Entertainment / Literature / Science Fiction: Literature in which speculative technology, time travel, alien races, intelligent robots, gene-engineering, space travel, experimental medicine, psionic abilities, dimensional portals, or altered scientific principles contribute to the plot or background. Many purists make a distinction between 'hard' science fiction (in which the story attempts to follow accepted scientific realism and extrapolates the outcomes or consequences of scientific discovery in a hard-headed manner) and 'soft' science fiction (which often involves looser adherence to scientific knowledge and more fantasy-elements). The basic premise is usually built on a 'what if' scenario--i.e., it explores what might occur if a certain technology or event occurred. Examples include Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Isaac Asimov's Foundation, Octavia Butler's Dawn, H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man, Ursula leguin's The Left Hand of Darkness, Lois mcmaster Bujold's Ethan of Athos, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, and William Gibson's Neuromancer. See also space opera, speculative fiction, and Cthulhu mythos. (originally 'scientifiction,' a neologism coined by editor Hugo Gernsback in his pulp magazine Amazing Stories)
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Science Noun Synonyms: (body of) knowledge or information, (body of) laws or principles, discipline, study, branch, field, area, subject, realm, sphere
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Entertainment / Literature / Speculative Fiction: Also called 'alternative history,' speculative fiction is science fiction that explores how the 'real world' we live in today might be different if historic events had unfolded with slight changes. Fo MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Golden Age Of Science Fiction: The period between 1930 and about 1955 in which a growing number of science fiction short stories appeared in pulp fiction publications like the following: Amazing Stories (first issued 1926 under the MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Pulp Fiction: Mass market novels printed cheaply and intended for a general audience. The content was usually melodramatic, titillating, or thrilling. The earliest samples are the 'penny dreadfuls' or 'bloods' of t MORE