This is war fiction or military fiction with a strong emphasis on combat and fighting, but set in space, on alien worlds or in the future. Usually a coming of age story and featuring big space battles, this is the action side of sci-fi. Examples of Military Science Fiction: Anything where technology creates a massive problem or causes the end of the world, or technology is otherwise involved in its downfall. I would class alien invasion within this subsection alongside monster attacks city, nuclear war scenarios. For example, I am not sure I would class natural disaster books and films here.
Examples of Apocalyptic Fiction: Simply, this is what might have happened if a certain event in the past went the other way. There are at least three books on this period alone that comes to mind with one TV series airing on the BBC at present. But this is not the entirety of the genre. It can be a complex genre to write for authors that do not have the in-depth knowledge of the period, but it is always fun for the reader. Examples of Alternate History: Red Alert video game. Featuring anachronistic technology such as steam-powered space ships and clockwork laser guns , it has an entire art, fashion and architecture movement built around it.
It celebrates the very best of Victorian Britain and America and what we all love about it. A sub-sub-genre is dieselpunk, a distinctly American version set in the early 20th century. Very popular during the s but not so much now that VR and AR are actual technologies, it still remains popular in some places. Superman was born on an alien planet definitely science fiction , Spiderman was bitten by a GM spider also definitely science fiction , Captain America was genetically enhanced certainly science fiction and The Hulk suffered radiation exposure.
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Science Fiction’s Sub-Genres in a Nutshell (Part 1)
You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. But the fact is, anything speculative or futuristic is science fiction including the following… Space Opera This is the genre that covers space exploration, New worlds, frontiers, alien contact in space, crews of spaceships.
If you like this post, please share it: Published by MG Mason Creative. Few men realise that this commitment is the underlying value of an ounce of gold; it's worth what the parties in a trade agree it's worth, and the only restriction is its demonstrable physical reality and the limited supply. But what if gold or banknotes magically evaporated, incinerated, or could be teleported traceslessly? No, this isn't fantasy of deep-future Science Fiction: Recall, if you will, reading that an electronic balanc held in a Virtual World Bank for fantasy gamers was 'stolen' from the virtual vault by orcs, and the entire chain of verification vanished with them.
I have no idea whether the money reappeared elsewhere, verifiable and real and available to purchase goods and services; but the effect on the victim was as real as if a metal vault for banknotes and bearer bonds had been opened and the contents removed or burnt. Blink and you could miss the one-off explanation in Halting State that this virtual bank for gamers was no different to any other bank, and a successful heist in the one meant that all the 'real' money in the others - the mundane bank accounts that give reality to banknotes, coins, and our ability to pay the rent and eat - was suddenly flammable, or teleportable, and therefore worthless.
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Our host has wisely chosen not to take it any further, leaving that apocalyptic threat as a reason for some very high-level interest in the police investigation But if you want a 'near future' SF novel with an utterly disorienting and world-changing 'liftoff' based in a forseeable event with plausible technology, try a widespread 'theft' of the electronic reality of money, such that the system is so compromised as to become entirely worthless: Tom Clancy who has been mentioned here already, so I am neither the first sinner nor the first to cast a stone wrote the story of a combined assault on the USA that started with a run on the stock market, then a system failure at the DTCC, the electronic book of record of all exchange-mediated financial instrument transactions: Just as if his coins and banknotes had evaporated Which, in the only sense of reality that matters, they had.
Note the absence of a quantum computer or a mathematical hand-waving hyperdrive to break the RSA encryption that underpins the electronic verification of that special information we call 'money'. These scenarios are only 'Science Fiction' insofar as they haven't happened yet, and that exploring their full effects demands a leap of the imagination and the intellect that is unavailable to writers of mere techno-thrillers. Spinrad got a lot right with Russian Spring written , but all anyone reading it at the time could see was the contrast with what everyone now knew as obvious.
Perhaps what you want to do, from a commercial perspective, is make a prediction that always seems likely, but never actually comes to pass. This sounds a lot like the uncanny valley. Get it utterly wrong and it just doesn't work, period. Get closer to reality and things get better. And since you'll have a really hard time getting enough right to make things good, maybe the right way is to keep stuff coherent and in touch with reality, but just far enough away to make a good story where the tiny flaws don't stand out like a sore thump.
It begins with the first steps toward brain "uploading" conducted by a Dr. John Vines in his uploaded copies scream, get me the hell out of here! By or so, uploading has become common - and after uploading, the distinction between near- and far-future becomes irrelevant. Does the world changing event have to be a nuke in a US city? Right now I would bet that the next city to receive an open can of instant sunshine would be in Pakistan, from a Pakistani can, no less.
For that matter, why a city at all? Why not reduce the chaneces of detection and interception of what is probably the only nuke a terror group has available? If they have a nuke and a grudge against the current world order why not try this:. Hire a tramp freighter through the usual multiple cutouts. Load said freighter with nuke. Detonate nuke at sea. Use a comm route known to be compromised to send the following message: Damn thing went off too soon. Number two is still on schedule, however. Ben, do you really think it's not SF unless laws of physics are being violated?
Oh, I assure you, "Red Mars" breaks the laws of physics fairly blatantly - specifically conservation of energy. There's a bit where an airship powers its electric motors by hanging aerogenerators out into the wind - basically, it's Popeye sitting in the back of the dinghy, blowing into the sail to make it move forward. Soon Lee 26 -- thanks for the explanation. I actually own that short story collection, but didn't remember the particular title.
But in general aerogenerators from an airship are not breaking the laws of physics, as long as you use them selectively: When you've the wind behind you, trade some deltaV from the wind for electrical energy, and store it for when you need to go against the wind. The other idea is using the anchor. Though I do remember that this was at least not part of the description. Popeye blowing into the sail would move forward.
You can actually try this - mount a balloon with the opening towards a "sail" of paper on a piece styrofoam. Put the assembly in a bathtub - it will move forward, though not quite as fast as when you mount the balloon the other way around. Works even better in vacuum less turbulence. It was just an example of a Black Swan that, should it occur, is so pivotal that no one cares what happened before it, even if prior events are legitimately considered Black Swans themselves. So, Charlie's worry that the current financial crisis bifurcates future scenarios is moot if something occurs that collapses both branches of those potential futures down to the same fresh set of alternative narratives.
Putting the example more plainly: If a nuke goes off in an American city anytime in the next few years, it does not matter how the current financial crisis was resolved. This general pattern can be used to disregard many Black Swans other than the one you actually choose to stick into your scenario, even if the Black Swan isn't apocalyptic per-se. If as few as other such hacks are possible, Supercrops will fundamentally alter the carrying capacity of the planet in as little as a decade, the US balance of trade America is a food exporting nation will be put out of it's misery by a shot to the head, and the economic decimation of most rural agricultural communities here will be utter and complete.
This is a slow-motion Black Swan scenario, but one that could definitely unfold between now and , and it would tend to obscure the effects of many otherwise momentous events. Have you got a link? Good point about the US balance of trade; however, in that scenario there'd be no hope of subsidising the farmers back towards normality, so possibly significantly beneficial for the government budget.
Ok, By "Laws of physics being violated" I should rather have said "based on the fewest assumptions of technological advance". I think Halting State would be perfectly at home if mis-shelved in the fiction section. Its only technological assumption besides the quantum computer is that game technology and miniturization will advance at something like the rate that they currently are.
Most of the other things you would think of as "sci fi" like police wearing evidence recorders, are probably things that we could already have if we decided we wanted to do it. My point is, why should we call it "science fiction" if the science in the story isn't really fictional? This genre shifting is also what Greg Bear wanted with "Quantico" which is in the near-future SF category.
Because it's fiction about ideas derived from rinse, cycle, repeat. If you shoved it in a time machine and dialed it back to , it would look science fictional as hell. Alex, here's the story I saw: But consider that simply knowing that a thing is possible dramatically lowers the barrier to accomplishing it. SF has more to do with the author's treatment of the subject matter than with any requirements for time period or technological projection -- a willingness to get her hands dirty in her world's gutty-works.
There's definitely something about SF that makes it obvious to fans, and makes mainstream readers uncomfortable. We've still got our dignity, people! Nile Ummm, did you read the business section of the newspapers sometime over the last year? The assets are now destroyed, or impossible to trace, and often both. This was done by organised banks of criminals over the last few years. And no, that is not a typo.
You want a Black Swan? We are in the middle of a complete meltdown of the currency, and not just in America. The American congress is currently trying to paper over things till November the 4th and may or may not succeed.
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The vote passed, now we see if the Libor rate goes down or if the world economic structure goes down. Century City is the only modern day tv show that depicts the new future that I can think of in the US. Near Future Sci-fi is completely and inherently unfriendly to the small screen. It's usually too subtle for the masses when done right, or too trite when they have to hit people over the head with it.
Although, come to think of it, Brian Fuller's shows, while not near sci-fi, has many of the elements of near science fiction, from Dead Like Me, to Wonderfalls, to Pushing Daisies. Call 'em near fantasy! Octavia Butler was really, really, good. She stands a really good chance of nailing the depiction of the US in the s with Parable of the Sower.
Personally I wouldn't sweat it too much. I recently read Interface by a pseudonym of Neal Stephenson. Published in it still works as a piece of near future fiction, despite it not having being able to take into consideration the black swan of Al Qaeda style terrorism and the affect that has had on American politics. This is because you don't expect Sci-fi to be a perfect description, however the relatively timeless themes that are the basis of the book, the manipulation of public appearance and opinion via focus groups by very smart people applying technology, and marketing techniques.
The russian books that came out still born, were due to the central protagonist disappearing from the world, and importantly nothing similar replacing it. If there is something in the world that the reader can consider as a replacement for whatever has changed, then most readers will see the underlying message. Now that I think about it, there are a few books that play this game: There was an apocalypse, but it's over now, and there is once again a functional society of people who are basically free, though by no means living in a utopia -- hence somewhat similar to our own society.
In brief he compares two Dictionaries of Commerce; Savary's was first published in , last published in with some re-writing and Guillaumin's published in Savary's discribes amongst other things the suitable appearance of cloth so that it can be taxed correctly and be sold legally. Guillaumin's describes how certain named cloths are manufactured, and therefore identified. The early guild system described in Savary's book was prescriptive, limiting and subjective.
The system was failing before the 's but there was no cognative model available to replace the exisitng method of identify good quality cloth without the hands on experience of tax inspectors. These people were terrified that without the guild system there would be no constraint on fraud. By the 's a new, more objective method of thinking about the manufactured products had emerged; that had little to do with learned opinion, and much to do with process and commodity.
The different approach in these two dictionaries signals a hugely important change in society's attitude to stuff, yet is not as visible in the 'marketplace' as the development of new 'toys'. Perhaps the investigation of changes in attitudes is harder to document because of it's inherent invisiblity which leads to more unexpected consequences for the unobservant, than a superficial introduction of new kit, which can be shiny and loud.
The change in attitude is the more important. Gilliaumin's, until after things had calmed down a bit…. I feel this is a bit 'as you know Bob' and I leave you to join the dots from to The paper illustrates that you can get a reference on different mind sets with careful study and relationship inherent between the changes in that mind set and the kind of physical changes which can acompany it. Also note that the change in mind - the abandonment of the guild system etc, came before the terror. In "The soical life of things: Commodities in cultural perspectives" Ed Arjun Appadurai Just go on-line and look at what's currently being researched at the universities through grant money provided by you the taxpayer.
Merely examine the social ramifications Will any of this "stuff" see the light of day?
Or have universities just become yet another black hole of capital expenditure? I think 2 is more interesting. The other week the BBC were cellebrating the 35th? And what's wrong with with utopian SF, as long as you can laugh along with the ride; or maybe I read too many critiques of Fourier. Okay we are reading the book on a different level. Someone here should know the earliest example of defeated nazis in space!
But the fact that Charlie is asking the question is interesting in itself - when did SF or anyone else get so self aware about the state of the future of their stories. This all sounds frightfully PoMo and Meta-meta-meta: Write a story about yourself writing a story about yourself in 5 years, having written the story you are going to write. Here is an example of things going the other way. I based my prediction on economic arguments. Fairly weak arguments, but I had stuck my neck out and said what and when. Fast forward to The prerequisites aren't getting into place.
My prediction is running out of time and looks like it isn't going to happen. Is there a point to my comment? Imagine that in you try to think things through. Hijacking of aeroplanes has traditionally involved a negotiation with a view to releasing the hostages.
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Surely there will come a day when hijackers are out to kill, to cause terror. OK, once that happens people will give up on air travel so I'll set my new novel in a world in which every-one uses telepresence. Come you've scored a hit. Come it has turned into a miss, people still fly. The predictions of the consequences of something that hasn't yet happened would still be plausible and interesting.
I can think of two responses. One is to try to evergreen your novel by including the working out of the consequences of something big, plausible, and unlikely. So long as it doesn't happen readers can enjoy discussing whether you get the consequences right or not. The other response is to notice that the future is completely unmanageable.
Even getting it right can be a way of going wrong.
You just have to stop worrying and write. Late night ramblings On the topic of the disunited States, being from across the "pond", is the one thing that probably won't happen. In all likelihood, a second American civil war is more likely. Having lived almost everywhere in the U. Red state people handle firearms with a proficiency level that quite frankly astonishes me. Also given that the real U. About the only sensible thing I've seen America do is their strategic cold war planning and how to position it's defenses.
Food and Gulf of Mexico oil also factor in For those not in America: One should, despite however they feel about the POTUS Bush, please keep in mind that the House of Representatives and the Senate currently rank 10 points lower in the popularity polls than the President and have for quite some time now. Yes, the American public hates the politicians we've elected to govern ourselves and yet are so remarkably stupid that we keep re-electing them I'm still trying to do some rough estimates on where the tipping point is when "we the people" finally decide to simply tar and feather the bastards and run them out of Washington on a rail.
Back to the topic of near SF futures: The apocalyptic scenario is a U. Except that we have nuclear tipped cruise missiles that can hit any target in the world in 15 minutes and will rewrite what the term Blitzkreig really means. I figure a second terrorist attack on U. But, we'd only be following the French in regards to this: Pardon my above rant, because I forgot the most important point, which is that Bruce Sterling is a hack. In the scenarios people are proposing, how does having personal weapons, or even nuclear weapons, help? Imagine China decides not to dump its money into the dollars, but instead invests more heavily in Africa; Brazil, etc sells its new oil for Yuan or Euros.
Now there isn't an influx of goods and money into the US. To date the US has dissuaded this with military force: Limiting the US's ability to act elsewhere; see Georgia for an example. Countries have been backing out of the dollar. So what happens then? A financial crisis, as goods and oil cease to flow in. The larger financially states of NY and California decide not to go down with the sinking ship, and dissolve the US, or declare independence.
Do you honestly think that if the federal tax dollars cease to flow into Alabama, Alabama will declare war on California? A rump US going to civil war to prevent CA from leaving and taking its tax dollars might sound appealing, but wouldn't work in practice to pull the US out of a hole. Nuclear weapons, though, are an interesting point. The national labs who design and built the weapons were deliberately designed against any state becoming independent; California does not automatically become a nuclear power. Here, take this rope.
You might want to use that convenient tree, yonder. On the nuclear weapons control issue, the post-USSR settlement is an interesting precedent. Nukes are insanely expensive to maintain -- missile warheads are very lightweight, made of high purity fissile material, and need remanufacturing every years. So the other states quietly handed them back, in return for economic concessions over the next few years. It's the biggest denuclearization in world history, bigger by far than South Africa's scrapping of its deterrent, and it's almost wholly unsung, because it's ideologically inconvenient in the west to admit that it was the Russians wot did it, not the IAEA and the UN.
Charlie, to be fair, there was a lot of heavy lifting by the first Bush Administration to insure that Ukraine and Kazakhstan denuclearized. It was by no means a no-brainer, and the aid almost all came from the U. I don't have a strong counterfactual meaning that I don't know for a fact that American diplomacy was instrumental but you don't either.
I know, your soapbox and all, but it's always jarring to hear someone toss away an inaccurate line on a subject about which you know something. Do you really expect handheld weapons to be particularly central to any such struggle? I'd go for battlefield systems and control of utilities myself.
I like to believe that there just may be enough people in US military command and control who don't like the thought of America leapfrogging Nazi Germany in the genocide olympics to put a stop to that, even if the idea of it gives everyone on Little Green Footballs a raging hadron. Why are you discussing an American civil war? I'm about as worried about that as I am dying of a lightning strike. Charlie, a lot has been made here about authors missing the Soviet collapse.
Isn't the reverse true? There are hordes and hordes of books premised upon near-future political or social revolutions that just didn't happen, and should have seemed ridiculous at the time. John Barnes comes to mind, but I haven't read anything of his since or so. I tried and failed on multiple occasions to make it through anything written by Charles Sheffield for the same reason. Charlie, it's your soapbox, and while you may hold Bruce Sterling in high regard, I do not. Your merest reference to him as "Chairman", tells me all that I need to know.
As for the rope comment, I'll raise you a candlestick and direct you to talk to Professor Plum in the library. Islands in the Net was the first, and last, novel by Sterling I ever read. Rave reviews, breakthrough work, blah, blah, blah Unfortunately it has an entirely preposterous plot line with a heroine miraculously surviving one dangerous situation after another. Give that woman a cape and she'd still probably survive being sucked into a jet engine despite being mere flesh and blood.
I read The Difference Engine but only because Gibson had his name tacked onto the project. I have read a lot, and I do mean a lot, of SF in my time. I have a rather extensive library of SF and SF anthologies as well. I guess it essentially boils down to how many books one reads during their lifetime and determining what one's likes and dislike's are. The smarter ones though, generally toss it onto the fire and never allow it to see the light of day.
What's really fucking weird is how -- despite getting lots of the details wrong -- he predicted the sudden tipping point into chaos and got that bit right. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about the LGF fan club ever getting their hands on the levers of power, for the same reason Noel doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about US Civil War 2. There are folks reading this blog who read upwards of books a year.
I must admit, as I crossed into my 40s, I started reading fewer novels, because it became harder and harder to find something genuinely new. I wait with impatience for the next book from some of my favorites Stephenson, Brust, Stross, George Martin, Dan Simmons but can no longer tolerate going through what appears to be computer generated malarkey that seems to account for most genre fiction today.
I found your work through the stories in Asimov's. I find I can't and don't feel the need to read everyone's take on the upcoming singularity, or genetic manipulation, or what have you -- a few standard bearers are sufficient. Thorne 70, please read up on cruise missiles. Most of them are not nuclear, they don't get much of anywhere in 15 minutes that's the idea of "cruise" , and although I haven't been in the vault in 22 years, I never saw any plans that targeted the US.
I can only keep about 2K here in the condo, so I have to shed every year. I like Sterling and dislike Stephenson great ideas, can't finish a plot. You're in the wrong place to talk about how many books you read. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about the LGF fan club ever getting their hands on the levers of power. Thorne 70 California does not pay net taxes to Alabama, Californians pay net taxes to Alabama. Only three million Americans pay half the net taxes, taxes greater than they government service consumption.
Thirty million pay the other half of the net taxes. Europe needs to import more than thirty million taxpayers to keep their social security system from collapsing. Why do you think they would rather keep importing Algerians instead of Blue State Americans? Many of whom came form Germany, France, Italy, Poland, etc. Thr EMdrive is being promoted by a professional space and electronics man.
I suspect the problem is getting a good enough Q without superconducting materioals.