(Drivebycuriosity) - I love science fiction and I have been reading it for many years. As a boy I started with the novels by Jules Vernes and discovered later Robert Heinlein , Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanislav Lem, Philip K. Dick
and many more. They all based their stories more or less on logic,
technology and wove physics, engineering and other sciences into amazing
fables. Today I often get disappointed. Most of the so-called sci-fi
books and movies
tell just fantasy stories about knights, dragons &
princesses. The majority of today´s science fiction is pessimistic (dystopian), anti-future and anti-technology. It became increasingly challenging to find hard "science fiction" which is based on logic and has some science in
it.
Fortunately there are some exceptions who keep the genre alive. These
authors follow the progress in the sciences and build their stories
around new developments in artificial intelligence, genetics,
evolution, biotechnology, cloning, astrophysics, quantum mechanics and
more. They focus more or less on probability & plausibility.
It isn`t surprising that one of the most promising new science
fiction writer lives in China. There are about 1,3 billion people - a
huge basis for any talents. The country is swiftly changing and
modernizing and investing massively into science and new technologies.
Wikipedia counted in 2014
already "2,236 colleges and universities, with over 20 million students
enrolled in mainland China" (wikipedia). So it seems quite natural that a Chinese science fiction novel, "The Three Body Problem" by Cixin Liu
, won 2015 the Hugo Award for best novel, the Oscar in the sci-fi
world. The book is the start of the trilogy "The Remembrance Of Earth`s Past" (my review ). Liu Cixin wove a huge space opera - a scifi epic on a grand scale comparable to Homer´s Odyssey and Richard Wagner´s Ring cycle. He plays with the laws of physics and mathematics and translates relativity, astrophysics, string theory, quantum physics and much more science into speculative & fascinating fiction, often apocalyptic and bizarre.
The "Remembrance" is not an exception, Liu`s novel "Ball Lightning" blends advanced physics & logic with military elements and philosophical speculation about the basis of our world. The Chinese movie “The Wandering Earth”, which is one of the biggest grossing movies in Chinese history, is based on Liu`s same named novella. The film represents the can-do thinking which once characterized American science fiction - the golden age.
Liu`s precise style and his accurate & analytical descriptions of the human behavior, and the fast growing number of Chinese sci-fi authors, raise expectations for many more Chinese contributions to the development of science fiction.
Hao Jingfang, who received the Hugo award for her novella "Folding Bejing, might belong to them. In her short story “The New Year Train” people have disappeared who were traveling with a vehicle based on advanced technologies & phenomena like quantum mechanics and black holes (my review ).
But the Americans are still the leaders in the genre. The US are still a mountain of talents thanks to her size & wealth. The Chinese-American author Ted Chiang (born 1967) impresses with slick stories based on sharp logic and analysis which gained him already four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and four Locus awards, the crown of science! His novelette "The Story of Your Life" was used for the Hollywood movie "Arrival": A scientist, a female linguist, is communicating with aliens in order to find out what they want from us. The plot focuses on the science of language & communication. In other stories he deals with entropy, multiverse theory, cosmology, mathematics and more. the second compilation, called "Exhalition" is not quite as strong, but still hovering about the average (my review). The story Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" happens in a near term future where people can communicate with parallel universes and talk with their selves in other timelines thanks to devices run by quantum physics. Chiang used contemporary physics - including quantum mechanic phenomena, probability & many-worlds theory - to create a fascinating tale about decision making, fate and more. "Exhalation" is set in a bizarre universe inhabited by people who have an extremely different metabolism. Again Chiang used basic laws of physics (I don´t tell which, this is spoiler free blog) and bend them into a kafkaesk tale.
The novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" follows software engineers who develop and sell cute artificial intelligence, virtual pets who are able to learn and to evolve. The story tells how developers and owners interact with these artificial beings and how these relationships influence their lives. The analytical but also emotional plot is a fascinating speculation about AIs and their role in the near future.
Gregory Benford also mingles fascinating tales with sciences like
physics, logic, evolution, biology, chemistry & information
technology. The logical, analytical and scientific style of his novels
& short stories benefits from his career as astrophysicist on the
faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of
California. I love many of his stories, especially "The Worm Turns"
(published in the anthology "The New Space Opera", edited by Gardner
Dozois & Jonathan Strathan amazon): A freelance pilot of a
space ship tries to catch a wormhole - with the help of her AI. I also love the short story collection "Best of Gregory Benford", edited by the late David Hartford (my review). The anthology covers a spectrum of sub-genres like space opera, first
alien contact, time travel, wormholes, genetic engineering,
bio-terrorism, artificial intelligence (AI) and many more. There are a lot of gems, especially the
novella "Matters End" (first published 1989), set in a near future India and combines
quantum physics
with philosophy; "A Desperate Calculus" (1995) a near future thriller
set in the
tropics about environmentalists; "A Dance to strange Music" (1998)
scientists are exploring a strange planet, lots of plausible physics,
chemistry & evolution science.
Benford also wrote many novels, including "In the Ocean of Night"
(first printed 1972) based on physics, logic, evolution and information
technology. Benford speculates in a plausible way how alien life and
their
technologies might have advanced in the course of millions of years. The
author has been nominated for four Hugo Awards (for two short stories
and two novellas) and 12 Nebula Awards (in all categories) and won the
Nebula for his novel "Timescape".
Nancy Kress has also the talent to develop a variety of
scientific ideas into amazing stories & novels. Her oeuvre covers an
impressive spectrum of sciences translated into speculative but
plausible fiction. Some action scenes in her novel trilogy "Probability
Moon/Probability Sun/Probability Space" are based on weird quantum
mechanic effects. In the short story "Computer Virus" ((in: Year`s Best
SF 7, edited by David G. Hartwell amazon) Kress tells a thrilling story how a
woman, who is a biologist & scientist, fights against an occupying
AI, a military software, using her scientific knowledge. Other stories
deal with cosmology, spacetravel, evolution and more.
Paolo Bacigalupi focuses on bioengineering and economics but he
also touches other issues. I love his short story "Mika Model" (The
Year`s Best Science Fiction - 34th Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois amazon
). A female sex robot turns herself in. She had murdered her owner, how
should the cops deal with that? An interesting reflection on artificial
intelligence - maybe the most important technical issues in the coming
years.
Elizabeth Bear also covers AI and many other contemporary science
& technology issues. Her short story "Dolly" ("Year`s Best SF 17",
edited David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer) focuses on a female
robot, called "Dolly", with an almost human like brain who is used as an
extremely expensive high-tech sex toy. This android had apparently
killed a man, a billionaire with the habit of abusing fembots. A
detective is interrogating "Dolly. Has "she" deliberately committed
murder (to defend herself against the abuser) or is the death just an
accident caused by a machine? The tale again touches the question, does
an AI have a self-interest and if, what are the consequences? I also
enjoyed "In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns" (The Year's
Best Science Fiction: 30th Annual Collection", edited by Gardner Dozois)
a detective story (a "whodunit") set in an alternate world
near-future India and deals with some weird results of genetic
engineering. "Okay, Glory" by Elizabeth Bear. A billionaire is trapped in his secluded high-tech mansion in the mountains because some rogues had hacked the controlling house AI to demand ransom.
Robert Charles Wilson creates alternate worlds based evolution, astrophysics and other sciences. I enjoyed his novels, including "Blind Lake" where scientists, living in a classified place, observe alien life forms using some strange physics, and "Spin" where a bizarre cosmic effect changes life on earth.
The are a lot promising newcomers: Andy Weir became famous with the movie "The Martian",
based in his same-named novel, where a man is stranded on Mars and is
forced to use his skills and scientific knowledge (biology, chemistry,
physics) to fight for survival. The "Martian" is pro science, pro
technology and pro progress - a refreshing contrast to the usual
dystopian literature & movies. Weir`s short story "The Egg" deals
with reincarnation, multiverse and more (galactanet.com). His newest novel "Artemis" focuses on moon tourism and the challenge of living in a very special environment.
Adrian Tchaikovsky`also belongs to the rising stars on the scifi horizon and impressed already with his novels “Children of Time” &” Children of Ruin". The author, who has studied studied zoology and psychology, weaves a complex & fascinating plot based on logic, biology, evolution & technology spiced with a lot of philosophical musings. The reader is - together with the characters of the book -"going on a mind-bending adventure" (my review ).
Rich Larson has been on my radar for years for his highly original
stories. He delivered in "Meat and Salt and Sparks" delivered a peculiar detective story where the
investigator is a chimpanzee who`s brain has been technologically
upgraded. Someone had committed a murder following a remote control, who
gave the command? (my review )
Annalee
Newitz`s novel "Autonomous" describes a plausible world in the early
21st century, shaped by biotech, artificial intelligence (AI) & the
Internet of things. Newitz spiced her story with a lot of knowledge
& science as you can expect from good sci-fi and blends it with wild
action. I enjoyed the funny robots - which remind me of Stanislaw Lem`s
robot fairy tales - and the hilarious erotics & romance scenes.
Some short stories are also very promising. In "Agents of Evolution" by Elizabeth Hosang an intelligent software program, which works as an autonomous search agent on the Internet, got the order to find another intelligent program, a military logistics agent, which got lost on the World Wide Web. The story is told in first person by the AI, who painstakingly explains all the barriers it had to cross. A fascinating glance into how an AI might think and shows what hard science fiction can deliver these days (my review ).
The story "Acadie" by Dave Hutchinson bends quantum physics, relativity theory, genetics and other sciences into a hilarious space-opera. The tale if full of funny ideas, a kind of weird space-punk about evolution & the role of AI and reminds me of Philip K. Dick`s best pieces (my review).
In "Fractals" by G.S. Jennsen a female captain of a space ship on a deep space exploration has to respond to a bizarre cosmic signal. A fine piece of hard scientific scifi & space opera with a surprising twist spiced with quantum & astrophysics ( review).
In "Entanglement" by Joseph Robert Lewis a woman is exploring the atmosphere of Jupiter by being mentally connected (entangled) with a drone which leads to a bizarre encounter. Evolution & quantum physics! (review )
In "The old fighting Goose" by Sean Monaghan the narrator and his partner are struggling to survive in a wrecked space ship while being attacked. Serious military science fiction. Hitchcock in space! ( review)
Not Only Shakespeare
UK is not only home of Shakespeare, the kingdom has also a squad of fine hard science fiction writers. Alistair Reynolds,
who has a PhD in physics, started his career as research astronomer for
the European Space Research and Technology Centre (part of the European
Space Agency). Today he transforms his scientific knowledge into
thrilling plots. His anthology "Deep Navigation" gives a good
introduction in his work (here my review driveby
). One story is a based on the laws of thermodynamics which leads to
dramatic results, other stores are build on quantum physics or describe
how some alien spezies adapt to extreme & exotic environments
(evolution) or deal with the hypothesis of a multiverse, a hypothetical
set of finite and infinite possible universes, including the universe in
which we live.
Ian McDonald focuses on the impact of rapid social and
technological change on non-Western societies, especially India (novel
"River of Gods"). In the short story "The Fifth Dragon" (The Year's Best
Science Fiction: 32rd Annual Collection", edited by Gardner Dozois) we
follow a woman who works as an engineer on the moon in the near-future.
The author describes precisely the joys and the perils on earth`s planet
combined with a love story. Romance meets hard science fiction.
Neil Asher specializes on hive minds, intelligent beings who are
organized like bees & wasps. He also writes about artificial
intelligence (AIs) & androids.
Ken MacLeod (actually he is Scottish) is famous for his space
operas. His slick & sophisticated short story "Earth Hour" is set
in a near term future - and reminds me faintly of the Shogun
novel. An assassin has the order to kill an industry tycoon. Both are
using cutting-edge technology in a kind of deadly game with many unknown
elements. Untypically for science fiction the author includes also
elements of economics & politics. (In "The Year's Best Science
Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois").
Paul McAuley also plays with evolution, technological progress
and genetics. I like his adventure story "Transitional Forms" ( "The
Year's Best Science Fiction: 31rd Annual Collection", edited by Gardner
Dozois).
There is at least one Australian who writes cutting edge science fiction: Greg Egan.
He is also one of the most ambitious and uses a lot of mathematics
& logic. I love his short story "Zero For Conduct" ("The Year's
Best Science Fiction: 31rd Annual Collection", edited by Gardner
Dozois): A kind of feminist thriller about science and quantum physics
set in a hostile cultural and political environment. In "The Slipway" suddenly a strange new group of stars appears in the sky and keeps the scientists puzzling. The fascinating story contains a lot of cosmology, physics and mathematics even though there are no equation lots of mathematics - pure hard science fiction as its finest ( driveby)
Enjoy!
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