Even if a person is not a fan of dystopian books there's still a lot of wonderful sci fi out there, Bradbury especially! His writing is so great. Your division of sci fi into science fiction and space opera reminds me of my division of fantasy into 2 types--epic and lyric. The epics are huge books that are part of a huge series and are more plot-driven than character-driven. Like LoTR, or Game of Thrones. I usually don't like these. Any book that I have to refer to a character list--nothankyouverymuch. I tend to like what I call the lyrical books--McKinley, McKillip, Le Guin, MWT. Character-driven stories with some gorgeous writing. Hey, maybe that is why people don't like hard-science sci fi. The writing often just isn't that great?
I really liked a series by Joan Vinge about Cat. The books are Psion, Catspaw, and Dreamfall. They are hard to find, but I'll be happy to loan them to you. You will laugh your ass off over the dated 80s covers. Tiegirl recommended them to me, and I loved them.
How about Ender's Game? It takes place in space, but seems like it's both plot and character driven. And the technology plays a huge part in the book. One of the best YA books ever, I thought. House of the Scorpion is fantastic, too.
So, how do you classify all the other sci fi books that don't take place in space? Do they all just fall into the science fiction broad category?
I'm not a fan of books that are focused mainly on world-building, whether it's fantasy or science fiction.
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sarken
(no subject)
Date: 2012-06-28 08:07 pm (UTC)Even if a person is not a fan of dystopian books there's still a lot of wonderful sci fi out there, Bradbury especially! His writing is so great. Your division of sci fi into science fiction and space opera reminds me of my division of fantasy into 2 types--epic and lyric. The epics are huge books that are part of a huge series and are more plot-driven than character-driven. Like LoTR, or Game of Thrones. I usually don't like these. Any book that I have to refer to a character list--nothankyouverymuch. I tend to like what I call the lyrical books--McKinley, McKillip, Le Guin, MWT. Character-driven stories with some gorgeous writing. Hey, maybe that is why people don't like hard-science sci fi. The writing often just isn't that great?
I really liked a series by Joan Vinge about Cat. The books are Psion, Catspaw, and Dreamfall. They are hard to find, but I'll be happy to loan them to you. You will laugh your ass off over the dated 80s covers. Tiegirl recommended them to me, and I loved them.
How about Ender's Game? It takes place in space, but seems like it's both plot and character driven. And the technology plays a huge part in the book. One of the best YA books ever, I thought. House of the Scorpion is fantastic, too.
So, how do you classify all the other sci fi books that don't take place in space? Do they all just fall into the science fiction broad category?
I'm not a fan of books that are focused mainly on world-building, whether it's fantasy or science fiction.