this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
64 points (98.5% liked)

Science Fiction

13420 readers
2 users here now

Welcome to /c/ScienceFiction

December book club canceled. Short stories instead!

We are a community for discussing all things Science Fiction. We want this to be a place for members to discuss and share everything they love about Science Fiction, whether that be books, movies, TV shows and more. Please feel free to take part and help our community grow.

  1. Be civil: disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally insult others.
  2. Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, or advocating violence will be removed.
  3. Spam, self promotion, trolling, and bots are not allowed
  4. Put (Spoilers) in the title of your post if you anticipate spoilers.
  5. Please use spoiler tags whenever commenting a spoiler in a non-spoiler thread.

Lemmy World Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
64
What makes a great sci-fi story? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
27 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I'm curious what users feel makes a great sci-fi story. What elements do you feel "make or break" the story specifically where sci-fi is concerned? For me, I really enjoyed the Expanse series, as it feels like there's a sort of "believability" to it all. The authors make everything seem very realistic, even if some of the descriptions and physics are made up.

What is it about your favorite sci-fi books and shows that make them your favorites?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I'm a feeler so I definitely look for emption. I don't necessarily have to feel empathy toward a character, but I want to feel something—angry, sad, exhilarated, inspired, motivated.

It seems like so much sci fi focused on whether a story as too much / not enough technobabble, too much / not enough world building. Some of the best sci fi I enjoyed was terrible in the world-building department but was so emotionally gripping I didn't care. (Spin and The Sparrow come to mind, but I'm sure their are others).

A close second is if there's a metanarrative about current events or themes. Like how 1984 saw the rise of a surveillance state decades before the internet became a thing. Or Fahrenheit 451, which, ironically, is a banned book.