Gap Soft Sci/fi

[Holsety]

[wayfriend]

I agree with you that it's a label and it's subjective. Certainly some people consider it a negative label, while I don't. I could care less if any book is considered hard or soft sci-fi by anyone, personally.

Wikipedia may not be a faultless source, but in this case it's enough to show that there are some people who consider FTL to be outside the scope of hard sci-fi. I could quote some other sources, too.

[Zarathustra]

[The Dreaming]

Anyone who would call Foundation "soft" is out of their minds. (Dune I can buy though)

As far as I am concerned, Foundation is the benchmark for "hard" sci-fi.
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[Farm Ur-Ted]

[wayfriend]

Good Post!

But it makes me want to talk about how much I love A Fire Upon the Deep ...

[ItisWritten]

Actually, the use of the word "soft" to describe someone's science fiction is really the problem. The late George Carlin would point out that soft is just a word that we define, but we can't change the perception. I petition this group to come up with a more suitable term.

Speculative science is what SF really is. I'd suggest "high" (speculation) for less plausible science.
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ItisWritten

[wayfriend]

I don't think that that is entirely fair. There is a substantial amount of fandom for works where real, hard science is the certerpiece and main point of the story. The "hard sci-fi" sub-genre is legit as far as I am concerned. People do produce works that qualify in that sub-genre, and fans do seek it out and appreciate it. (Though it's not to everyone's taste -- see Malik above.)

It'd be unfair to disqualify it.

I think we get into trouble where we call anything that's not hard sci-fi "soft sci-fi". Yeah, soft is the opposite of hard. But sci-fi that is not hard sci-fi is not the opposite, if you know what I mean. It's just different. It has a different thrust, a different direction. In fact, there are many different directions, too many to lump together as "soft".

Then again, its our culture that equates hard with good and soft with bad. That's also unfortunate.

Anyway ... if we define "soft sci-fi" as "what hard sci-fi fans call sci-fi that's not hard sci-fi", it's kind of okay.

Edit: Are you suggesting we have hi-sci-fi?

[ItisWritten]

[The Dreaming]

Actually, my problems with the Gap tend to be more subtle things, like explosions with blast waves. (They require atmosphere) and his sometimes tenuous grasp of general relativity. (NOT special, he sometimes gets confused with the way G would work near a body with gravity. Being out of reach of gravity, coasting, and being in free fall [orbit] are effectively the same. Acceleration and gravity are also completely physically equivalent forces.)
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[Loredoctor]

My main issue is with the Singularity Grenades. They would work from the mass at the moment of implosion. Since mass dictates the gravitational field, and the grenade doesn't add mass - just compresses it into a singularity, the weapon shouldn't create a field that expands out and drags everything into it. I get that it would do that at the end of Chaos and Order since the asteroids would add mass to the singularity . . . but when one is set off at Calm Horizons, Trumpet should not have had an issue escaping.
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[The Dreaming]

I think little enough is known about black holes (the reside in the mystery area between quantum mechanics and classical physics) I can forgive him for that. Who knows? Maybe its feeding on the junk in Earth's orbit. (I thought it dissipated anyway didn't it? I'm in the middle of re-reading TDAGD)
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[Loredoctor]

[Zarathustra]

[The Dreaming]

The explosion of Tranquil Hegemony for example, and the explosion of Beckman's lab are both said to have sub-light blast waves. Blast waves from explosions are actually sonic, believe it or not. It is the vibration of air that causes you to get knocked on your ass, and they travel at the speed of sound. (Which is why a very large explosion, like a nuke, would go Flash, Heat, then BOOM.) Of course, an explosion in space would still violently send matter out in all directions (probably VERY hot matter), and would shed tons of radiation. (Which heat is a form of remember, but radiative heat is very different from thermal heat.)
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[wayfriend]

When I read that, I thought the author made it pretty clear that we were not talking about mundane blast waves such as are conducted by air, but an electro/magnetic/quantum/highscience emission, more akin to an electromagnetic pulse, that was caused by the nature of the thing that was exploding.

[The Dreaming]

Well, you wouldn't feel that as a physical, mechanical force. (Like Angus and company do). That would also travel at the speed of light, as everything you mentioned is a form of radiation. That word covers a much broader array of things than what we normally think of. Electromagnetism is light constant, just like all other radiation.
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[jacob Raver, sinTempter]

Is Dune even really sci-fi?
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Sunshine Music
Deep Music

"I'm gonna eat your brains and gain your knowledge." - Tony Block, Planet Terror

[TheWormoftheWorld'sEnd]

Have you ever read Dune?
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"Simony... blah blah... "

When two people dream the same dream, it ceases to be an illusion.

The shadow of the axe hangs over every joy.

[Loredoctor]