Customer Reviews

When It Changed: 'Real Science' Science Fiction

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a fan of Fred Hoyle ('The Black Cloud', etc.) I found this book to be a great read. I had concluded that sf had exclusively gone to fantasy. This is a refreshing reminder of what fiction about science can be.

Although I have had pretensions of writing fantasy myself (in part because of my interest in stories of miracles that my relatives say cannot be true) I have had a tendency to follow most literary critics and believe that there is actually little of literary value in most fantasy novels and/or that they are essentially written for children.

I came to read "When It Changed: 'Real Science' Science Fiction" through my knowledge of Sara Maitland and her short story "Moss Witch" which I found interesting in light of the scientific knowledge shown from a learned woman of a very much pre-punk school. "Moss Witch" itself becomes much more interesting when one actually reads the full story: Maitland invents a very large life-form that is intelligent but absorbs water like it was a plant. Scientist Jennifer Rowntree, who is currently doing her own doctorate, does an excellent look at Maitland's story.

The other stories in the book are completely different, but I found them much better than I would have guessed from their actual content, most of which focuses on typical science-fiction topics from the possibility of water on Mars to the future of technology and how it could influence society. Such stories as Geoff Ryman's "You", Ken MacLeod's "Lifeforms" and Michael Arditti's "In the Event Of" have a maturity that is most unexpected from the world of science fiction because they actually allow for real intimacy with the characters and never appear disjointed. There is also an interesting story at the beginning about improving the resolution of electron microscopes enough that they have the ability to see carbon atoms and how strong the bonds between them are, and about particle colliders and determining the Planck Length. There is even a story with elements of astrology in it, though my knowledge of the topic makes me a little less favourably inclined thereto.

Although the stories may not be perfectly accurate, the way in which the scientists in "When It Changed: 'Real Science' Science Fiction" serve to in effect help the contributors who are: it is very much enjoyable to read the comments on each story in the anthology - something very rarely done with science fiction except in handbooks about writing it. For this reason, I would recommend this book to those interested in short stories and how fiction can learn from science - and vice versa.