Quote:
Originally Posted by cromag
As a young teenager in the 60s I was a big Asimov fan. This thread was just the stimulus I needed to go back and reread some of them.
I have been rereading some of A. Bertram Chandler's Rim Worlds stories lately. They now suffer from some of the same flaws as Asimov's. They have second and third generation star ships with sophisticated computers, but reports are still "typed" on paper and newly landed spacemen look for phone booths. Even his description of the universe reflects a bias towards the Steady State theory of Cosmology as opposed to the Big Bang.
Far from being stumbling blocks I think they add to the interest.
I also read mysteries from the 50s and 60s, but in this genre the anachronisms are suited to the setting. No one would expect a private eye in the 1960s to do research on Google, or keep in touch with his cell phone (mobile).
It's all part of the fun. And it really is fun!
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Larry Niven wrote of a future where, instead of phone booths, cities had teleport booths. And they used rotary dials.
In F.M Busby's RISSA KERGUELEN, the starship combat lasers were aimed with oscilloscopes.
In most of Heinlein's stories, audio was recorded on wire, not silicon chips.
None of which was essential or detrimental to the nature of the story or its impact.
All SF, by definition, takes place in alternate universes. (They sure as heck don't take place *here*.)