspend disbelief on faster-than-light travel, for instance, but not so willing to allow time travel. And I generally prefer no fantasy elements at all, but I'm willing to let Roger Zelazny slide by on that one. The Amber series may fall more into the Fantasy genre, anyway. And I'll give a pass to ESP-based work when done by a good author, such as James Blish or Wilson Tucker.

I mostly like the authors from the Golden Age more than most recent ones. I reread Clarke, Asimov, Simak, Oliver, Tucker, Russell, Clement, and the like. I don't reread much modern stuff with few exceptions (Zelazny, Bujold, McDevitt, Moon, Stith, and a very few others). Can't stand Military SF. Boring. Same with distopian or after-the-bomb/plague stuff.

I liked Heinlein's early work, but beginning with _Stranger in a Strange Land_, it all went downhill fast.

There is so much disagreement on what things fall into what categories, it's probably easier to specify authors or titles that one likes rather than the nebulous "kind".

Mike


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## QuantumIguana (Dec 29, 2010)

The kind of science fiction I like is the good kind. I want authors that have a good understanding of science. If they depart from science, it should be by choice instead of out of ignorance. There are times when science is ignored, and using real science would make the story better, and I find that frustrating. Characters should be non-interchangeable.

As far as I have been able to tell "hard science fiction" refers to science fiction that you like, while "soft science fiction" refers to science fiction that someone else likes.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Z.D. Robinson said:


> I understand your concern. A colleague heard I was writing a time-travel novel and he immediately listed all the problems he has with time-travel as a genre. Little did he know that I was already aware of the inherent problems and had already solved them for my story.
> 
> I think a reader needs to suspend some disbelief when reading sci-fi. I see too many readers get upset when their sci-fi isn't accurate enough. I'm not talking about disrespecting official canon (like with Star Trek) but complaining about how the time-machine is supposed to work. Since it doesn't - and probably never will - exist, I usually don't get hung up if the author uses some artistic license on how technology works.


I think it's largely a personal prejudice of mine; in other words, not entirely rational.  I let Iain Banks slide on FTL travel by simply mentioning some vague terms about hyper-space and such, yet get hung up on time travel. But I think that some of that is because time travel stories are inherently dependent upon time travel for the story itself, whereas FTL travel is typically less to do with the story than it is a convenience to get characters from here to there in a reasonable time. As a result, time travel can almost have a _deus ex machina_ effect on a story, whereas FTL _usually_ does not to the same extent.

But again, it's just a tendency for me: there are more than a few time travel stories I have liked, and I'm sure there are new twists on the premise (and the physics) that could be the source of great books -- I'm just not actively seeking them out right now, nor am I really interested in another variation on the "grandfather paradox" and the "trousers of time".


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## Tara Maya (Nov 4, 2010)

I like the science hard, the action operatic and the attitude optimistic. I like most subgenres: military sf, hard sf, near future, far future, alternate history. I am okay with dystopian and apocalyptic as long as it isn't too nihilistic.


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## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

I consider a lot of Koontz as scfi, present day. It's difficult for me to find a future outer space book that draws me in. Greg Bear is okay...


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## KateEllison (Jul 9, 2011)

I like space opera, but I probably lean towards apocalyptic and dystopian the most. Funny thing--I prefer to read fantasy and I prefer to watch sci fi. So I'm big into BSG, Firefly, Star Trek, Star Wars, and that sort of thing, if that gives any indication of my taste.


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

I like all forms of scifi but especially the space saga or the well told alien.
A good example is D.A. Boulter's Pelgraff (D.A. is an indie author KB member).
Of C.J. Cherryh's books.


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## Tara Maya (Nov 4, 2010)

geoffthomas said:


> I like all forms of scifi but especially the space saga or the well told alien.
> A good example is D.A. Boulter's Pelgraff (D.A. is an indie author KB member).


Hm, I shall have to check it out.


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## Guest (Aug 4, 2011)

KateEllison said:


> I like space opera, but I probably lean towards apocalyptic and dystopian the most. Funny thing--I prefer to read fantasy and I prefer to watch sci fi. *So I'm big into BSG, Firefly, Star Trek, Star Wars, and that sort of thing, if that gives any indication of my taste.*


You and I can now be friends.

(Even though you did leave out "Stargate SG-1")


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## Jonathan Dalar (Jul 15, 2011)

I love a lot of different sci-fi, as long as I don't have to suspend belief too much, and it's done well.  Speculative and futuristic fiction work well - but like some here, I hate the generic stereotypes that permeate a lot of books.  It's bad writing and laziness, and turns me off from an otherwise good story.

I don't mind too much technical science as long as it really grabs you and drives the plot.  Too light, or too many fantasy elements are good sometimes too, but they tend to pull a story out of the science fiction realm.

My favorites would be a lot of the stuff written by Orson Scott Card, as well as Joss Whedon's television series Firefly and The Dollhouse.  I like a lot more stuff out there, but those have elements that make them better stories to me.


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## Sean Cunningham (Jan 11, 2011)

I really enjoyed the nutter war drones in Neal Asher's Polity books and some of the weirder Minds and drones in the Culture novels. I do find ineffable posthuman stuff fairly dull though.

Star Trek Voyager killed time travel for me. I didn't stop watching it soon enough.


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## jason10mm (Apr 7, 2009)

I don't mind the wackier sci-fi concepts (time travel, digital life immortality, uber-A.I.s, anti-grav, etc) so long as the tech is internally consistent. So don't have FTL ships that have to spend 2 days carefully plotting jump coordinates that can suddenly do "seat of the pants" blind jumps, shields that fail under light bombardment early on but hold up against that Death Star-level fusion beam with a few tweaks. I understand the need for dramatic license, but that type of stuff is better suited to fact paced visual media like movies or comics, I like my sci-fi books to be a bit more cerebral and rely on character tension rather than artificial techno deux ex machinas.


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## mikelewis (May 31, 2011)

I like a lot of different styles of SF but tend to read (and write) softer sociological Science Fiction about the impacts of technology on people rather than stories about the actual technology itself (which I associate with hard SF).

I'm a big fan of Ray Bradbury and the characterisation in his stories.  I do also have a soft spot for the science-fantasy style of Star Wars story.

Mike


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## Guest (Aug 4, 2011)

Sean Cunningham said:


> I really enjoyed the nutter war drones in Neal Asher's Polity books and some of the weirder Minds and drones in the Culture novels. I do find ineffable posthuman stuff fairly dull though.
> 
> Star Trek Voyager killed time travel for me. I didn't stop watching it soon enough.


It's a shame when a show/book comes along and handles a device so poorly that it ruins the adventure. As I see it, there's good time-travel (BTTF, Terminator) and bad time-travel (Peggy Sue Got Married). Choose wisely.


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## JChris (Jul 18, 2011)

Ray Bradbury is my favorite sci fi writer. He writes with a charming sentimentality that's quite charming. His characters have real engaging small world problems set against amazing big world scenes-- like feeling lonely in space, racism on mars, affection with robots. That kind of stuff is cool.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

JChris said:


> Ray Bradbury is my favorite sci fi writer. He writes with a charming sentimentality that's quite charming. His characters have real engaging small world problems set against amazing big world scenes-- like feeling lonely in space, racism on mars, affection with robots. That kind of stuff is cool.


Very well said. Gee, I haven't read any Bradbury in yrs.....I should check my bookshelves.


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## Michael_J_Sullivan (Aug 3, 2011)

SaraM965 said:


> What is your favorite kind of sci-fi? What elements do you look for? What kind of tone do you enjoy? How much science do you like and how much fantasy do you want?


I'm kind of "old school" I love the long and intriqute story arc of Asimov's Foundation. I also really enjoyed Dune.


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## Tara Maya (Nov 4, 2010)

Michael_J_Sullivan said:


> I'm kind of "old school" I love the long and intriqute story arc of Asimov's Foundation. I also really enjoyed Dune.


Have you read any of the sequels to those series done by other authors?


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## Michael_J_Sullivan (Aug 3, 2011)

Tara Maya said:


> Have you read any of the sequels to those series done by other authors?


No, I haven't. Do you recommend?


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## J.R.Mooneyham (Mar 14, 2011)

I began as a voracious reader of everything. If I ran across something with text, I read it. So I also read every genre which happened to cross my path.

This changed around college time and after, and I settled upon science fiction and non-fiction as my favorite genres.

I've read a wide swath of sci fi sub-genres. But in my old age I now prefer 'hard' sci fi, that's sweeping and grand in scope, with lots of big and/or new ideas. I usually prefer stories incorporating the far future/highly advanced tech, but can still enjoy a near future tale if it's well done.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

JChris said:


> Ray Bradbury is my favorite sci fi writer. He writes with a charming sentimentality that's quite charming. His characters have real engaging small world problems set against amazing big world scenes-- like feeling lonely in space, racism on mars, affection with robots. That kind of stuff is cool.


Very well said. Gee, I haven't read any Bradbury in yrs.....I should check my bookshelves.


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## geoffthomas (Feb 27, 2009)

Some of the best pure sci fi written - by Arthur C. Clarke.
Especially Rendevouz with Rama.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

I think there is a wide range of likes for me, though I stay away from the Star Trek\Star Wars type of science fiction. I'm also apprehensive of loosey goosey science that smacks too much of magic.

Out of the last twelve months, here are the science fiction novels I've ranked 5 stars at Goodreads.

_Solaris_ by Stanislaw Lem (reread)
_The Chrysalids_ by John Wyndham
_Who Goes There?_ by John W. Campbell (reread)
_House of Suns_ by Alastair Reynolds
_The Gone-Away World_ by Nick Harkaway
_Hyperion_ by Dan Simmons (reread)
_Commonwealth Saga_ by Peter F. Hamilton


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## WriterCTaylor (Jul 11, 2011)

NogDog said:


> Forgot about that . . . as one of the plot devices I'm pretty tired of. For me, I think it's mostly due to a sense of "been there, done that before" (ironically?), and somewhat due to the fact that most current indications are that time travel, if truly possible, would require _huge_ -- literally astronomical -- amounts of energy along with technology incredibly beyond anything we're capable of in the foreseeable future.
> 
> That's not to say I cannot still enjoy a time-travel story, but it's going to have to have a lot going for it in all other respects to overcome that hurdle (just like a vampire story is going to have to have a lot more going for it for me to overcome the triteness of using vampires in a story).


I have to agree with your time travel opinion. The technology and power is too far fetched even for a sci-fi. What really annoys me, mainly because it makes it too confusing, is when characters go back in time multiple times, change things and the future changes. I also don't need a twenty page explanation on how the technology works. If it's in there I trust you.


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

Rayguns.

Lots and lots of rayguns. The more the better.

Also, scantily clad space princesses.


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## Guest (Aug 5, 2011)

J.R.Mooneyham said:


> I began as a voracious reader of everything. If I ran across something with text, I read it. So I also read every genre which happened to cross my path.
> 
> This changed around college time and after, and I settled upon science fiction and non-fiction as my favorite genres.
> 
> I've read a wide swath of sci fi sub-genres. But in my old age I now prefer 'hard' sci fi, that's sweeping and grand in scope, with lots of big and/or new ideas. I usually prefer stories incorporating the far future/highly advanced tech, but can still enjoy a near future tale if it's well done.


What are some of your favorite titles that you could suggest?


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## Ben Reeder (Jun 28, 2011)

I have to say my favorite kind of sci-fi is H. Beam Piper's brand of sci-fi. 

He gave his worlds a flavor that was truly unique to each, be it Baldur or Zarathustra, you always knew that the world itself was as much a character in his stories as the people he pitted against it. And his characters! Larger than life, and surprisingly deep for all that. Piper wrote a thinking action hero, even though he tended to be sexist (but look at when the man was writing!). His stories looked at the effect of the way the world was, how technology and expansion through space was handled. Combine that with a can-do attitude and a lot of courage..yeah, that's how H Beam Piper rolled.

If I had to put a label on it, I would have to call it frontier sci-fi, or six-gun sci-fi.


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## mikelewis (May 31, 2011)

Z.D. Robinson said:


> What are some of your favorite titles that you could suggest?


For sweeping SF with really great aliens I'd recommend Vernor Vinge - really well done far future Sf

Mike


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## Nancy Fulda (Apr 24, 2011)

I go back and forth. Some months I'm hungry for hard science fiction where everything makes sense. Other months I'm after sense-of-wonder stuff with cool pyrotechnics and, if possible, dragons.

The big thing for me is that the _plot_ has to work. It's okay if the milieu is a bit out there, but the characters need to behave sensibly given the situation. Otherwise I'll put the book down.


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## Nancy Fulda (Apr 24, 2011)

Z.D. Robinson said:


> What are some of your favorite titles that you could suggest?


For hard sci-fi, I adored _Dragon's Egg_ by Robert L. Forward. Also _Spinneret_ by Timothy Zahn and _The Mote in God's Eye_ by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

If you're looking for more recent books, you might try _Terminal Mind_ by David Walton, which was a Philip K. Dick Award winner.


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## Joseph.Garraty (May 20, 2011)

Generally I'm drawn to science fiction on a human scale--Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Richard Morgan. The more grandiose space opera stuff tends to lose me, because it seems to be focused on the universe rather than the characters (though Iain M. Banks's Culture novels draw me in anyway, possibly because he's just that good).


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## Tamara Rose Blodgett (Apr 1, 2011)

I love futuristic and elements of time-travel or both!


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## Tim C. Taylor (May 17, 2011)

I like SF with a 'big idea', where you can glimpse a vast canvas that the story I am reading covers only a part. Stephen Baxter's Xeelee short story collections work best for me.

Hold on! I've just written all this in a guest blog post last week! Except that mentioned Tharg and bearded comic book writers: http://www.benjaminwallacebooks.com/BENJAMIN_WALLACE_BOOKS/BLOG/Entries/2011/7/27_GUEST_-_Tim_C._Taylor.html


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## J.R.Mooneyham (Mar 14, 2011)

Z.D., I'm currently in book three of Iain M. Banks Culture series, Use of Weapons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture

I've previously read several great ones by Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash is tremendous fun), others by Charles Stross, and of course there's Vernor Vinge as well.

I sort of ran out of good sci fi to read in the early to mid 1980s (plus got very busy with other matters), and so read very little of an entertainment nature again until just the past year. But prior to that dry spell, I'd read almost all the best of the classic authors like Heinlein and Niven and Pohl and many of the others (by college I'd read at least a thousand books of the sci fi and fantasy genres alone).

There's certain books by Spider Robinson that are astoundingly good too (though maybe mostly among his older ones). Spider's wife died not too long ago, and I'm afraid that may have devastated him. Together they wrote at least a couple of very good books combining sci fi and dance (yeah, I know this sounds preposterous, but Robinson is seriously one of the best writers to have ever lived, judging from the best of his works; I'm amazed he's not better known than he is).


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## Chris Turner (Jul 23, 2011)

Must admit, I'm partial to space opera, a la "The Demon Princes" - characters are important here, particularly sophisticated and humorous ones.  Though I like the seriousness of Clarke & Asimov, particularly the epic of 2001, which still gives me the shivers (those monoliths . . . still carved in my mind).  Then, there's alien horror, but we won't get into that . . .


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## G.L. Breedon (Jul 7, 2011)

I don't have a particular subgenre of sci-fi that I enjoy more than others, but I have noticed that I tend to gravitate to hard sci-fi with more plausible science and toward space operas in the far flung future. I suppose that is why I enjoy reading Peter F. Hamilton's novels so much.

I think what has always attracted me most about sci-fi is the breadth and depth of the ideas. There was an interesting in-house survey of sci-fi that the BBC did in 1962. One of the conclusions was that:



> Inherently, SF ideas are short-winded. The interest invariably lies in the activating idea and not in character drama. Amis has coined the phrase "idea as hero" which sums it up. The ideas are often fascinating, but so bizarre as to sustain conviction only with difficulty over any extended treatment.


The whole thing is here:
http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Doctor_Who/Sci-Fi_-_BBC_Report.txt

My favorite stories are those than can manage to combine an interesting ideas, vividly created worlds, and emotionally engaging characters. To mention Hamilton again, I loved his Void trilogy. The Inigo's dream segments are also some of the best fantasy I've read in ages.

I also like time travel stories.


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## emilyward (Mar 5, 2011)

Light. If the world or technology is too complex, my mind starts to glaze over, I skim, and I might just put the book down eventually. I like it when the characters and action carry the story (like Light Raid by Connie Willis), not the computers and techno jargon, etc. I've read and written books that seem to be sci-fi, but they're probably just thinly-veiled fantasy, like Gone by Michael Grant.

I'll be fair and say I'm not widely read in the science fiction genre, but that's usually because they don't snag my attention. So maybe I shouldn't even be commenting on this thread? Haha!

That said, Brave New World is one of my favorite books.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

J.R.Mooneyham said:


> There's certain books by Spider Robinson that are astoundingly good too (though maybe mostly among his older ones). Spider's wife died not too long ago, and I'm afraid that may have devastated him. Together they wrote at least a couple of very good books combining sci fi and dance (yeah, I know this sounds preposterous, but Robinson is seriously one of the best writers to have ever lived, judging from the best of his works; I'm amazed he's not better known than he is).


Spider is amazing, esp his Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series. The first one I read, maybe the first of that series, had the most hardhitting, poignant line I've ever read. Simple, but devastating. The pun thing is annoying tho 

I'm sorry to hear of his wife's passing.


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## Tara Maya (Nov 4, 2010)

Michael_J_Sullivan said:


> No, I haven't. Do you recommend?


LOL. I haven't read the sequels yet either. I loved the original series and wasn't sure if the sequels could live up.

However, there is a novella, Donald Kingsbury's "Historical Crisis," which is a kind of riposte to the Foundation Series, which I very much enjoyed. Kingsbury tackles the impact that free will would have on psychohistory. It is both a sequel and an argument and quite thought-provoking. There's a novel-length version of the same story, but its a bit long-winded; I think the novella is better. The novella is included in the anthology Far Futures, edited by Gregory Benford. If you like hard sf, it's a terrific collection.

In my opinion all of the contributions were strong, although besides "Historical Crisis," my personal favorite was Poul Anderson's "Genesis." It takes place billions of years in the future, when the Earth is in danger of being destroyed by a supernova. Like Kingsbury's novel, but in a different way, it questions how much free will we (as evolving lifeforms) should give up in exchange for safety. There is also a novel length version of that story, and I think that one's worth getting. Of course, only if one enjoys hard-sf. Except for Joe Haldeman's "For White Hill," these are idea-driven, not character driven stories, in the same way that the Foundation series was.


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## B Regan Asher (Jun 14, 2011)

I'm another fan of time travel.  I don't know why but it grabs me every time if it's done well and is logical.  I also like nested realities.  I can't think of a book off hand but the idea is similar to what transpired in the movie The Thirteenth Floor.


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## Nina Croft (Jun 16, 2011)

There's a few authors and titles I'm going to be looking up here!

I like all types, except hard science fiction (I'm a technophobe) but I especially love space operas. Growing up I loved Dune and Robert Heinlein and Arthur C Clarke. I tend to watch more Sci-fi now than read it (I love Firefly) But I think I'm going to change that very soon!


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## Sean Cunningham (Jan 11, 2011)

Joseph.Garraty said:


> Generally I'm drawn to science fiction on a human scale--Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Richard Morgan. The more grandiose space opera stuff tends to lose me, because it seems to be focused on the universe rather than the characters (though Iain M. Banks's Culture novels draw me in anyway, possibly because he's just that good).


Banks' trick is that he sits a vast space opera plot alongside a small-scale human drama, which is how you end up with a clash between a sprawling fleet of ships and a mysterious alien device, while in the middle of it a former couple are analysing why their relationship broke down. The threads are always relevant to each other, from memory, but the choices that drive the drama are usually deeply personal.


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## Adam Kisiel (Jun 20, 2011)

I love Philip K. Dick books


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## JChris (Jul 18, 2011)

9MMare said:


> Very well said. Gee, I haven't read any Bradbury in yrs.....I should check my bookshelves.


Thanks for not making fun of the extra "charming."


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## Michael_J_Sullivan (Aug 3, 2011)

B Regan Asher said:


> I'm another fan of time travel. I don't know why but it grabs me every time if it's *done well and is logical*. I also like nested realities. I can't think of a book off hand but the idea is similar to what transpired in the movie The Thirteenth Floor.


The rub is the part I emphasized above - so often time travel is riddled with plotholes. When you find a good one you relaly love it. While this is a movie and not a book - I think 12 Monkeys was a masterfully done time travel piece.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

JChris said:


> Thanks for not making fun of the extra "charming."


That's ok....you didnt make fun of my 'gee.'


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Michael_J_Sullivan said:


> The rub is the part I emphasized above - so often time travel is riddled with plotholes. When you find a good one you relaly love it. While this is a movie and not a book - I think 12 Monkeys was a masterfully done time travel piece.


One of my favorite SF movies of all time, mainly because it had a real story and characters, not just special effects and space monsters killing whomever for no particular reason. The same holds true with SF novels: you can take a pre-existing idea (e.g. time travel and the "grandfather paradox") and still be successful if you can tell a great story, but if you're a mediocre story-teller, you better come up with an original idea if you want your book to stand out. (And the "you" in the preceding sentences does not mean any particular person here, just a general reference to any and all authors and wannabe authors.)


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## B Regan Asher (Jun 14, 2011)

I think I better revisit 12 Monkeys Michael.  I never did see it.


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## Guest (Aug 11, 2011)

B Regan Asher said:


> I'm another fan of time travel. I don't know why but it grabs me every time if it's done well and is logical. I also like nested realities. I can't think of a book off hand but the idea is similar to what transpired in the movie The Thirteenth Floor.


I never saw The Thirteenth Floor. What do you mean by "nested realities?"



B Regan Asher said:


> I think I better revisit 12 Monkeys Michael. I never did see it.


Yes. You must check that out. I'm not sure if it's an example of "nested realities" but it's one of the movies that inspired my own work. (I'm not saying my stuff is anywhere as good; just a good example that illustrates how it CAN be done.)


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## TracyRozzlynn (Jun 15, 2011)

I like science fiction that has a strong female protagonist. She doesn't have to be physically strong, but needs to think for herself. I also like science fiction where battles and technology are in the background, not the main focus of the story. I recently finished reading Glow (Sky Chasers #1) by Amy Kathleen Ryan in one sitting - it's a pretty good example of what I mean.


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## Basilius (Feb 20, 2010)

TracyRozzlynn said:


> I like science fiction that has a strong female protagonist. She doesn't have to be physically strong, but needs to think for herself. I also like science fiction where battles and technology are in the background, not the main focus of the story. I recently finished reading Glow (Sky Chasers #1) by Amy Kathleen Ryan in one sitting - it's a pretty good example of what I mean.


There were a couple other posts in this thread that made me think of this book, but it most directly fits yours: _Remnant Population_ by Elizabeth Moon. The main focus of the story is an elderly woman's relationship with death and, reciprocally, life. It's also happens to be a very good first contact story, but that's the secondary theme.

I've got a pretty good feeling you'll love this book.


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## TracyRozzlynn (Jun 15, 2011)

Basilius said:


> There were a couple other posts in this thread that made me think of this book, but it most directly fits yours: _Remnant Population_ by Elizabeth Moon. The main focus of the story is an elderly woman's relationship with death and, reciprocally, life. It's also happens to be a very good first contact story, but that's the secondary theme.
> 
> I've got a pretty good feeling you'll love this book.


Thanks - I just added it to my to read list.


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## Amera (May 22, 2011)

Mostly space opera. Timothy Zahn has been my favorite author for a long time. 

I enjoy the "serious" sci-fi also, though, if I'm in a mood to think. Not stuff full of technobabble, but rather stuff that extrapolates interesting cultural/social quirks.


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## Sean Cunningham (Jan 11, 2011)

B Regan Asher said:


> I also like nested realities. I can't think of a book off hand but the idea is similar to what transpired in the movie The Thirteenth Floor.


If you like nested realities you might want to take a look at _Capacity_ by Tony Ballantyne. A pretty dark and complex book revolving around multiple virtualities, the entities who dwell within and how they relate to the atomic world. It made me rethink and expand on the kind of questions Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? got me asking.



Amera said:


> Mostly space opera. Timothy Zahn has been my favorite author for a long time.


I really enjoyed his first Star Wars trilogy, and I read the two books he wrote later on. I think he's done more since but I haven't checked.

I read his Conqueror's Trilogy too. Solid military space opera following a bad first contact situation.


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

I like Space Opera, and most sci-fi as long as it's not too tech. Stephen Donaldson's Gap series was great. I also like all of Peter F Hamilton's stuff . I like BIG stories with lots of complex characters and machiavellian plots. If it spans generations, even better.

I enjoy time travel. I don't need long-winded technical explanations of how everything works, but there must be _some_ sort of logic to it. I read a time travel novel once where the trigger that sent the MC back in time was seeing a white cat ! Imagine how inconvenient that could be!


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## Joseph DiFrancesco (Aug 1, 2011)

I know this is going to sound weird and shallow (I am a deep thinker, really) but I love movies about giant bugs.



They bring me back to when I was a kid...


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

Any type of monster movie (giant bugs included) gets my vote. But in terms of reading, I've become a fan of cyberpunk, William Gibson and the like. That kind of sf seems more relevant to where we are today (and where we might be going) than other types of science fiction.


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## Daniel McHugh (Aug 15, 2011)

Epic. Grand scale. Galactic. I like multi- world. Dune. Foundation. Star Wars. The most intriguing aspect of these works is how the old (Feudal Politics, Ancient Religions, Archaic weaponry) are laid across a structure of advanced science (interstellar travel, space exploration, advanced robotics). It's as if man has reached the ultimate in science and technology, but his brain can never escape the mythos that anchored his past.

_--- sorry  no self-promotion outside the Book Bazaar forum. please read our Forum Decorum thread._


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## Lambert (Nov 12, 2010)

I read more sci-fi when I was younger. I liked* time travel * about the best. As I got older I started reading "Stephen King" type books, and now I like Thrillers as far as fiction goes.


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## Guest (Aug 16, 2011)

Joseph DiFrancesco said:


> I know this is going to sound weird and shallow (I am a deep thinker, really) but I love movies about giant bugs.


You'd probably like my father-in-law. He loves those terrible Syfy movies...or really anything where people are getting chased and eaten!


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## Sean Cunningham (Jan 11, 2011)

Joseph DiFrancesco said:


> I know this is going to sound weird and shallow (I am a deep thinker, really) but I love movies about giant bugs.


Who am I to criticise? I dig giant robots. 

There seem to be precious few sci-fi books featuring giant robots, but graphic novels, movies and the odd bit of anime gets me by.


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## fabioclk21 (Aug 16, 2011)

Its my real scientific amnaered executaion....


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## WriterCTaylor (Jul 11, 2011)

Futuristic, space, alien, apocalyptic. Just no time travel!!


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## Rex Jameson (Mar 8, 2011)

Not a fan of time travel, and I don't like what that genre has tried to do with the Einstein-Rosen bridge for large masses.

Give me space opera, epic, or futuristic elements. Stephenson, Vinge, Zelazny, Gibson's Neuromancer, etc. I read technical papers all the time, but I don't like a lot of info dump in my fiction. I do enjoy themes of technology paired with humanity's future (Stephenson's Diamond Age was a fun one).

Anything with zombies, vampires, or viruses killing most of mankind? I'm just not getting into them these days at all.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I'm not a zombies/vampires/viruses dude - except the (very) odd movie.

For books, I like old-school science fiction. I'm thinking guys like Bradbury and Dick. I like stuff set in the near-future, real-world more or less, or undefined. I like dystopias. I like big ideas. I like SF that says something about the world today in an oblique way. I don't mind a message, as long as its not delivered with a megaphone, but I prefer books that pose questions rather than present answers.


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## David Alastair Hayden (Mar 19, 2011)

I don't read a lot of sci-fi anymore. Mostly just what my monthly bookclub selects with an extra bit here and there.

I love old sword & planet novels by people like Andre Norton.

Also, space opera and science fantasy.

I don't mind hard sci-fi, but it's not something I go out in search for.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

RexJameson said:


> viruses killing most of mankind? I'm just not getting into them these days at all.


Heh, that's probably my all-time favorite theme....probably because I'm not a huge fan of humanity and I love the fact that the devastation usually leaves most of the rest of the natural world intact. Also, I love the dream of a much much much less populated world where I could live and not come in contact with people unless I chose to.

What, me? Misanthropic? _Naaahhh_.


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## DrugWarAnalyst (Aug 24, 2011)

Goodness...Now that I think about it, I'm all over the board. My favorite book (and author) of all time is 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. As such, I pretty much love everything he's written; a little less so the collaborations he did towards the end of his life. I'm also a big fan of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, with Prelude to Foundation being my favorite. I love all of Michael Crichton's work, I've read many of the Star Wars spin-off series, and various short story collections by multiple authors. My favorite themes are probably the search for life/intelligence beyond Earth, future Earth scenarios, and alien-invasion or Earth-in-danger stuff.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Add me to the 'no time travel' brigade. Unless the author is very careful with the rules, you know the protagonist COULD solve any plot problem by travelling through time. Doctor Who has got away with it for decades, but you still get this feeling the character isn't fully engaged with the plot. Breeze in, get into trouble, solve it, breeze out. Never have to live with the consequences.


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## Robert S. Wilson (Jul 21, 2011)

I like many different kinds of science fiction. But my favorite is dark and/or hard science fiction. Peter Watts is probably one of my all time favorites. He writes with a technical savvy mixed with a bleakness that will make you wonder why you bother getting out of bed everyday. But I'm also a fan of more fantasy based science fiction like Dune, etc. Orson Scott Card's brand of morality themed sci-fi is always interesting as well.


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

DrugWarAnalyst said:


> My favorite themes are probably the search for life/intelligence beyond Earth, future Earth scenarios, and alien-invasion or Earth-in-danger stuff.


I like these alot as well. Pretty standard, traditional sci-fi fare, no?


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

Hard and human or soft and fun.


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## Owen (Aug 24, 2011)

I like a good post apocalyptic novel, though I'd say the bad outnumber the good. The Postman is an excellent book if you can forget there's a film while you're reading it. Other than that, I like books that tell a series of adventures; either within a book or across a series. The BBC published a few different series of tie in novels based on Doctor Who, with each novel featuring the same regular characters but with each book set in a different time and place. They've always been a blast to read.


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## Linda Andrews (Aug 16, 2011)

I love all sorts of scifi including time travel. I love zombies and apocalyptic stories (I like the idea of humanity in principle, but in practice it leaves much to be desired). I love the old scifi and just recently finished rereading War of the Worlds. 

I, too, miss the age of giant bugs and like the robots, too. Of course, if I can't find any books about them, there's always Netflix. 

Linda


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## Lursa (aka 9MMare) (Jun 23, 2011)

Oops, messed up the quotes, had to redo.

I LOVE this!

I may have to make it my signature, if that's ok? (When I figure that out)



Linda Andrews said:


> (I like the idea of humanity in principle, but in practice it leaves much to be desired).


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## Lynn Mixon (Jan 2, 2011)

I'm a big fan of space opera. Let me have the grand adventure. The science doesn't have to be hard, just plausible. I'm also a fan of some military science fiction.


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## Nancy Fulda (Apr 24, 2011)

Terry Mixon said:


> I'm a big fan of space opera. Let me have the grand adventure. The science doesn't have to be hard, just plausible. I'm also a fan of some military science fiction.


Yeah, I'll ditto that.

Space opera gets a bad rap, I think. A lot of people say they don't like it, but when you start asking them about their favorite books, it turns out that they have been voraciously reading... you guessed it... space opera.


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## C.G.Ayling (Aug 25, 2011)

I often wondered why the genre is called “Sci-Fi/Fantasy” but after writing my own I realized that there really is science in fantasy.  For me the storyline really needs to be believable.

If the science defies the laws of physics then unless there is a believable reason for it I find my willingness to suspend disbelief sorely taxed.

Likewise if the fantasy aspects of a story defy logic I find myself quickly irritated.  I am a passionate person and I will often exclaim out loud when a characters behavior is simply unbelievable.

Bottom line...  The story must be close enough to truth to blur the edges of its lie.


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## leep (Aug 25, 2011)

Libby13 said:


> I have some Orson Scott Card to try next.


One word for Ender's Game: Awesome.

Just hoping they don't screw the movie up too badly.

Personally, I like a bit of cyberpunk (early Gibson, Stephenson, early Grimwood) or near future, with a bit of space opera for good measure (Hamilton, later Reynolds). Can't seem to find too much I like of late though.


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## Danielle Kazemi (Apr 2, 2011)

I?m more into I guess soft sci-fi. It?s not so much the technology I?m into but more of the human aspect when dealing with this new technology or species. Heinlein does a good job of that. As for fantasy in my sci-fi, that all depends on the author. It takes a lot to sell me on the fact that a race could do interstellar travel but still cower in fear from someone using magic. Star Wars did it with the force which I find to be a fantasy element.


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