Science Fiction Today and Tomorrow: A Discursive Symposium

by Ben Bova (Editor), Frederik Pohl, Frank Herbert

No. 3921. Essays on Science Fiction written by leading practitioners.

Genres: Science Fiction, Reference

342 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 1975

About the author

Ben Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.

Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.

Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.

In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.

In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".

Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.

Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.

Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.

Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).

Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".

http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book appeared in 1974 and was a pretty good survey of the state of the field at the time. It serves as a nice companion to Bretnor's The Craft of Science Fiction which came out a couple of years later and shared the same format of essays collected from some of the top names in the field. The "...and Tomorrow" part of the title is less successful, in hindsight, most of the predictions of the future of the field missing the mark, which is rather ironic for the top prognosticators talking about their own future. The visual media essay by George Zebrowski is the most notable, as Star Wars came out just three years later. I also can't help but notice that all of the contributors were white men except for Anne McCaffrey (who was assigned the topic of "Romance and Glamour") and Cory Panshin, who is listed as collaborator with husband Alexei. It's dated in other ways too, of course, because neither technology nor society developed as planned, but some of the sections are still quite apt, and some of the others are interesting for historical context. The other contributors include Ben Bova, Frederik Pohl, Frank Herbert, Theodore Sturgeon, Alan E. Nourse, Thomas N. Scortia, Bretnor himself, James Gunn, Poul Anderson, Hal Clement, Gordon R. Dickson, and Jack Williamson. Whereas Craft was more of a how-to writing guide, this one is more of philosophical survey, and it's interesting to see now, almost a half-century later, what the leading assessments and predictions were. Some of the writing tends to the scholarly/dry side, which also helps to remind us that they were striving for academic acceptance.

[Karl Smithe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this as a hardcover at a library sale. I don't know why they were selling it.

On the one hand the problem with this book is that it is so old. On the other hand the great thing about it is that it is so old. This book is from before Star Wars. Star Wars has totally screwed up what is called science fiction.

You see in 1977 when Star Wars was released the producers admitted that Star Wars was not science fiction. So it would not be a subject of this book. But in 1977 the ten years olds did not care what was and was not science fiction, so today almost everyone thinks Star Wars IS science fiction. The producers called it Space Fantasy.

So science fiction and Fantasy, even Space Fantasy, are different things. So now lots of stuff like Hyperion is called sci-fi though it isn't. I don't know if Reality Dysfunction qualifies since I didn't finish it. Lots of reading but no interesting ideas.

Joanna Russ is mentioned in this book and commented on the field a year after this book:

http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/...

Kurt Vonnegut made an interesting contribution in 1965:

http://www.vonnegutweb.com/archives/a...

The refrigerator comment is very telling but the C.P. Snow comment is eyebrow raising. The trouble with modern sci-fi is that the field has been invaded by literary people and science does not matter to most of them. Willim Gibbson didn't know anything about computers when he wrote Neuromancer and it shows despite the fact the he invented the term "cyberspace". The Two Faces of Tomorrow by James P. Hogan is far better and so is Shockwave Rider by John Brunner.

There is just so much entertaining material called science fiction these days which is simply NOT SCIENCE FICTION. That is why this book is really less dated than it appears. The term science fiction has simply been dragged in the wrong direction since the 70s.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweeping and outstanding survey of the SF genre from all angles. Each chapter covers a different topic, ranging from the sociological to the physics of creating believable stars and planetary systems and the biology of possible non-Earthly life forms, and each contains as much information as some other entire books on its given subject. This is an old book, but it has aged well and is essentially timeless for the most part. For any aspiring SF writer, this is a good investment, and for any fan of the genre, it's a great look inside the machinery.

[Tori · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mostly I found this dull and out-of-date, although a couple of the essays have some interesting parts. The field has changed too much for this book to be really relevant today. Skip/skimmed quite a bit.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

essays about scifi writing

[Donald · Rating 1 out of 5]

copyrighted in 1974, this material is dated. I did find some of it entertainingly prescient, but I lost interest about halfway through.