11-25-2008, 09:56 AM | #61 | |
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For example, I like C.J. Cherryh's SF books very much indeed, and I don't think there would be any argument that books like "Downbelow Station" are "Hard SF". On the other hand, "Cyberpunk" as written by authors like William Gibson does nothing for me at all - I just don't enjoy him as an author, full stop. |
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11-25-2008, 12:35 PM | #62 |
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I think part of the problem with any such categorization, is that we often tend to want it to be exclusive... this book is Hard Science Fiction period. In many cases, the book can fit in many categories. Its been a while since I read Downbelow Station, but to me it can fit into a few different categories. It could be, by some measures hard scifi, by other measures, it could be a war story, by others... well you get my point.
To a certain extent, it is often easier to point to books that are clearly not hard science fiction than it is to books that clearly are! -- Bill |
11-25-2008, 06:05 PM | #63 |
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But I don't consider a book to be cyberpunk unless it has plausibility! As opposed to, say, steampunk. Gibson was mindblowing because he gave us a taste of the leading edge of reality. Was Stephenson's Snow Crash too unbelievable to be both cyberpunk and hard SF? It certainly had whimsy. Steve, how do you define "hard SF?"
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11-25-2008, 06:17 PM | #64 |
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Linked from Gary Gibson's blog (whose Stealing Light has also been mentioned above):
Star Dragon by Mike Brotherton (a real astrophysist, can't get much harder than that, eh?) |
11-25-2008, 11:34 PM | #65 | |
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Snow Crash is a great book, though I think it is more properly called post-cyberpunk since it actually sends up several cyberpunk tropes. I wouldn't consider Snow Crash to be hard scifi though. -- Bill |
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11-26-2008, 08:53 AM | #66 |
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My definition is here.
Like so many other branches of SF, cyberpunk can be hard or soft. I tend to consider most of the "immersive VR" elements common to cyberpunk as soft, since the ability to "jack into" the human brain is still largely unproven and not understood (I think many people assume the human brain's inner workings are just a lucky code-breaking away from complete understanding, but I've always disagreed with that assessment). |
11-26-2008, 09:17 AM | #67 | |
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11-27-2008, 08:53 AM | #68 |
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A quick recommendation
A quick recommendation - I haven't really been following this thread, but I'm in the middle of reading The Hard SF Renaissance anthology I recently purchased from Fictionwise, and it's an excellent primer to a very wide variety of sf over the past couple of decades that's also very much not in the Baen style of things.
I'd been balking from buying it at Fictionwise because it was just really expensive, but with the current 40% micropay offer it suddenly looked very worthwhile, and I picked another couple of books up along with it. I'd go for that if anything while the sale is on. Plus, it's huge - on my Sony Reader with fairly narrow page margins, it comes to nearly three and a half thousand pages of text. |
11-27-2008, 09:49 AM | #69 | ||
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11-28-2008, 04:10 PM | #70 | |
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2001, Scientists place eel brain into small robot, brain is able to use light sensors and wheels to move around 2002, camera with implant for the blind 2008, thought controled games? Once you can control the senses (input and output), you can "jack in". |
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11-28-2008, 11:27 PM | #71 | |
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Which is not to say they are impossible... just that they're a much longer long-shot than most people expect. |
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11-30-2008, 02:28 AM | #72 |
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At present I am reading Time's Eye by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter and really enjoying it. Its the type of SF I like. I hate the bug-eyed alien space battle type of SF but enjoy the more scientific realistic type SF.
Does Time's Eye classify as hard SF. |
11-30-2008, 10:32 AM | #73 |
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If it's from Clarke and Baxter (or, for that matter, anything by Clarke, with the exception of many of his short stories), I'd say it qualifies as Hard SF without even having to read it. Clarke is one of the most thorough and consistent hard SF writers that has ever been published, as far as I'm concerned.
I'm personally not fond of the Clarke-Baxter collaborations, myself, but they are based on Clarke's concepts and meticulous research. |
12-01-2008, 01:35 PM | #74 |
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Hmm, the obelisk(s) in some of Clarke's most famous novels conflict with your definition of hard SF and nearly push those novels into fantasy. But I'm okay with FTL drives and such in my "hard" label, more along the lines of that Wiki link, rigor of the science as presented.
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12-01-2008, 02:42 PM | #75 | |
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The fact that these are alien technologies, which do things we cannot understand, is as understandable as the idea that a car dropped into the Jurassic age would confound a Gallimimus. (Feel free to debate the Hard-SF likelihood of advanced aliens, however.) The concept of technology too advanced for us to understand is not the same as fantasy, or utilizing "magic," and can still be Hard-SF. |
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