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Science fiction has emerged as acceptable in the literary cannon with the inclusion of a wide selection of science fiction writers as worthy of studying. At least this was one of the facts I learnt of a genre which I had for long associated with popular thrillers when we discussed Contemporary American Literature in the US a year or so ago.

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction often involving speculations on current or future science or technology usually in books, art, television, films, games, theater, and other media. In the age of television, computers and other technology, the fascination of contemporary fiction writers with technology has become an extension of the sphere of social realism for the exploration of writers..

Science fiction is akin to fantasy. But it differs from it in that, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically postulated laws of nature though some elements might still be pure imaginative speculation.

Science fiction is largely then writing entertainingly and rationally about alternate possibilities in settings that are contrary to known reality including:

o A setting in the future, in alternative time lines, or in a historical past that contradicts known historical facts or archaeological records

o A setting in outer space, other worlds, or one involving aliens.

o Stories that contradict known or supposed laws of nature.

o Stories that involve discovering or applying new scientific principles, such as time travel or psionics,

o Stories that involve the discovery or application of new technology, such as nanotechnology, faster-than-light travel or robots,

o Stories that involve the discovery or application of new and different political or social systems

Science fiction also involves imaginative extrapolations of present day phenomena, such as the thoughtful projection forward of contemporary medical practices such as organ transplants, genetic engineering, and artificial insemination or the evolving social changes such as the rise of the suburb and the growing disparity between the rich and poor.

Science fiction has a widening range of possibilities in themes and form. It embraces many other subgenres and themes.

Science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein defines it as “realistic speculations about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method.” For Rod Serlin whilst “fantasy is the impossible made probable, Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.There are thus no easily delineated limits to science fiction. For even the devoted fan- has a hard time trying to explain what it is.

Hard science fiction, gives rigorous attention to accurate detail in quantitative sciences producing many accurate predictions of the future, but with numerous inaccurate predictions emerging as seen in the late Arthur C. Clarke who accurately predicted geostationary communications satellites, but erred in his prediction of deep layers of moondust in lunar craters.

“Soft” science fiction its antithesis describes works based on social sciences such as psychology, economics, political science, sociology and anthropology with writers as Ursula K. Le Guin and Philip K. Dick. and its stories focused primarily on character and emotion of which; Ray Bradbury is an acknowledged master.

Some writers blur the boundary between both. Mack Reynolds’s work, for instance, focuses on politics but anticipates many developments in computers, including cyber-terrorism.

The Cyberpunk genre, a portmanteau of “cybernetics” and “punk” ,emerged in the early 1980s.” First coined by Bruce Bethke in his 1980 short story”Cyberpunk,” its time frame is usually the near-future and its settings are often dystopian. Its common themes include advances in information technology, especially of the Internet (visually abstracted as cyberspace (possibly malevolent), artificial intelligence, enhancements of mind and body using bionic prosthetics and direct brain-computer interfaces called cyberware, and post-democratic societal control where corporations have more influence than governments. Nihilism, post-modernism, and film noir techniques are common elements. Its protagonists may be disaffected or reluctant anti-heroes. The 1982 film Blade Runner is a definitive example of its visual style with noteworthy authors in the genre being William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, and Rudy Rucker.

Science fiction authors and filmmakers draw on a wide spectrum of ideas. Many works overlap into two or more commonly-defined genres, while others are beyond the generic boundaries, being either outside or between categories.The categories and genres used by mass markets and literary criticism differ considerably.

Time travel stories popularized by H. G. Wells’ novel The Time Machine with antecedents in the 18th and 19th centuries are popular in novels, television series ( Doctor Who), as individual episodes within more general science fiction series ( “The City on the Edge of Forever” in Star Trek, “Babylon Squared” in Babylon 5, and “The Banks of the Lethe” in Andromeda )and as one-off productions such as The Flipside of Dominick Hide.

Alternate history stories based on the premise that historical events might have turned out differently. using time travel to change the past, or simply set a story in a universe with a different history from our own. Classics in the genre include Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore, in which the South wins the American Civil War and The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick, in which Germany and Japan win World War II. .

Military science fiction exploits conflicts between national, interplanetary, or interstellar armed forces; in which the main characters are usually soldiers. It has much details about military technology, procedures, rituals, and history; and sometimes using parallels with historical conflicts. Examples include Heinlein’s Starship Troopers followed by the Dorsai novels of Gordon Dickson. Prominent military SF authors include David Drake, David Weber, Jerry Pournelle, S. M. Stirling, and Lois McMaster Bujold. Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War , a Vietnam-era response to the World War II-style stories of earlier authors is a critique of the genre. Baen Books cultivates military science fiction authors. Television series within this subgenre include Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 and Space: Above and Beyond. There is also the popular Halo videogame and novel series.

Related genres include speculative fiction, fantasy, and horror,. alternate histories (which may have no particular scientific or futuristic component), and even literary stories that contain fantastic elements, such as the work of Jorge Luis Borges or John Barth. Magic realism works have also been said to be within the broad definition of speculative fiction.

Fantasy is closely associated with science fiction. Many writers, including Robert A. Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Larry Niven, C. J. Cherryh, C. S. Lewis, Jack Vance, and Lois McMaster Bujold have therefore worked in both genres. Writers such as Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley have written works that appear to blur the boundary between the two related genres Science Fiction conventions routinely have programming on fantasy topics and fantasy authors such as J. K. Rowling and J. R. R. Tolkien (in film adaptation) have won the highest honor within the science fiction field, the Hugo Award. Larry Niven’s The Magic Goes Away stories treat magic as just another force of nature subject to natural laws which resemble and partially overlap those of physics.

In general, science fiction is the literature of things that might someday be possible, and fantasy is the literature of things that are inherently impossible.with magic and mythology being amongst its popular themes.It is common to see narratives described as being essentially science fiction but “with fantasy elements.” such narratives being termed “science fantasy”..

Horror fiction is literature of the unnatural and supernatural, aimed at unsettling or frightening the reader, sometimes with graphic violence. ” Although not a branch of science fiction, its many works incorporates science fictional elements. Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, is a fully-realized science fiction work , where the manufacture of the monster is given a rigorous science-fictional grounding. The works of Edgar Allan Poe also helped define the science fiction and the horror genres. Today horror is one of the most popular categories of film.

Modernist works from writers like Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, and StanisBaw Lem bordering Science Fiction and the mainstream.have focused on speculative or existential perspectives on contemporary reality. According to Robert J. Sawyer, “Science fiction and mystery have a great deal in common. Both prize the intellectual process of puzzle solving, and both require stories to be plausible and hinge on the way things really do work.” Isaac Asimov, Anthony Boucher, Walter Mosley, and other writers incorporate mystery elements in their science fiction, and vice versa.

Superhero fiction is a genre characterized by beings with hyper physical or mental prowess, generally with a desire or need to help the citizens of their chosen country or world by using their powers to defeat natural or supernatural threats. Many superhero fictional characters have involved themselves (either intentionally or accidentally) with science fiction and fact, including advanced technologies, alien worlds, time travel, and interdimensional travel; but the standards of scientific plausibility are lower than with actual science fiction.

Some of the best-known authors of this genre include Stan Lee, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Diane Duane, Peter David, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, George R. R. Martin, Pierce Askegren, Christopher Golden, Dean Wesley Smith, Greg Cox, Nancy Collins, C. J. Cherryh, Roger Stern, and Elliot S! Maggin.

As a means of understanding the world through speculation and storytelling, science fiction has antecedents back to mythology, though precursors to science fiction as literature began to emerge from the 13th century (Ibn al-Nafis, Theologus Autodidactus) to the 17th century (the real Cyrano de Bergerac with “Voyage de la Terre à la Lune” and “Des états de la Lune et du Soleil”) and the Age of Reason with the development of science itself. Voltaire’s Micromégas was one of the first, together with Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels. Following the 18th century development of the novel as a literary form, in the early 19th century, Mary Shelley’s books Frankenstein and The Last Man helped define the form of the science fiction novel] later Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon. More examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Then with the dawn of new technologies such as electricity, the telegraph, and new forms of powered transportation, writers like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells created a body of work that became popular across broad cross-sections of society. In the late 19th century the term “scientific romance” was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott. The term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon.

In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In the late 1930s, John W. Campbell became editor of Astounding Science Fiction. A critical mass of new writers emerged in New York City. Called the Futurians, This group included Isaac Asimov, Damon Knight, Donald A. Wollheim, Frederik Pohl, James Blish and Judith Merril. Other important writers during this period included Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and A. E. Van Vogt. Campbell’s tenure at Astounding is considered to be the beginning of the Golden Age of science fiction, characterized by hard SF stories celebrating scientific achievement and progress. This lasted until postwar technological advances, new magazines like Galaxy under Pohl as editor, and a new generation of writers began writing stories outside the Campbell mode.

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Introduction:

Within the field of science fiction, a special source of addictive fascination can be found in the sub-genre “Future History”, a series of interconnected stories set in a common background that develops over time.

For any story to be enjoyable, we all know how vital interesting characters and settings both are. But in a good Future History there is a unique sense in which the setting also becomes one of the characters. A splendid juggernaut of interlinked themes, alive and growing like a real society, but full of a fictional personality of its own, such a lattice of tales becomes, for the reader, a source of wonder not merely as a new world, but — as a result of its reliable, organic consistency — as a new familiarity.

That’s the paradox: the more the inhabitants are “housed” in comfort, given a universe with customs, laws and rules which they can take for granted, the more real and therefore more exciting their world seems to us. Against this comfortable backdrop the inhabitants do, of course, have their particular adventures which are exciting for them as well as for us; but we are additionally privileged to watch the lines they are tracing in the greater whole, from the panoramic perspective which is the special virtue of a Future History.

As a matter of fact, for the sake of accuracy, rather than the term “Future History” I would prefer “four-dimensional story-lattice” or “4DL”, as the events related in the stories need not be in our future. A series of tales set on ancient Mars a billion years ago, for instance, would fit the sub-genre just as well as a series set on Earth in the next few millennia — or, for that matter, in the lost continent of Atlantis thousands of years in the past. However, in this article I shall stick with current usage.

My aim is to try to pin down the criteria which make for a successful Future History.

I hope, as I go through my list of points, that the reader will not jump to the conclusion that I am disparaging various great masterpieces of science fiction merely because they do not meet these criteria. Some stupendous works set in the far future, such as Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men and Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, are largely a different kind of thing, though they have some interesting points in common with the kind of story-lattice which I am discussing.

The criteria I wish to propose are as follows:

1. Volume and Balance.

2. Open-ended complexity.

3. Time-referencing.

4. Development.

Volume and Balance:

A successful Future History should, first of all, contain a large number of stories. It should be long. Inevitably, it will not be as long as its fans wish, but I would suggest, for example, that the one big fault in Asimov’s Foundation series is that it extends over only 3 volumes, comprising 9 tales. The reader is left yearning for more — which of course is a huge compliment to the author. (Actually, there is a bit more. A couple of Asimov’s early novels are set in that same universe, in periods prior to Foundation, and these help to enlarge the picture; on the other hand I do not regard the much later accretions to the series, different in mood and far less taut in style, as worthy to stand with the original 9.) I have the same complaint to make of Cordwainer Smith, the genius who bridges the storytelling traditions of East and West in a way unique in science fiction, and who was so inconsiderate as to die at the age of 53, leaving us a mere four volumes or so of his Instrumentality saga.

Much more ample in volume are Poul Anderson’s dozen or more volumes of the van Rijn / Flandry bipolar series. This is built around two main heroes, living hundreds of years apart but inhabiting the same invented background. Other masters of the genre have given us moderately lengthy oeuvres. Heinlein’s Future History consists of five volumes; Larry Niven’s of six or more depending on whether you allow the last Ringworld novel and other accretions to count. James H Schmitz’s Federation of the Hub series comprises four novels and numerous shorter tales, and amounts to a work of moderately satisfying length. Still, I wish that Schmitz and Cordwainer Smith, in particular, had written another half dozen books at least. They don’t make ‘em like that any more.

As well as the need for sheer size, a related point is that the size-distribution of the stories should not be too lop-sided. It’s nice to have a variety of story-lengths, but there should not be one work which overshadows all the rest in the series. The availability of a crowd of tales is what creates an important part of the desired effect.

Open-Ended Complexity:

Within the wide common background, the stories should have a variety of settings in both space and time. Overlaps in chronology are important, so that although some of the tales should form a consecutive sequence, others should be happening simultaneously in different locations. We want a real lattice, rather than just a string, of events. The Foundation series is a consecutive string, but fortunately the other Future History authors I have mentioned give us simultaneous tales as well.

And there should be a variety of overlaps in dramatis personae, somewhere between the one extreme of each story having its own unique cast of characters, so that no character appear in more than one (this leads to insufficient connectivity) and the other extreme of having the same character appearing in all the stories (this excessively restricts the range of the whole, to what that one central character can do). James Schmitz got it exactly right. In the Hub universe you frequently find the same characters appearing in more than one story, but also you find plenty of “solitaries”. I would go so far as to say that if the same main character stars in all the stories, a series can hardly count as a Future History, though it may (like Jack Vance’s five Demon Princes books) be a rivetingly good read. Niven, and Cordwainer Smith, like Schmitz, get it right. In his Known Space universe Niven gives us more than one sub-series starring characters who survive through several tales – notably Beowulf Shaeffer who is the hero of five of them. In the Instrumentality saga Smith gives us several separate appearances of the cat-girl C’Mell, the reformer Lord Jestocost and the quester Casher O’Neill. Again, we want to feel we’re in a crowd, or, if you prefer, a forest, of options. It’s a good sign, therefore, if you can’t immediately call to mind how many tales a series has and how many characters appear more than once. It means it has grown satisfyingly ramshackle.

The ideal Future History should also contain cultural complexity. This is not Asimov’s forte, nor Heinlein’s, though the works of both are multi-political, rich in diverse regimes (especially Heinlein). Niven does better in the cultural area, and apart from human variation he has interesting alien civilizations interacting with ours. Poul Anderson does this too, and his series in particular has an open-ended sprawl of hugeness, looseness and multicultural variety. Schmitz is just about his equal in this respect, though his output is unfortunately not so large. Cordwainer Smith is hard to assess — he is so matchlessly good at suggesting more than he lets on, it’s hard to keep track of the actual content of his stories: it’s as though he gives you the key to his unfinished work and lets you dream the rest of it for yourself.

If the work of Jack Vance fitted the bill in other ways, his talent for portraying cultural complexity would make him perhaps the best living writer of Future Histories. However his Gaean Reach novels, though they share a common background, are scattered so widely across that vast setting, that they are unrelated to one another, and there is no sense of chronological sequence or historical development of the Gaean Reach as a whole. (Not that I would want Vance as a writer to be other than he is.)

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