A certain Sci-Fi genre...?

[darue]

I've read all of of those except for the Space Beagle one.

Sigh,, I'm getting old and my relatives want me to sell off my early sf paperbacks. I told them they could do that later on. I want to re-read them.

Stories about Grimes are very good. A. E. Van Vogt's stories will certainly stretch your mind.

Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein were some of my early reading material.

If you can find 'em, the short stories of Eric Frank Russell are great stuff. Some of it seems to have been an influence on Traveller.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1414641.The_Best_of_Eric_Frank_Russell

and I can't say enough how thoughtfully enjoyable James Blish's Cities in Flight series (these days always combined into one big book) is.

 

[Enoff]

I still enjoy rereading Andre Norton, amazing how timeless her books are. When the LBBs were first published, and there was hardly any background material available, they seemed to emanate unlimited possibilities you are alluding to.

 

[BlackBat242]

That's because she didn't write a detailed background setting and technical exposition, like is considered a requirement of "modern" sci-fi... and thus didn't place "prison-bars" of limiting and constricting detail on the plots & stories.

The sparse background and generalized tech description free the stories, and enables plots that are very amenable to being dropped in almost any setting and tech level.

 

[Enoff]

That's because she didn't write a detailed background setting and technical exposition, like is considered a requirement of "modern" sci-fi... and thus didn't place "prison-bars" of limiting and constricting detail on the plots & stories.

The sparse background and generalized tech description free the stories, and enables plots that are very amenable to being dropped in almost any setting and tech level.

I concur BB, well summed up.

 

[leo knight]

That's because she didn't write a detailed background setting and technical exposition, like is considered a requirement of "modern" sci-fi... and thus didn't place "prison-bars" of limiting and constricting detail on the plots & stories.

The sparse background and generalized tech description free the stories, and enables plots that are very amenable to being dropped in almost any setting and tech level.

Here's a bit I found about fantasy author Fritz Leiber, and his process when writing the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories:

http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2011/09/fritz-leiber-on-making-world-up-as-you.html

The money quote:

It must always be remembered that I know no more of Nehwon than I have put into my stories [original emphasis]. There are no secret volumes of history, geography, etc., written before the tales themselves were spun.

 

[leo knight]

And another thing:

I remember reading an interview with Gordon R. Dickson about his "Dorsai" series. Tried to find it online, no luck. IIRC, he said that he had originally compiled a huge binder of notes on the setting, but sometime after the first novel was published, lost them all. He didn't want to re-write all that material, so he simply tried to stay consistent, and used what he remembered. It seems to have worked out well for him!

 

[Timerover51]

They have Star Guard and Star Rangers in one book at my library. I'll have to check it out. Star Rangers is one of my favorites.

You can also download it for free from the following site.

http://www.baenebooks.com/p-396-star-soldiers.aspx

There is a fair amount of Norton's works on Project Gutenberg.

 

[Easterner9504]

GENRES

Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic science fiction
Biopunk—uses elements from the hard-boiled detective novel, film noir, Japanese anime, and post-modernist prose to describe the nihilistic, underground side of the biotech society
Cli fi—emphasizes effects of anthropogenic climate change and global warming at the end of the Holocene era
Dying Earth science fiction
Military science fiction
Mundane SF
Steampunk—denotes works set in (or strongly inspired by) an era when steam power was still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian England — though with otherwise high technology or other science fiction elements
Time travel
Space colonization
Space opera—emphasizes romantic adventure, exotic settings, and larger-than-life characters
Spy-fi
Superheroes

SUB-SPECIALTIES-COMBO's


Alternate history science fiction—fiction set in a world in which history has diverged from history as it is generally known
Comic science fiction
Science fiction erotica
Adventure science fiction—science fiction adventure is similar to many genres and is emphasized in popular culture (see Romantic Science Fiction and Space Opera)
Gothic science fiction—a subgenre of science fiction that involves gothic conventions
New Wave science fiction—characterized by a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content
Science fantasy—a mixed genre of story which contains some science fiction and some fantasy elements
Science fiction opera—a mixture of opera and science fiction involving empathic themes
Science fiction romance—fiction which has elements of both the science fiction and romance genres
Science fiction mystery—fiction which has elements of both the science fiction and mystery genres, encompassing Occult detective fiction and science fiction detectives
Science fiction Western—fiction which has elements of both the science fiction and Western genres
Space Western—a subgenre of science fiction that transposes themes of American Western books and film to a backdrop of futuristic space frontiers.

 

[Timerover51]

I have talked with authors, and it seems that both a detailed outline and more of a seat of the pants work, depending on the author. Hal Clement liked to work up a detailed world, and then see what he could do with it. Roland Green writes the first chapter and the last chapter, and then connects to two.

With Andre Norton, she focused more on the characters and their challenge than the tech parts, and some of her books are a magnificent blend of science fiction and fantasy, like Witch World or the Warlock Series.

 

[JimMarn]

If you can find 'em, the short stories of Eric Frank Russell are great stuff. Some of it seems to have been an influence on Traveller.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1414641.The_Best_of_Eric_Frank_Russell

and I can't say enough how thoughtfully enjoyable James Blish's Cities in Flight series (these days always combined into one big book) is.

I haven't heard of Frank Russell, but i have read Cities in Flight, and many others by James Blish.

I was told years ago that grabbing the reader's attention in the first page is the thing, and the hardest.

I found, writing believable conversation is very hard, at least for me it is.

 

[darue]

I haven't heard of Frank Russell, but i have read Cities in Flight, and many others by James Blish.

I was told years ago that grabbing the reader's attention in the first page is the thing, and the hardest.

I found, writing believable conversation is very hard, at least for me it is.

agree it's likely not too easy, I gotta try it sometime though