Great Science Fiction

Recently, I started to compile a list of what I feel are the greatest Science Fiction novels of all time. I may post that list here at some point, but I am still considering the list. Starting the list was easy.

• Dune, by Frank Herbert
• Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
• The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick

It has taken much longer to expand the list and considering the list brought up another line of thought.

What makes a great Science Fiction novel?

Are there any things that all of the novels above, as well as the others I added later, have in common? Well, aside from reside on bookstore Science Fiction section shelves, and winning awards?

Science Fiction is an interesting place to consider such questions, because the genre has not always been of the highest literary quality. I suppose that some might still make that claim. I never cared. I started reading Science Fiction as a teenager and I have never stopped. I like Science Fiction, and I am often bored by "mainstream" fiction. Whatever its literary value, Science Fiction is generally exciting, and at its best thought provoking, and I like that.

So, on to a list, if you will, of the things that I think make up a great Science Fiction novel. I am not going to deal, at length, with the things that make up great writing, or a great novel. You can look those up in other places. Obviously, a good grasp of language, including grammar, characterization, and plot are all important to Science Fiction, just as they are important to other fiction. My intent is to discuss those things which, while not unique, are more important to Science Fiction than to other types of fiction (though I would probably put up a similar list for Fantasy fiction).

Locale - while exotic locations are not unique to Science Fiction, I think that they are generally important to Science Fiction. Would The Moon is a Harsh Mistress be quite as good without the Moon as it's setting? Dune without Arrakis? Sometimes, the exotic locale is a well-known locale with a twist, say like New York with a massive ship hanging over it, or the United States split into 3 countries. The exotic location helps move the reader out of their comfort zone, which I feel is very important to Science Fiction.

It is often said that Science Fiction requires "suspension of disbelief." I agree, and I think that getting the reader to accept an alien (as in unfamiliar, not as in ET) environment, an alien setting helps readers with that suspension. Whether it be the sterile environment of a starship, or simply details about the moon's gravity, the location of the story helps carry us away from ourselves, and into the world of the author.

Every author must take you from your world into theirs, but this is so much easier for the mainstream writer, whose world is exactly like the readers, or very nearly. The Science Fiction writer often, but not always, has the task of painting for the reader a world that exists only in the imagination.

Extrapolation - Science Fiction is sometimes called the fiction of "what if...?" Much of Science Fiction is set in the future, where things that we dream of today are common. Even writers like Jules Verne and H.G Wells looked into the future for ideas. Looking into the future is a common exercise for Science Fiction writers.

Some books are set so far into the future that the author has no need to figure out exactly how we got there. Dune and Foundation (Issac Asimov) are good examples of this, even though, whether originally or later, Asimov did give thought to how human history led to the time of his first Foundation novels. Robert Heinlein, to give the alternative, set many of his stories in the near future and these stories are often tied together into what is called Future History.

Science Fiction is often created by taken something from the present, a political movement, social trend, or fad, and pushing it out into the future. Sometimes, this is done to look at where a movement might really lead, and sometimes, an author will provide a cautionary tale by pushing an idea in ways that seem a little absurd when considered in the light of day.

There is even a whole branch of Science Fiction known as alternative history, where some past event is changed, and then a new past, present or future is built out from that change. The Man in the High Castle shows that this is not a new trend in Science Fiction, and a case could be made for The Time Machine having certain elements similar to alternative history.

The last item is something that I think is key to Science Fiction, but I could easily make a case for it being key to all good fiction.

Makes You Think - I like fiction that makes me think. No, I should rephrase that as...I think books that make me think. I believe that is why I got interested in history. Studying history makes me think about the connections between events and how one leads to the next. Sometimes it is how a series of past events tie together, and sometimes it is thinking about what I would do were I where the protaganist is. It has to do with that "what if..." concept, but the best Science Fiction causes me to think about whether or not I think the author got his "what if..." right. It may also make me think about what I would do on a starship when it was attacked, or how I would try to communicate with an alien.

Okay, I lied. I have one more to add to my list.

A Sense of Wonder - that is why I read Science Fiction, for the "wow" moments, when the author takes me so completely out of myself that I look to the sky to see if I can see the hovering ship, or imagine what I would do in the deep desert, or how I would walk on the Moon, or maybe just how I would deal with something completely new and different.

All of these are what I think makes great Science Fiction, and naturally, my favorite books will have all them, to one degree or another.