Who remembers their first exposure to science fiction?
I have always been a voracious reader. When I was a little girl, my local library had a special exception for me. Children under 12 could only check out 5 books at a time. They let me have 15, so I wouldn't have to come in every couple of days (I was lucky, my grandmother worked there!). By the time I was 9 or 10 I had read most all of the books in the "little kids" section and began to look in the adolescent section. There, I found the book that set my main reading interests for life.
Who else could it be but Robert Heinlein?!! "Have Spacesuit Will Travel", to be precise! I was in love. From then on, every time I went to the library, his name was the first one I looked for.
When I was old enough to buy my own books, for many years I never bought anything other than SciFi (or Fantasy, once I came across Andre Norton). I waited with breath held for each new Heinlein book. I've read them all, many times, and cried like an idiot when he died. I wish I could have met him.
Now that I'm all grown up (hey, who says???) I'll read just about anything that looks interesting, except westerns and romance, but SciFi and Fantasy are still my favorites, and the first aisle I head to at the book store. I also have quite a few other favorite authors by now , but I'll never forget that dear Robert was my first love. There will never be another quite like him!
I read both genres and they are always grouped together on the book shop shelves.
One difference, it seems that in Sci-Fi, any bozo with a ray gun can spit fire (even if he doesn't know how it works) whereas in Fantasy, one must be born into a wizarding family. There are cross examples of course. There are sorcerers apprentices who just learn the trade and in Stargate Atlantis, only someone with a certain gene left by the Ancients can operate some of the equipment.
Another difference would be Fantasy having a medieval setting and Sci-Fi having a futuristic setting. I can think of a hundred cross examples where authors purposely mixed things up: King Arthur and Merlin in modern day New York (Peter David), Appollo on some far flung planet (the original Star Trek series), time travellers of all sorts (A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Twain) and a whole series called The Time Patrol by Poul Anderson.
Still, the vast majority of Sci-Fi is set sometime in the future, relies heavily on technology to survive, and exploits the available resources completely. Fantasy on the other hand, is generally an agrarian setting with fields lying fallow and few machines past the wheel.
Harold Bloom wrote a book that advanced the theory paraphrased thus: Before Shakespeare, we have no examples in (European) literature where the protagonist had self doubt. He knew absolutely that he was part of a community, be it church or clan or languge group. Every action he took was based on the dictates of that group. The Fantasy genre is embedded in the era before the Age Of Reason when a weatherstorm meant get the kids in the house and the animals in the barn and if there was any wondering at all about the source of the storm, the storytellers would weave something up about clashing gods or such. A Science Fiction character would find a defence against the storm and then harness it to power some new invention.
Another aspect from an authors point of view, applies to both genres equally. Exploring what it means to be human. The Fantasy writer does this by compare and contrast to elves, goblins, witches, etc. etc. The Sci-Fi writer does this by putting his characters in a far flung starscape and examining them like mice in a maze. Longevity treatments? What would happen to marriage? Living in zero g? What type of community would form? Would people still battle over control of energy sources? What would government look like if we were all telepaths?
I have to get to work but thanks for letting me ramble, Sean
I love his books, especially the Pip and Flinx ones. I was hoping someone could jog my memory about the name of one of his books. It's about a family traveling arcoss country in an RV and they have all sorts of strange adventures.
Yep, I strive mightily for the whole enchilada which must fit between two (count 'em, front + back = 2) covers. Not much in the commercial bookstores for me, 'm-fraid. Much happier in book nooks that have cats (or bats?) 'mongst the shelves. And TG for EBaY, says I. But after a severe diet of down-sizing, I find now myself mayhaps a decade out of synch? So lemme rattle off three of my keepers in the hopes that you can suggest more titles for this avid reader's skinny lil' bookshelf... Sarah Zettel, Reclamation Donald Kingsbury, Courtship Rite Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana
Thanks from a-w-a-a-a-y's up north... a serial killer ;)
In the early days of personal computers, before the website. many of us ran what were called BBSes, or bulletin boards. I had the honor to be a developer of a program called Citadel. The idea was a 'site' structured around the concept of 'rooms', much as these discussion topics here. With Citadel, the commands were simplified to essentials for example... to read you typed .R , to skip a message .S , to goto the next 'room' .Goto and then the room name....thus one could breeze thru all the rooms and control which messages you dealt with. The starter room was the Lobby and was mostly reserved for board notices or welcomes to new visitors/members. Some rooms could be set to hold downloadable files as well. An idea that took root was one for a story that changed as each person added their entry to the ongoing plot. Thus a story grew entry by entry and nobody knew how it would end. Sometimes weird but usually quite fun. In honor of those 'ancient days' I begin anew -- i hope you all will enjoy it and add your bit as the spirit moves you..
I am busy trying to sort my books and find duplicates to try to make myself sell. Do to space constraints I must somehow divide the books in order to sort them. I have tried sorting by authors, size (hardback, trade paper, mass paper), and genres.
Currently I am sorting by format (basically because they are easier to stack that way). The hardbacks I am sorting by author, the paperbacks by genre, then when I get time, author.
I am having trouble with genres though. What is science fiction, what is fantasy, what is paranormal contemporary romance?? (Don't even go to the historical paranormal romance novel!)
How do you categorize your books? Do you categorize your books?
I picked up over a hundred sci fi books, although I am a sci fi fan, the old pulps are a mystery. If you can give me some ideas of fairness, I would appreciate it. Some examples are below. Thank you!!!!
I'm huge William Gibson fan. Has anyone read his new book Spook Country? Is it as good as his other ones? I've heard it's more like Pattern Recognition and not really cyper-punk.
I just finished my first Sci-Fi book about the epic war between good and evil. It is a young adult story and the first two chapters can be read at: http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=2020066 The book is entitled Army of Heroes. It is a two part story and may be more in the future since it was a fun story to write.
If you have any comments feel free to speak your mind.
I also have the option of buying an ISBN for my book for $100, but I don't know if it is worth it yet.
Hello, I new to this neighborhood and was wondering is there any interest in older 1st edition sci-fi paperbacks like Poul aAnderson (The troble twisters) 3rd edition 1982, Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan & The jewels of opar)13th printing 1982, John Brunner (Times without number) 1st printing 1962, Authur C Clarke ( The lost worlds of 2001) 1st printing 1972, Authur C Clarke (2010 Odyssey two) 4th printing 1984...?
Hi everyone! I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Paul Little and I am the owner of Full Moon Press, a new small press dedicated to publishing Signed/Limited Edition books in Sci-fi, Horror, and Fantasy Genres. If anyone is interested in knowing more they may visit www.thefullmoonpress.com or send an email to info@thefullmoonpress.com