Budd’s answer to “Is this Space opera or hard SF?” > Likes and Comments
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An invading alien armada from Alpha Centauri with near-god-like Strong AI that somehow decides that the best way to solve their problem is to invade Earth? Seems like space opera to me.
Pavel, but that doesn't happen and isn't what the book is about. Heck, you could say that's happening in the background of a Shakespeare.
This book is about people on Earth doing human things in response to communication with another planet. And we see the flip side: people on another planet doing 'them' things in response to communication with Earth. That is the furthest thing from Space Opera to me. (Keep in mind, I think space opera could be either hard or soft sci-fi.)
Budd: so no extrapolation is allowed based on current models of physics and the universe? Because I think that's mostly what happened here. To me, hard science fiction doesn't contradict the known or assumed laws of the universe.
@Shawn: Fair enough, I guess "Space Opera vs. Hard SF" is a false dichotomy.
I'd call this "hardish" SF: definitely not pure hard SF like eg Benford; other than the super AI and dimensional folding, the author relies on completely scientifically impossible (speaking from linguistics) deus-ex-machina "self-decoding" mechanism to make communication between human languages (Chinese, in this case) and Trisolaran. There is real SF that explores the language issue in first contact (Story of Your Life, eg), but this novel isn't one of them. Just a magic babelfish equivalent.
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Pavel
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Mar 09, 2016 07:31AM
An invading alien armada from Alpha Centauri with near-god-like Strong AI that somehow decides that the best way to solve their problem is to invade Earth? Seems like space opera to me.
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Pavel, but that doesn't happen and isn't what the book is about. Heck, you could say that's happening in the background of a Shakespeare.This book is about people on Earth doing human things in response to communication with another planet. And we see the flip side: people on another planet doing 'them' things in response to communication with Earth. That is the furthest thing from Space Opera to me. (Keep in mind, I think space opera could be either hard or soft sci-fi.)
Budd: so no extrapolation is allowed based on current models of physics and the universe? Because I think that's mostly what happened here. To me, hard science fiction doesn't contradict the known or assumed laws of the universe.
@Shawn: Fair enough, I guess "Space Opera vs. Hard SF" is a false dichotomy.
I'd call this "hardish" SF: definitely not pure hard SF like eg Benford; other than the super AI and dimensional folding, the author relies on completely scientifically impossible (speaking from linguistics) deus-ex-machina "self-decoding" mechanism to make communication between human languages (Chinese, in this case) and Trisolaran. There is real SF that explores the language issue in first contact (Story of Your Life, eg), but this novel isn't one of them. Just a magic babelfish equivalent.
