Science fiction themes - Science fiction themes Science fiction has a number of common concepts and themes that have been reused by numerous authors. Some have become cliches, and only truly novel treatments of them gain attention, whilst others have become "part of the furniture", ie they can be included in a story without much explanation, because readers are all already familiar with the core concept. In alphabetical order: Aliens (see Aliens in fiction) Alien invasion Benevolent aliens First contact Principles of non-interference (e.g. Prime Directive) Xenobiology Androids Cyborgs and Cybernetics Robots Apocalypses or world wide disasters See also Post-apocalyptic science fiction Arcologies Artificial intelligence Clones Colonisation Terraforming Cosmology Creation of the Universe Ultimate fate of the Universe Omega Point Cryonics Cyberpunk Steampunk Ecology Science Fiction is used to raise.
Sex in science fiction - Sex in science fiction Modern science fiction frequently involves themes of sex, gender and sexuality. This was not always so. During the 1930s and 40s "golden age" of science fiction it was unusual to find males and females mentioned in the same paragraph, let alone having sex. In spite of this, book covers for pulp science fiction often featured scantily clad women, often with guns or being menaced by aliens. In some ways, little has changed: many science fiction book covers still feature images of sexy women by artists such as Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta, although the images are perhaps somewhat less exploitative than before. The New Wave science fiction of the 1960s and 1970s reflected its times by attempting to break earlier taboos about what.
Soft science fiction - Soft science fiction Soft science fiction is science fiction whose plots and themes tend to focus on philosophy, psychology, politics and sociology while de-emphasizing the details of technological hardware and physical laws. It is so-called 'Soft' Science Fiction, because these subjects are grouped together as the Soft Sciences or Humanities. For instance, Frank Herbert in Dune, uses the plot device of creating a universe which has rejected conscious machines and has reverted to a Feudal organisation. Consequently Herbert uses the Dune saga to comment about the human condition and makes direct and accurate parallels to current socio-political realities. As early as 1908 the famous United States author Jack London wrote The Iron Heel, a dystopic novel set in a future where a totalitarian capitalist state, controlled by.
Planets in science fiction - Planets in science fiction The exploration of other worlds is one of the most enduring themes of science fiction. During the first decades of science fiction, Mars was the most common planet and the most romanticized of our solar system whose surface conditions seemed closest to being amenable to life. Percival Lowell's idea about canals of Mars was taken at face value then. Currently Mars is depicted mainly as a target of terraforming. See Mars in fiction for more details on the red planet's numerous roles. During the early-to-mid 20th century, Venus was also a popular subject. Venus is very similar to Earth in its size and surface gravity, and its surface is hidden by a thick cloud layer. Venus was usually depicted as a warm, wet,.
Pregnancy in science fiction - Pregnancy in science fiction Numerous science fiction, utopian and dystopian novels revolve around sexual reproduction, pregnancy and infertility. Some examples: Brian Aldiss: Greybeard (universal infertility) Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale (1985) (widespread infertility in a theocratic United States) David Brin: Glory Season (1994) (mixutre of parthenogenesis an sexual reproduction in a mainly feamle society) Anthony Burgess: The Wanting Seed (1962) Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland (1915) (parthenogenesis in an all-female society) Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932) (all children produced in artificial wombs and engineered for specific social niches) P.D. James: The Children of Men (1992) (universal infertility) Marge Piercy: Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) (fetuses raised externally in breeders rather than in the female womb) John Wyndham: The Midwich Cuckoos (1957) Among themes regularly encountered.
Women in science fiction - Women in science fiction Although women had always been represented among science fiction writers (Frankenstein by Mary Shelley has been called the first science fiction novel), it was not until the 1960s and 1970s that authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Joanna Russ began to consciously explore feminist themes in works such as The Left Hand of Darkness and The Female Man. See also: Women Science Fiction Authors Sex in science fiction Feminism The constructed language Láadan in the novel Native Tongue Lesbian science fiction.
List of science fiction short stories - List of science fiction short stories This is a non-comprehensive list of short stories with significant science fiction elements. Due to the large number of short stories this list is limited to stories that have done one of the following, Defined a sub-genre of science fiction. Founded an important science fiction series. Been the first to introduce a science fiction concept. Won major science fiction or general fiction awards. Topped a major bestseller list. Been important to the field of science fiction in another way. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Humans colonizing other planets 2 Intelligent animals 3 Large Artificial Worlds 4 Non 3-Dimensional Space 5 Robot Stories 6 Time Travel Humans colonizing other planets ;Weyr Search (1968) by Anne McCaffrey : Founding story of the Pern.
History of Crime Fiction - History of Crime Fiction Crime fiction is a typically 20th century genre, dominated by the British and American writers. This article explores its historical development as a genre. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Crime fiction in history 1.1 Description of crimes and detectives 1.2 The "Locked Room" mysteries 1.3 Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson mysteries 1.4 The Golden Age - Development by later writers 1.5 Hard boiled American crime fiction writing 2 Modern crime writing 2.6 A shift from plot-driven themes to character analysis 2.7 Crime fiction in specific themes 2.8 Feminist crime fiction 2.9 Police investigation themes Crime fiction in history It was only after 1900, that novels and stories depicting crime and its consequences came to be recognised as a distinct literary genre, and spawned specialist.
Fan fiction - Fan fiction Fan fiction (commonly abbreviated to "fanfic") is fiction written by people who enjoy a film, novel, television show or other dramatic or literary work, using the characters and situations developed in it and developing new plots in which to use these characters. Fan fiction has come to the fore especially since the rise of the Internet, where it flourishes despite the possibility that it infringes the copyright of the film, book, TV show, or other media on which it is based. Nowadays the largest form of fanfic is based on Japanese anime/manga series, followed by those based on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, American cartoon series, and science fiction serials. Popular television series which have inspired fanfic include Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer..
Fiction - Fiction Fiction is the term used to describe works of information created from the imagination. This is in contrast to non-fiction, which makes factual claims about reality. Fictional works -- books, pictures, stories, fairy tales, fables, movies, comics, interactive fiction -- may be partly based on factual occurrences but always contain some imaginary content. Fiction is largely perceived as a form of art or entertainment, although not all fiction is necessarily artistic. Fiction may be created for the purpose of educating, such as fictional examples used in school textbooks. Fiction is also frequently instrumentalized by propaganda and advertising. Fiction may be propagated by parents to their children out of tradition (e.g. Santa Claus) or as a form of control (cf. fairy tales). Frequently fiction is deliberately.
Utopian fiction - Utopian fiction Utopian fiction is the creation of a ideal world, described as a utopia as the setting for a novel. {discuss the origins of the word, which means "nowhere"} {discuss the prime examples of such fiction, dating from Thomas More's Utopia, to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, to B.F. Skinner's Walden Two.} {discuss the converse of this genre, the dystopia, which is more commonly found in science fiction circles. See Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World, any of William Gibson's novels, etc.} A subgenre of this is 'ecotopian fiction,' where the author posits either a utopian or dystopian world based around environmental conservation/destruction or other ecological themes. Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia (novel) was an early example of this, followed by Kim Stanley Robinson in his California trilogy. Robinson.
Aliens in fiction - Aliens in fiction The existence of alien (extraterrestrial) beings has been one of the enduring themes of science fiction. One of the first fiction writers to use Alien beings from another planet was H.G. Wells. The War of the Worlds is the best known of his works; it also introduced the modern reader to the recurring concept of interplanetary invasion by malign aliens. The alien invasion was one of two themes which was to crop up again and again in the 'pulp science fiction' years, the 1930s to 1960s. The Cold War made people particularly receptive to the idea of evil and incomprehensible beings coming to destroy or enslave earthly (usually American) life. Examples of these include the short story The Liberation of Earth by William Tenn..
Messiahs in fiction and fantasy - Messiahs in fiction and fantasy The idea of a messiah figure has long been an element in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Perhaps the earliest use of a messiah figure in fantasy is the mythical figure of King Arthur. Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Narnia 2 Dune 3 Babylon 5 4 The Matrix Trilogy 5 Deep Impact 6 Superman Narnia C. S. Lewis wrote the fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia as a parable for the New Testament, to introduce readers to the Christian idea of a messiah; the lion Aslan dies for other people's sins but is reborn, and is part of a trinity. Dune The concept of the messiah is central to the Dune series of books by Frank.
List of fictional dogs - Red and a cohort of other Irish Setters, protagonists of novels by James Kjelgaard, some of which were also Disneyfied Boots, narrator of Thy Servant a Dog by Rudyard Kipling Buck, the main character in Jack London's Call of the Wild "Bullseye", Bill Sykes' dog in Oliver Twist Gaspode, an unusually clever dog who talks, in various Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett Greyfriars Bobby, a true story which became the basis of much fiction Howard, the dog in Bunnicula and sequels by James Howe Huan, The great wolfhound of Valinor, friend and helper of Beren and Lúthien, in J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Silmarillion Jock, from Jock of the Bushveld, by Sir Percy FitzPatrick, a South African classic first published in 1907 Lad, a dog by Albert Payson Terhune Laddie.
Ken MacLeod - MacLeod (born August 2, 1954) is a Scottish science fiction writer living near Edinburgh. His novels are notable for the exploration of socialist, communist and anarchist political themes. He is a friend of Iain Banks and is thanked for his advice in at least one of the latter's books. Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide") 1 Bibliography 1.1 Fall Revolution sequence 1.2 Engines of Light trilogy 2.
Kim Stanley Robinson - initially identified as a leading member of the "humanist", or literary, camp of science fiction authors in the 1980s, but whose Mars trilogy is a solid example of hard science fiction. His fiction frequently delves into ecological and utopian themes with a political sophistication and point of view rarely seen elsewhere in the field. The utopian novels Robinson's utopias are strikingly different in that the society portrayed is dynamic and subject to flaws and outside pressures, rather than the static perfection displayed in more classic utopias, in which literary values take a back seat to the political argument. His utopian novels include the Three Californias trilogy, which consists of the post-disaster novel The Wild Shore (1984, his first), the future dystopia The Gold Coast (1988), and the "ecotopia" Pacific Edge (1990);.
Known Space - is the fictional setting of many of Larry Niven's science fiction stories. In general terms it is the name given by humans to the collection of stars and planets near the Earth, out to some 50 light years, which have been explored and settled in the books set in it. The Known Space stories span approximately a thousand years of history, from the first human explorations of our solar system to the colonization of dozens of nearby systems (and with references to events some billion years ago). Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers In the process, humankind encounters several intelligent alien species, including: the Kzinti, belligerent giant cat-like aliens with whom the humans fight several brutal wars – mostly offstage until the release of the Man-Kzin Wars short-story collections, largely by other authors;.
Jack C. Haldeman II - II (December 18, 1941 - January 1, 2002) was a biologist and science fiction writer. He was the older brother of SF writer Joe Haldeman. He studied environmental engineering and biology at the University of Oklahoma, and received a degree from Johns Hopkins University. His scientific career included work in parasitology, field studies of whales in the Canadian Arctic, study of the greenhouse effect, and the collection of documents relating to agriculture in Florida. Haldeman published about 10 novels and over 100 short stories, beginning with "Garden of Eden" in the December 1971 Fantastic. He is notable for writing science fiction with sports themes; "Home Team Advantage", first appearing in IASFM in 1977 has been anthologized a number of times. "High Steel", a 1982 story co-authored with Jack Dann, was a.
Jerry Pournelle - 7, 1933 in Shreveport, Louisiana) is an essayist, journalist and science fiction author. He holds advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering, and political science. His science fiction, much of it written in collaboration with Larry Niven, frequently has strong military themes. Several books center around the fictional mercenary infantry force Falkenberg's Legion. He wrote the "Chaos Manor" column in the print version of Byte magazine for many years, describing his experiences with various hardware and software configurations. He continues to write the column for the online version and international print editions of Byte, as well as the computer programming magazine Dr. Dobb's Journal (from the December 2003 issue onwards). His political experience includes serving as Executive Assistant to the Mayor and Director of Research for the City of Los Angeles. He.
John Varley - John Varley John Varley is a science fiction author. He has written several novels and numerous short stories, many of them in a future history (the Eight Worlds) where years before a race of mysterious and omnipotent aliens kicked humans off the Earth, but humans have inhabited virtually every other corner of the solar system, often through the use of wild biological modifications partially learned from eavesdropping on alien communications. His detailed speculations on the ways humans might use advances in biological science were revelatory in the 1970's when his story collection The Persistence of Vision was released. The title story in that collection won the Hugo and Nebula awards, and it has been suggested that "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank" may have inspired some portions of the movie Total.
