What are some of the elements that people enjoy about their favorite pieces of fantastic fiction? Is it intricite world building? Philosophy? Character building? All of the above plus more? Out with your secrets damnit!
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Re: What makes for a good fantastic story?
Sun, February 22, 2004 - 11:26 AMA good story, to me, is a fine and subtle mix of character, setting, and storyline. This applies whether the story is fantastic/speculative or not. I don't enjoy fiction that tries to ride on the coattails of a genre by using the proper tropes and buzzwords (Begin with one a) dragon, b) magic sword, c) elf. Mix well...) without having anything new to say. I'm particularly not fond of the recent nearly endless stream of high fantasy series totalling millions of words and incorporating no original ideas.
An example of how to write great sf: The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson. How to write great fantasy: The Fox Woman, by Kij Johnson. Knockout books that fit beautifully into their genres while succeeding as good literature and telling a wonderful story (something at which books aspiring to "commit literature" often fail miserably). -
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Re: What makes for a good fantastic story?
Sun, February 22, 2004 - 6:55 PMDoes anyone think that a good story can be set with an event as the centerpiece and marginalizing character development? There's a lot of event-based sci-fi, some of which (especially in space-wars type thingies) lacks real character development. Any good ones? -
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Re: What makes for a good fantastic story?
Sun, February 22, 2004 - 8:46 PMit's all about the sex, really :) -
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Re: What makes for a good fantastic story?
Sun, February 22, 2004 - 8:55 PMI see you've been reading the Beacon Galaxy novels of the 1950's
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Re: What makes for a good fantastic story?
Mon, February 23, 2004 - 9:39 AMI think Niven and Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer is a good example of an event-driven (marginally) sf novel. Characters are all secondary to the disaster, so that years after reading it all you remember is the disaster. Walter J. Williams (actually Walter Jon Williams writing under a devilishly clever pseudonym) did the disaster novel thing better in The Rift, and gave us great characters besides, but as for "good ones" that marginalize character development in sf, I can't come up with anything, because if characters are secondary the book doesn't strike me as good.
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