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GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Chris Copeland5-Mar-21 2:15
mveChris Copeland5-Mar-21 2:15 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
David Crow5-Mar-21 2:32
David Crow5-Mar-21 2:32 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Nelek5-Mar-21 2:34
protectorNelek5-Mar-21 2:34 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
OriginalGriff5-Mar-21 2:47
mveOriginalGriff5-Mar-21 2:47 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Mycroft Holmes5-Mar-21 11:01
professionalMycroft Holmes5-Mar-21 11:01 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Nelek6-Mar-21 8:52
protectorNelek6-Mar-21 8:52 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Chris C-B5-Mar-21 2:35
Chris C-B5-Mar-21 2:35 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
trønderen5-Mar-21 5:03
trønderen5-Mar-21 5:03 
Chris C-B wrote:
if the core story could be written for any other genre, then it ain't SciFi.
I am puzzled by your logic: No great love story can be SF. No critical assessment of anarchism, or any other political / social structure, can be SF. No mystery can be SF. If story is bases on philosophical or moral issues, it cant' be SF. ... So, what is left for SF? No nothing. Pure drivel - that is what it sounds like to me.

I strongly disagree. I have read loads of SF books of great value as love stories, as political / social comment and criticism, as great mysteries, as philosophical or moral issues.

I haven't read 'Contact', but my first guess (from the summary in Wikipedia) is that I would see a lot of elements in it belonging in other genres, once you look behind that hardcore SF setting. The setting is required, if you want to direct a spotlight from that direction onto political and social issues, but as a mere storyteller's tool - the real story is not the high-tech spaceships and signals from remote galaxies.

A book can be read in many ways. Same with movies: Lots of people may reject a movie on the grounds that "I know how it ends" (in IMDB comments, and many other places, you are expected to clearly mark your comment as a 'spoiler' if it reveals anything about the ending) - I often enjoy watching it for the second and third time because I know how it ends, and I want to see how all the small strands of the story leads up to that ending. Strangely enough, I have never heard any music lover rejecting, say, a symphony because "I know how it ends" Smile | :)

So you could probably read a novel such as Contact with little or no concern from what I consider the real, underlaying story, about social and political ideas and conflicts. The technology part, the action part, the 'science' part, are the only essential aspects.

Some people watch movies that way: If you ask what the movie was about, they immediately start telling about the fighting, the battles, the crazy car driving, ... When I stop them, and ask which conflicts it was about, they go on naming the actors on this side and on that side. But... Which ideas or ideals where driving the two sides? Then we are down to the philosopical level of "the good against the bad". (If you know the ending, you certainly know which side is the good!)

I had a similar experience with an SF book: I gave a copy of one really great SF novel, Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon, to a coworker. The story has deeply influenced me, and several of my friends have been so deeply moved that they almost with tears in their eyes return the book with a quiet 'Thanks for letting me read it'. But this coworker of mine, highly intellectual who reads loads of books, returned to tell that the novel is just soooo nineteen-sixties, and went on to point out the outdated approach to psychological issues, and the outdated way of building up the conflicts. She rather preferred the modern writing style of [this and that] author ... Like a chemical analysis, determining the nutritional content without being the least concerned about the taste.

I guess 'Flowers for Algernon' is way outside your SF definition; it can be viewed as so many different kinds of story. Like my coworker who only relates to the new, 'modern' books, where you can easily find a bunch of comments and critics in current media. So if you pick up the novel, feel free to read it as something else than SF. You should - it is certainly worth reading!
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Chris C-B5-Mar-21 6:00
Chris C-B5-Mar-21 6:00 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Rage5-Mar-21 9:04
professionalRage5-Mar-21 9:04 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
DRHuff5-Mar-21 12:53
DRHuff5-Mar-21 12:53 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Rage5-Mar-21 9:01
professionalRage5-Mar-21 9:01 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
trønderen5-Mar-21 10:39
trønderen5-Mar-21 10:39 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Jörgen Andersson5-Mar-21 11:25
professionalJörgen Andersson5-Mar-21 11:25 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
honey the codewitch5-Mar-21 13:47
mvahoney the codewitch5-Mar-21 13:47 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Gary R. Wheeler6-Mar-21 5:37
Gary R. Wheeler6-Mar-21 5:37 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Chris C-B6-Mar-21 20:31
Chris C-B6-Mar-21 20:31 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Kris Lantz5-Mar-21 2:37
professionalKris Lantz5-Mar-21 2:37 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Nelek5-Mar-21 2:55
protectorNelek5-Mar-21 2:55 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Kris Lantz5-Mar-21 3:47
professionalKris Lantz5-Mar-21 3:47 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Nelek6-Mar-21 8:58
protectorNelek6-Mar-21 8:58 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
David O'Neil5-Mar-21 6:39
professionalDavid O'Neil5-Mar-21 6:39 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
OriginalGriff5-Mar-21 2:51
mveOriginalGriff5-Mar-21 2:51 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
Gary R. Wheeler6-Mar-21 5:39
Gary R. Wheeler6-Mar-21 5:39 
GeneralRe: Your best SciFi book ? Pin
yacCarsten5-Mar-21 2:51
yacCarsten5-Mar-21 2:51 

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