That was some HARD Science fiction!

I just finished Gregory Benford's 1980 Nebula Winner Timescape. I will review it over at Jupiter Three, but let me just say, it definitely qualifies as Hard Sci Fi.

The author is a physicist, and his handling of the physics of time and space was deep enough to boggle my mind. OK, maybe not a stretch, but still.

The end of the copy I have has an excellent essay by Susan Stone Blackburn entitled Science Meets Literature, which I found to be just as interesting as the book. The essay was published in 1988, and helped me to understand the book after I read it. (Warning - the essay includes spoilers, so don't read it first, no matter how helpful it would be!)

Enough said here; but if you are looking for a good example of Hard Science Fiction, this is an excellent sample!

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Hard SciFi Revisited

DePauw University has some excellent articles archived on the Hard Science Fiction genre. I found it interesting that books dealing with social or religious issues are more marketable than those dealing with harder topics. But no, I guess it makes sense.

What is a Space Opera?

I ask because I am reading Alastair Reynolds' 2000 novel Revelation Space , and that is how it is being touted. Apparently that label was not originally a positive one. Wikipedia states that it was originally applied to "the hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn space-ship yarn, or world-saving [story]". It is more generally applied to stories where "settings, characters, battles, powers, and themes tend to be very large-scale". OK, I assume the second is the reason it is applied to Revelation Space . It's taking me some time to read it, and it was a little slow to get into, but now that I am, I want to see what happens. I will be reviewing it at jupiterthree.com when I finish it.

Hmmmm

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