I have recently read Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. The realism behind his explanations of new worlds, new methods of travel and new human species was super convincing - and a clearly added to the 'moon blowing up' concept. Are Scalzi books in the vein or are they more hyper fantasy 'Lord of the Rings' style in writing style?

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8 years ago
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Zachary Scalzi uses real science more than, say Star Wars, but his books aren't really as focused the science in quite the same way as Seveneves was. Also, Seveneves is set in a near future and this is a far future scenario. But the biggest difference is in tone. Scalzi is funny and this book is pretty light compared to Stephenson. Think something closer to Guardians of the Galaxy in tone, but with a much bigger scope.

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Akshay When it comes to science fiction, if you wanted to split into two camps, you have hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi. Hard science fiction observes the known rules of physics and soft sci-fi typically has some form of FTL travel, breaking the current laws (our understanding) of physics. Some do both (see The Expanse, which evolves from Hard to Soft).

I wouldn't say that Scalzi books are written in vein just because they are soft on physics, compared to the ones that observe all the known laws of physics. They're just different. Plus, most science fiction borrows from reality and expands on it.

And today, there are technologies that previously only existed in science fiction!

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