RE: How hard is hard science fiction?

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RE: How hard is hard science fiction? - 9/19/2016 10:59:56 AM

thompsonx

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Right. So you feel that By His Bootstraps and All You Zombies are hard SF, then?

(Even a lot of the earlier stuff in the future history tends to ignore, or fudge, the bits of physics that get in the way of the story.)

Please remember that all of his early stuff was written for children (boy's life). When he wrote for adults he won four hugo's
Who else has done that?

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RE: How hard is hard science fiction? - 9/19/2016 11:22:29 AM

WhoreMods

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No it wasn't. His early short stories, several of the most famous of which predate his first novels, appeared in the pulps, and a few even turned up in Playboy. He'd already published quite a bit before Rocketship Gallileo appeared.

As for winning four Hugos (and bear in mind that one of Heinlein's Hugos was for a juvenile), I think Neil Gaiman, Arthur C Clarke, Orson Scott Card, Lois McMaster Bujold and Fritz Leiber have all matched him.

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RE: How hard is hard science fiction? - 9/20/2016 6:22:14 AM

thompsonx

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No it wasn't. His early short stories, several of the most famous of which predate his first novels, appeared in the pulps, and a few even turned up in Playboy. He'd already published quite a bit before Rocketship Gallileo appeared.

I would have to agree with your assessment of "few and several" as opposed to my "all". I was thinking of statements he made in his autobiographical comments which upon re-reading note the exceptions you
reference.

As for winning four Hugos (and bear in mind that one of Heinlein's Hugos was for a juvenile), I think Neil Gaiman, Arthur C Clarke, Orson Scott Card, Lois McMaster Bujold and Fritz Leiber have all matched him.

Does the fact that they matched and not exceed him not qualfy him for similar status as a "hard science fiction" author?

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RE: How hard is hard science fiction? - 9/20/2016 7:40:43 AM

Alecta

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quote:

ORIGINAL: thompsonx
Does the fact that they matched and not exceed him not qualfy him for similar status as a "hard science fiction" author?

It does not.

Hugo Awards are awarded for "best science fiction or fantasy", it does not consider how hard the science is.

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RE: How hard is hard science fiction? - 9/20/2016 8:11:45 AM

WhoreMods

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Actually, the Hugos are awarded for the most popular works as voted for by the fans at the following year's worldcon, which isn't quite the same thing as "best". A lot of people feel that the Nebulas have a better claim on that distinction than the Hugos.

But dead right they have nothing to do with the hardness (or otherwise) of a piece of fiction's scientific content. An awful lot of Hugo winners have been fantasy stories rather than SF of any type: all of Neil Gaiman's and half of Fritz Leiber's, for a start...

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RE: How hard is hard science fiction? - 9/20/2016 9:32:26 AM

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Forgot to mention re: Heinlein's early stuff just being kids' stories, thompson. Does whatever autobiography you're drawing on here (Grumbles From The Grave?) mention that he'd already published three or three novels before Rocketship Gallilleo, and had also published a bunch of stuff that was published later in his career as novels in the magazines before Rocketship Gallileo was published? Hell, I think Orphans Of The Sky was one of the Hugos you're citing, wasn't it?

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RE: How hard is hard science fiction? - 9/23/2016 6:19:42 AM

thompsonx

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ORIGINAL: thompsonx
Does the fact that they matched and not exceed him not qualfy him for similar status as a "hard science fiction" author?

It does not.

Hugo Awards are awarded for "best science fiction or fantasy", it does not consider how hard the science is.

Which by extension would mean that those science fiction readers who voted do not consider hard science to be a factor in their vote...Was that your point?

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RE: How hard is hard science fiction? - 9/23/2016 7:17:28 AM

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You certainly get shitloads of whining about every year's short list of nominations about how all of this fantasy stuff (let alone anything that was published as a "mainstream" novel without a picture of a spaceship or a magic sword on the book jacket) shouldn't be getting a Hugo.
(Which is, when you look at some of the hilarious nonsense that sorry twat Gernsback published in his pulps when he was bossing science fiction, utterly pathetic, isn't it? The Edgar Rice Burroughs reprints in Astounding were more scientifically accurate than a lot of what Gernsback originated for publication himself...)

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