I've long been fascinated with gritty near-future space-based science fiction. Non-space based (i.e. cyberpunk, maybe postcyberpunk too) is cool too, although spaceships and star travel in particular fascinates me.
But the gritty part is in works such as the "Alien" and "Aliens" movies, "Outland" and "Prometheus", and novels such as "Heart of the Comet" by Brin and Benford.
Only recently has it dawned on me that those have something in common, and that it's not a coincidence:
They use some form of hibernation or cryogenic sleep, in order to signal to the reader that this is a world in which space travel is non-trivial. Whether it's just the year-long trip from Earth to Jupiter's moon in "Outland", or needing to sleep cold for a few weeks in "Alien" and "Aliens" in spite of the ships there clearly travelling FTL.
I think that's the signal to the reader, about what kind of story it is, what kind of world it takes place in. It's not the miracle tech of "Star Trek", nor the ease of getting around even in beat-up old tramp freighters
like in "Star Wars".
No, this is serious.
It's not clear to me if the writers or script writers always think like that. But it clearly has that effect on me, and I imagine on many other readers and viewers too.
What other subgenre signposts can you think of?
And can you invent some, ones you haven't seen used yet, but that will make it fairly clear to the reader or viewer what kind of world this story takes place in, and thus assist the reader or viewer with the decision of whether to stop or keep going?
I've long been fascinated with gritty near-future space-based science fiction. Non-space based (i.e. cyberpunk, maybe postcyberpunk too) is cool too, although spaceships and star travel in particular fascinates me.
But the gritty part is in works such as the "Alien" and "Aliens" movies, "Outland" and "Prometheus", and novels such as "Heart of the Comet" by Brin and Benford.
Only recently has it dawned on me that those have something in common, and that it's not a coincidence:
They use some form of hibernation or cryogenic sleep, in order to signal to the reader that this is a world in which space travel is non-trivial. Whether it's just the year-long trip from Earth to Jupiter's moon in "Outland", or needing to sleep cold for a few weeks in "Alien" and "Aliens" in spite of the ships there clearly travelling FTL.
I think that's the signal to the reader, about what kind of story it is, what kind of world it takes place in. It's not the miracle tech of "Star Trek", nor the ease of getting around even in beat-up old tramp freighters like in "Star Wars".
No, this is serious.
It's not clear to me if the writers or script writers always think like that. But it clearly has that effect on me, and I imagine on many other readers and viewers too.
What other subgenre signposts can you think of?
And can you invent some, ones you haven't seen used yet, but that will make it fairly clear to the reader or viewer what kind of world this story takes place in, and thus assist the reader or viewer with the decision of whether to stop or keep going?