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The Craft of Science Fiction: A Symposium on Writing Science Fiction and Science Fantasy
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Contents:
ix • Foreword (The Craft of Science Fiction) • essay by Reginald Bretnor
3 • SF: The Challenge to the Writer • essay by Reginald Bretnor
22 • Star-flights and Fantasies: Sagas Still to Come • essay by Poul Anderson
37 • Hard Sciences and Tough Technologies • essay by Hal Clement
54 • Rubber Sciences • essay by Norman Spinrad
73 • Extrapolations and Quantum Jumps • essa ...more
ix • Foreword (The Craft of Science Fiction) • essay by Reginald Bretnor
3 • SF: The Challenge to the Writer • essay by Reginald Bretnor
22 • Star-flights and Fantasies: Sagas Still to Come • essay by Poul Anderson
37 • Hard Sciences and Tough Technologies • essay by Hal Clement
54 • Rubber Sciences • essay by Norman Spinrad
73 • Extrapolations and Quantum Jumps • essa ...more
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Hardcover, 321 pages
Published
August 1st 1976
by HarperCollins Publishers
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This is an interesting book containing essays on the craft of writing science fiction by some very successful practitioners in the field including Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, James Gunn, Poul Anderson, Frederik Pohl, Frank Herbert, Alan E. Nourse, Norman Spinrad, John Brunner, Hal Clement, Jack Williamson, Katherine MacLean, Harlan Ellison, and Theodore Sturgeon, as well as editor Reginald Bretnor himself. Much of marketing and technical advice is no longer applicable, of course (the book was
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While a few of the articles in this book are very interesting for me as an aspiring science fiction writer, the majority of them are uninspired and uninspiring. The writers of these essays may be good science fiction writers, but their essays are overwrought and tend to be long winded without saying anything at all. In the end I didn't even read all of the essays, selecting only the ones that sounded interesting, or were written by authors I had read.
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Recommended to me by Neil Gaiman, mostly for the John Brunner essay, which is excellent and thought provoking. Some of the advice here feels a little dated; with no mention of the internet (for obvious reasons), and optimistic predictions about the longevity of the short story market, the practical advice for finding steady work and pay is no longer relevant.
But the book is interesting precisely because of the historical perspective it provides. These are writers speaking from a time when scienc ...more
But the book is interesting precisely because of the historical perspective it provides. These are writers speaking from a time when scienc ...more
This is the first time I read this kind of book, a collections of essays about science fiction and science fantasy writing. Most authors of these essays are leading science fiction or science fantasy author at that time. It is a really good read in general, encompassing a wide array of topics from world building in the genre, science fiction writing as a profession, and art of writing science fiction in general. Well, basically it encompassed a lot of things you need to know if you wanted to wri
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A pretty good collection of essays on, as the title says, writing science fiction and science fantasy. This is sort of a companion volume to Science Fiction Today and Tomorrow - A Discursive Symposium, also edited by Reginald Bretnor. A number of the leading authors in the field at the time of publication, 1976, have contributed chapters on a comprehensive range of topics. They cover both the art and the profession of writing in these genres, and a lot of what they say applies to writing in gene
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