Scifisummercon: What is Science Fiction?
Scifisummercon, Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least non-supernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities. Exploring the consequences of scientific innovations is one purpose of science fiction, making it a “literature of ideas”.
Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures.[2] It is similar to, but differs from, fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature (though some elements in a story might still be pure imaginative speculation, Scifisummercon).
The settings for science fiction are often contrary to known reality, but most science fiction relies on a considerable degree of suspension of disbelief, which is facilitated in the reader’s mind by potential scientific explanations or solutions to various fictional elements. Science fiction criteria include, Scifisummercon:
- A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, or in a historical past that contradicts known facts of history or the archaeological record, Scifisummercon.
- A spatial setting or scenes in outer space (e.g., spaceflight), on other worlds, or on subterranean earth.
- Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots.
- Technology that is futuristic (e.g., ray guns, teleportation machines, humanoid computers).
- Scientific principles that are new or that contradict known laws of nature, for example time travel, wormholes, or faster-than-light travel, Scifisummercon.
- New and different political or social systems (e.g. a dystopia, or a post-apocalyptic situation where organized society has collapsed).
- Paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation, Scifisummercon.
Scifisummercon: Top 10 Science Fiction Books
- 1. The Time Machine(HG Wells).The book’s main character is an amateur inventor who lives in London. He is never identified, instead being referred to simply as “The Time Traveller”. Having demonstrated to friends that time is a fourth dimension, and that a suitable device can move back and forth in this fourth dimension, he completes the building of a larger machine capable of carrying himself. He immediately sets off on a journey into the future, Scifisummercon.
- 2. Stranger in a Strange Land(Robert Heinlein).Stranger in a strange land tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised by Martians on the planet Mars, upon his return to Earth in early adulthood.
- 3. The Lensman Series(EE “Doc” Smith).
- 4. 2001 – A Space Odyssey(Arthur C. Clarke).An ancient and hidden alien race uses a mechanism with the appearance of a large crystal Monolith (black in the film) to investigate worlds all across the galaxy and to encourage the development of intelligent life, Scifisummercon.
- 5. Fahrenheit 451(Ray Bradbury).The main character, Guy Montag, is employed as a “fireman” (which, in this case, means “book burner”). 451 degrees Fahrenheit is stated as “the temperature at which book-paper catches fire, and burns …” It was originally published as a shorter novella, The Fireman, in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction, Scifisummercon.
- 6. The Foundation Series(Isaac Asimov).The premise of the series is that scientist Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept devised by Asimov. Using the law of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale; it is error-prone for anything smaller than a planet or an empire. Using these techniques, Seldon foresees the fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises, Scifisummercon.
- 7. Slaughterhouse-Five(Kurt Vonnegut). A disoriented and ill-trained American soldier named Billy Pilgrim is captured by German soldiers and is forced to live in a makeshift prison. Billy has become “unstuck in time” for unexplained reasons so he randomly and repeatedly visits different parts of his life, including his death. He meets, and is later kidnapped by, aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, who exhibit him in a Tralfamadorian zoo with Montana Wildhack, a pornographic movie star, Scifisummercon.
- 8. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy(Douglas Adams).The series follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman who, with his friend Ford Prefect, an alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse, escapes the demolition of Earth by a bureaucratic alien race called the Vogons. Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford’s semi-cousin and part-time Galactic President, unknowingly saves the pair from certain death. He brings them aboard his stolen spaceship, the Heart of Gold, whose crew rounds out the main cast of characters: Marvin, the Paranoid Android, a depressed robot, and Trillian, formerly known as Tricia McMillan, a woman Arthur once met at a party who he soon realises is the only other survivor of Earth’s destruction. After this, the characters embark on a quest to find the legendary planet of Magrathea and the Question to the Ultimate Answer, Scifisummercon.
- 9. Dune(Frank Herbert). The novel tells the story of young Paul Atreides as he and his family relocate to the planet Arrakis, the only source of the spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe, Scifisummercon.
- 10. Neuromancer(William Gibson). The main character of Neuromancer is Case, a console cowboy, who, by linking his brain directly with computers, pirates data kept in the cyberspace matrix. This is simulated by a worldwide database with a crippled nervous system. With the aid of Molly (who has concealed cybernetic weapons), they embark on a violent adventure, Scifisummercon.
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