Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, interesting, useful, May 30, 2001
As a writer and teacher of fantasy and science fiction, I have read a =lot= of how-to books over the years. Most of them range from terrible to so-so. Many can be destructive to an inexperienced or uncertain writer. This is a wonderful exception, one of only two books I consistently recommend (the other is Orson Scott Card's CHARACTERS AND VIEWPOINT). I have been assisting at Gunn's summer workshop at the University of Kansas for years now, mostly because I think he's one of the best writers -- and teachers -- in the genre. Now he's put the wisdom of his decades in the field into a book which I think can be useful to every writer, regardless of experience. I really cannot recommend this highly enough.
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34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating, instructive, and inspiring!, December 6, 2000
Incredible! The Science of Science Fiction Writing is a sheer delight; this book could not have been better. James Gunn, longtime historian and participant in the world of science fiction, has also been one of it's biggest cheerleaders. Now he has put his 30 year plus experience into this truly exceptional book. Professor Gunn's book gives an overview of the science fiction field, a detailed history, and personally profiles some of the biggest names in the genre. While this in itself would be sufficient, more than half the book is dedicated to the writing of science fiction (or any type of fiction). Unlike most books of this type, Gunn is remarkably entertaining in his teachings, and his enthusiasm for the subject richly shines through on every page. Stephen King's latest book, On Writing, is another great book on the subject, yet it doesn't come close to Gunn's absorbing prose, or his ability to teach what he knows to others. This is one hell of a book, one you will find yourself returning to again and again. Thank you James Gunn!
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed, November 8, 2006
After the glowing reviews I read online, I was disappointed in this book. It was quite obviously patched together from previously published materials that did not meld gracefully: just looking at the chapter headings, it is obvious that no one would have organized a book that way if starting from scratch. At the very least, the book should have been edited to remove the obvious repetitions. Appendices in the back are basically class notes in the form of bulleted lists and sentence fragments.
The title is misleading, though probably not intentionally so. I was hoping for something more targeted toward, well, science. For example, I would have liked something about FTL travel (pro or con, possible workarounds, etc.), climatology, or any of a dozen other scientific topics of relevance to science fiction. With one whole chapter about fiction in general, and several other chapters about prominent science fiction authors, there really wasn't very much of the book that could justifiably be said to relate to the science of science fiction writing, even when you put the emphasis on the word WRITING. A better title might have been "Miscellaneous Essays on Fiction, Science Fiction, and Famous SciFi Authors."
That is not to say it was worthless. Some of the information was useful and relevant, and the book overall was very well written. There were probably a total of 20 pages that, for me, made the book almost worth the price of admission. I just felt a little cheated by the feeling that this was recycled content without much effort expended to make it a cohesive or focused.
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