Sci-Fi / Not Sci-Fi

[Brad]

I think most of us can agree that at best this is Sci-Fi lite and at worst this isn't Sci-Fi at all. As "Sci-Fi Czar" I regret this book getting past me and into the vote, particularly since there are so many amazing and genuine Sci-Fi books that fit the bill for this theme. Here's a good place to vent your feelings though.

Sorry for this book to all of you.

[bsc]

*** Potential Spoilers here ***

Though not blatantly SF, I think it is safe to call it SF. There are toxin-eating bio-engineered germs that end up getting out of control. I think that's enough for me.

[Peregrine]

Sci-Fi lite - heh heh heh. That reminds me of a cartoon I saw years ago. There's a mushroom cloud in the background. In the foreground are two guys. One's yelling at the other to the effect of, "This is the apocalypse, and you brought LIGHT beer?!?"

[Peregrine]

P.S. That's one powerful infant you have, Brad - disrupted the reading priorities of over 2000 people

[Brad]

Peregrine wrote: "P.S. That's one powerful infant you have, Brad - disrupted the reading priorities of over 2000 people " Hahahaha! She is an evil little babe, she is.

[Brooke]

Neal Stephenson seems to have his own approach to science fiction. I've noticed it a few times in interviews with him:

"I always write with a science fiction feel to my stories, though for some of the books, the marketing may be more toward a mainstream audience. The science fiction approach doesn't mean it's always about the future; it's an awareness that this is different."

http://www.sfsite.com/10b/ns67.htm

"Reason: Is The Baroque Cycle science fiction?

Stephenson: Labels such as science fiction are most useful when employed for marketing purposes, i.e., to help readers find books that they are likely to enjoy reading. With that in mind, I'd say that people who know and love science fiction will recognize these books as coming out of that tradition. So the science fiction label is useful for them as a marketing term. However, non-S.F. readers are also reading and enjoying these books, and I seem to have a new crop of readers who aren't even aware that I am known as an S.F. writer. So it would be an error to be too strict or literal-minded about application of the science fiction label."

http://www.reason.com/news/show/36481...

There's also a broadcast of him giving a lecture about SF as a genre:

http://fora.tv/2008/05/08/Neal_Stephe...

I'm on a several-year-long hiatus from The Baroque Cycle (my brain gets tired just thinking about the scope of that thing), but I do love the guy as an author.

[Richard]

I spent the first 2/3rds plus of this book asking where the fiction was to go with all the science. It was only when the GM beasties started their biological revolution that I started to regard this book as Science Fiction. I'm not a chemist by any stretch of the imagination but I'm pretty sure the stuff Stephenson describes doesn't exist, but for the reasons he also proposes I bet there are a bunch of extremely bright people working on it.
That makes it SF for me, but yeah SF lite compared to most of the rest of the genre.

[Brad]

Cool links, Brooke. Thanks for those.

[Martha]

Having recently finished the book for the first time, I was struck by the following article from CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/25/...

SF or not, aspects of this book are shear non-fiction. Any of the marines from this article, who I think it's obvious were contaminated by PCB type chemicals, could have been "the cancer guy" who made the whistle blowing phone call to ST.

I agree with Ben though. The moment he started going into the engineered toxin eating bugs it became full blown SF to me. But maybe not as SF as I want to believe...

[Brad]

Martha wrote: "I agree with Ben though. The moment he started going into the engineered toxin eating bugs it became full blown SF to me. But maybe not as SF as I want to believe..."

That's the part that puts me in mind of Sci-Fi lite. Y'all are doing a good job of making me feel not so bad. Another good link, too. Thanks, Martha.

[Carolyn]

Have to admit I haven't read Zodiac, so not sure if you mean bugs=insects or bugs=bacterium, but the concept of bacteria that consumes hazardous wastes/toxins has been around for a while. Here's the Wikipedia article link for "Bioremediation" as it's termed.

Unless you mean bugs=insects, Zodiac doesn't look Science Fiction to me, I'd just put it into General Ficton or Thriller (depending) on my shelves...

[Brad]

Zodiac is dealing with bioremediation, Carolyn.