Reading is a particular hobby of mine - if I had a choice of activities to do I would invariably select reading a book as a priority. I always have at least one book on the go at anytime although some of this is trashy fantasy books such as the Forgotten Realms series, others include the more erudite. So for my next reading project I intend to read the Bibliography for my new game - Thousand Suns. What does this entail exactly? It includes reading [or re-reading] many of the SciFi greats.
Starting with Olaf Stapleton's Last and First Men written in the 1930's - which incidentally gives more of an insight into the 30's attitudes than it does really about the future. Here is an example to illustrate: when he is discussing the third men to evolve on the planet he comments that in the gladiatorial events that man fights man, man fights beasts, woman fights woman and most surprising to the readers of this book, between woman and man. What he would think of the happenings in the Bigg Market on a Saturday night today would be most enlightening!
To follow this I will re-read Asimov's Foundation series [which I read a long time ago and deserves another maturer read] and tackle the high physics used in E. E. 'Doc' Smith's Lensmen series. I have just about finished the Honor Harrington series so a tick for that series and in no way will I be re-reading Frank Herbert's Dune series.
Then I will tackle some 'new' writers such as A. E. van Vogt, Larry Niven, Peter F. Hamilton to name but a few. At this point the question arises how long will this last? Well with my fickle attention I probably won't get through this but I do aim to try and by interspersing these books with variety it should work. Also the goal - to build a campaign based around these works - is a long term project and one that I don't intend to rush into.
6 comments:
'Starting with Olaf Stapleton's Last and First Men written in the 1930's - which incidentally gives more of an insight into the 30's attitudes than it does really about the future.'
This is pretty standard for the genre. Most futuristic sci-fi is social commentary on the present going all the way back to The Time Machine.
The social commentary of this work is one of its key features, although I find it more difficult to ID it in some of the more recent SciFi but this maybe closer to home thus more difficult for me to tease it out. It was the comment he made in the 30s that implies the social revolution of WW1 regarding the greater role of women in society had not fully affected the overall attitudes of society that I found interesting.
On reflection, social commentary wasn't quite what I was going for (though it a staple of the genre). I think saying that it reflects modern society is probably be a better term.
You can clearly see it in the early 1960's Marvel superheroes who pretty much to a man (and woman) owe their superpowers to some form of radiation, reflecting the nuclear age those comics were produced in. Modern superheroes are more likely to be produced via some form of genetic engineering or DNA manipulation, representing our post-test tube baby/human genome project generation.
Futurama is filled with commentary on the 21st century disguised as commentary on the 31st century.
The cyberpunk sub-genre is usually identified with foreshadowing the creation of the internet and the fusion of man and machine but it's reflections on the economics of the 1980's are just as important. Mass privatisation coupled with deregulation has produced mega-corporations which are almost laws and nations unto themselves and they've created a vast divide between the haves and have nots.
The sci-fi of the 50's and 60's is bright and optimistic, reflecting the widespread expectation that science, space exploration and nuclear power had us on the verge of a golden age. Sci-fi of the 1980's and 1990's is full of dystopian visions of the future which reflect our disillusionment with now that worked out. Nowadays we approach the matter with a world weary cynicism (where's my jetpack?).
Sci-fi of the 1980's was filled with post-apocalyptic landscapes, reflecting our fears over the Cold War. In the 21st century our futuristic wastelands are created by catastrophic climate change.
Sci-fi can be best summed up as our trying to understand our present by thinking about our future.
My apologies for post-jacking your blog BTW. Good luck with the syllabus. Is Thousand Suns a tabletop RPG?
Thousand Suns is a tabletop RPG.
Ian.
Not a problem - I prefer to have comments than not, especially when I find them informative. I like to research my games so as to give them an appropriate 'feel' even if the players don't know the genre - it gives the flavour to what I try to run.
It will be an interesting journey through this genre I must admit but your summary will also be helpful to keep in the back of my mind whilst I'm reading them.
Thanks
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