At last week’s Mind Meld at SF Signal, the question asked was:

What are the best examples of SF/F worldbuilding?

This is a question I like to think about, since I think worldbuilding- and especially the process of extrapolating how this or that technology or social change would affect the world- is one of the core virtues of science fiction that distinguishes it from more conventional fiction. People always say- or chant- “All fiction is about people,” and in a trivial sense that’s true, but it’s often less true in science fiction than in other genres. A science fiction story certainly can be about people (that is, the psychology of specific individuals, or some alleged truth about the “human condition”), but it doesn’t have to be, and that’s one of its strengths.

(This, I think, lies at the core of why science fiction is held to be inferior to “literature:” it rejects mainstream culture’s privileging of emotion and socialization over other human faculties, such as reason. Most people- and, what’s more important, most opinion-shapers in this area – are primarily socially/emotionally/people oriented, and people often consider subjects outside their own field of interest and/or competence is to be inferior or unworthy. It’s also a common human tendency to find people who aren’t like you to be some mixture of baffling, pitiful, and repulsive, and so disdain for the stereotypical nerd spills over onto the interests and pastimes of the stereotypical nerd. There are other factors, but I think this is the heart of it.)

But I digress. So, what are some of my favorites?

The Oikumene and worlds beyond of Jack Vance’s Demon Princes series (The Star King, The Killing Machine, The Palace of Love, The Face, The Book of Dreams, currently available in two omnibus collections) is the first thing that comes to mind. There are so many interesting locations, and there are few who can make places come alive like Vance: Dar Sai and it’s bizarre mating customs and strange sports (someone ought to get a real hadual league going), the cruel and morbid people of Sarkovy, the diverse worlds of the vast Rigel Concourse, and many more. Vance is also the unsurpassed master of the fictional epigraph as world-building device.

The old BattleTech universe was tremendously detailed and interesting, especially if you have some of the old House sourcebooks that came out in 80s. It’s actually pretty remarkable how much background material they created for a tabletop war game, and I love that sort of thing. Granted, there’s no real reason anyone needs to know what the legal status of Lutheranism is in the Rasalhague District of the Draconis Combine in order to adjudicate battles between giant robots, but it’s fun to have information like that if you like to immerse yourself.

Poul Anderson’s Orion Shall Rise is a good one, and my favorite post-apocalyptic setting. There’s lots of interesting stuff – Skyholm, a pre-war aerostat whose inhabitants rule parts of Western Europe, the well-intentioned but oppressive Maurai nation that rules the Pacific, the near-anarchic and rapidly industrializing Northwest Union, held together by its Lodges. There are lots of little things that made it feel more real to me- for instance, the fact that the nuclear war that shattered civilization centuries ago is called different things (the Doom, the Judgment, etc.) in different cultures, or how pre-Doom religions have evolved in subtly different ways in different parts of the world.

I love the setting for John C. Wright’s Golden Age trilogy, the Golden Oecumene. I can’t really do justice to it, because it’s it probably more densely packed with ideas than just about anything I’ve ever read; I sometimes felt as if every page had enough imagination to support whole novels. It also manages the feat- a difficult one, I’ve argued- of being an exciting story within a utopian society, without even the expedient of venturing into some hostile realm outside the utopia being portrayed. I love Iain M. Banks’ Culture books, for instance, but the Culture itself is really the least interesting thing about the books it appears in. Not so the Oecumene.

I’ve become increasingly fond of Neal Asher’s Polity universe. My favorite location in it is probably the world of Spatterjay from his book The Skinner, with its relentlessly nasty ecosystem. Spatterjay has some interesting social speculation, too: The bite of the Spatterjay leech transmits a virus that gradually changes the human body, making the host stronger, tougher, and faster-healing until he is almost unkillable. The human settlers thus have a rather casual attitude towards violence- they have prize-fights where disemboweling someone is merely the equivalent of a boxing TKO. He’ll be fine, just stuff his intestines back in and let him walk it off…

Finally, Larry Niven’s Known Space deserves a mention. I love the juxtaposition of hard science fiction elements with the more implausible or even outrageous concepts Niven comes up with. On the one hand, you’ve got carefully thought out use of reaction drives, slower-than-light travel and civilizations, and other hard SF staples. Even the more fanciful elements are dealt with rigorously- momentum is conserved when you’re sent through a teleporter, for instance. On the other hand… A billion years ago, telepathic aliens crushed a slave revolt with a massive telepathic transmission that killed all sapient life in the galaxy! Human adults are actually just the adolescent form of a race of hyperintelligent genocidal aliens from the galactic core! Luck is genetic, and you can selectively breed for it to create nigh-invulnerable people! It’s sort of like going to a really interesting physics lecture and then taking LSD halfway through, but without those pesky dissociative fugue states and giant spider attacks.

Any thoughts? Any favorites of your own to nominate?

My new column at Crucial Taunt is up, with a profile of my favorite SF author of all time, Poul Anderson.

I’ve been busy elsewhere this week. I am now a weekly columnist on science fiction and fantasy for the entertainment website Crucialtaunt.com. You can see my first column for them here. It’s got an introduction to Alastair Reynolds and my thoughts on his work. If you’ve got comments on it, please let me know.

At SF Signal, I had the opportunity to participate in their most recent Mind Meld feature on Young Adult fiction. Which brings to the mind the following bizarre and embarrassing anecdote:

As I said in my Mind Meld contribution, I didn’t read much Young Adult literature when I was a kid. I might have read more back when I was the target audience, if only the genre was named more precisely. Growing up, my mind was what you might call “lopsided”- I could read at a college level in elementary school, and yet made extremely silly and bizarre mistakes in daily life that would have embarrassed someone half my age. Case in point: As a child, the meaning of “Young Adult” as a book category had never been explained to me, and so I assumed the Young Adult section at the local library meant literal young adults- that is, people in their early twenties. This frustrated me, because that section had some stuff that seemed interesting to me, but I thought I wasn’t allowed to check any off it out from the library! I think I somehow thought I would get in trouble. Ironically, this left me with no choice but to borrow adult books from the regular science fiction area instead, since there was no specified age for them.

I also had the books my dad would pick up for me on his frequent business trips, which helped fuel my interest in science fiction. Many were quite good- that’s how I discovered Frederik Pohl, for instance- but he selected books more or less at random, which resulted in me reading some hilariously age-inappropriate technothrillers as a child. Reading the one (I’ve long forgotten the name) with the subplot about the female Russian spy having graphic sex with everyone under the sun to get American military secrets was quite a revelation for a 4th grader. At least I was careful to avoid the corrupting influence of the Young Adult section- who knows what filth might have been in there?

Warning: this post has what you might call a thematic spoiler for Jack Vance’s The Book of Dreams, though nothing that would be likely to diminish your enjoyment of that book.

A few days ago, SF Signal had a discussion on the best and worst endings of books. This got me thinking about the subject, because endings are often the aspect of fiction that I find the most interesting. They’re the biggest determinant of a story’s “aftertaste,” for lack of a better term. My own preferences are towards the grim or melancholy side of things, though not exclusively. Some of my own personal favorites:

Poul Anderson, The Night Face- Great buildup, and at the end… Anderson rips your heart out with a single sentence.

Glen Cook, Soldiers Live- Very poignant for me after spending so much time with the Black Company. Like Croaker, I’ll always have the memories.

David Drake, Rolling Hot- The first Drake novel I read, and the one that made me a devoted fan. I can’t recommend this one enough. (It’s included in the Drake collection The Tank Lords.) It was especially effective for me because, atypically for one of Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers stories, one of the principal viewpoint characters isn’t a soldier, but a civilian who gets dragooned into joining the conflict. The whole book is a series of savage muay thai kicks to the emotional groin, and the very end is just devastating.

Jack Vance, The Book of Dreams- The culmination of the five-novel Demon Princes series. Anticlimactic, but that’s the point, and it works wonderfully. You’ve won what you’ve dedicated your life to- leaving you with nothing.

Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man- The climax of the story sort of comes out of nowhere, but the very end manages to be blackly humorous and straightforwardly horrifying and disturbing at the same time.

John C. Wright, The Golden Transcendence- I’m not all death and gloom. This is the last book of the Golden Age trilogy, one of my favorite science fiction series ever. Like The Night Face, but with a very different set of emotions at the end, it has a truly perfect final sentence. With the conclusion of his trilogy, Wright leaves the reader feeling- as he should- exultant.

If novellas count, Neal Asher, The Engineer- Creepy. As. Hell.

While I’m at it, I’ll throw in a movie:

Colossus: The Forbin Project- Great science fiction movie that sees its own grim logic through to the bitter end. (It’s also quite fun, the second time you watch it, to imagine that the movie chronicles the birth of Neal Asher’s Human Polity.)

Those are the ones that first come to mind and have really stuck with me. Anyone else have a list of favorites?

Baen Books has done some fine work bringing older science fiction back into print, often for the first time in decades. This, however, is by the far coolest thing they’ve done- no, the coolest thing any human being who isn’t Poul Anderson has ever done. Baen Books will be releasing a collection of Poul Anderson’s Technic History stories this September. It’s apparently called The Van Rijn Method: The Technic Civilization Saga #1. Amazon.com also has a listing for David Falkayn: Star Trader: The Technic Civilization Saga #2, slated for release in January 2009. Both books are listed as around 600 pages, which is nice. Hopefully we’ll eventually get the complete Technic History stories.

Note that this post has some spoilers, if the widely known general themes of stories written decades ago count.

The dearth of Poul Anderson books in stores, and his relative obscurity compared to many other writers, is one of the greatest injustices of the science fiction genre. I was thrilled when Baen released their previous Anderson collections, Time Patrol and To Outlive Eternity, and I’m even more thrilled to see that they apparently sold well enough to bring this about. I compiled my collection of his books from my local used bookstores and various online sellers, but most people aren’t blessed with my obsessive nature and abundant spare time, and a young kid who’s curious about science fiction isn’t going to stumble on an old copy of Agent of the Terran Empire at the local Barnes and Noble. If there’s a young science fiction fan or potential science fiction fan in your life, you could do a lot worse than getting him this.

Anderson is an interesting choice for Baen, whose editors have explicitly said they want to bring adventurous, upbeat stories to the forefront of science fiction. Anderson’s Technic History stories certainly have plenty of adventure and excitement; no one can say they’re boring. On the other hand, while Anderson doesn’t wallow in despair or nihilism, there’s a deep sense of melancholy that pervades much of his work, and the Technic History is a prime example of that- most obviously in the Dominic Flandry and Long Night-era stories, but in some of the van Rijn-era stories too, though the latter are usually cheerier since most of them take place in Technic Civilization’s vigorous youth, before the rot takes hold. There’s action and adventure and excitement, but there’s also the deep sorrow of a universe where human civilizations rise, fall, and shatter to pieces in a cruel cycle that Anderson’s heroes, for all their courage and ingenuity, cannot stop. You can fight as hard as you can- indeed, you should fight as hard as you can- but human civilization will continue to fall towards Ragnarok, and whatever hope you can have is not for yourself but for whatever manages to grow from the ashes.

Now, this is one of the many things I like about Anderson. If you had to describe my personality, “gloomy Germanic fatalism” is a pretty good start. It is by no means necessary to have that sort of temperament to enjoy Poul Anderson, but it doesn’t hurt. However, I am a bit surprised by Baen’s choice of material here, in light of Baen’s stated goal of bringing more optimism back to science fiction. Then again, they publish David Drake, not the jolliest of authors, so perhaps it’s not so odd. It should be said that while life in Anderson’s universe is often sad and tragic, it is not pointless.

I should stress that if I’ve made Anderson sound relentlessly dreary, that wasn’t my intent. He’s not- he’ a huge amount of fun as well. If you like science fiction and you haven’t read Anderson, do yourself a favor and check him out. You’ll probably want to use Amazon.com or the like, because he’s terribly underrepresented in stores. And if there’s a budding young geek you know who would benefit from exposure to the classics, get him one of the collections when it comes out. He’ll thank you for it. Or possibly just laugh at you behind your back for being an out-of-it old weirdo. Either way, the kid will be entertained.

Read in 2007, that is, not necessarily published in 2007. I acquire books more rapidly than I can read them and always have a large backlog waiting to be read. As a result, my top ten for 2007 includes very few books actually published in 2007. My top ten, in no particular order:

Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds- Collects the short stories set in Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe. Great hard science fiction/ space opera with a touch of horror.

The Draco Tavern by Larry Niven- A rather strange book of connected short (often very short) stories that form a sort of episodic novel. Full of interesting alien races, technologies, and ideas, with speculations on topics from religion to artifical intelligence to cosmogony. Essential for Niven fans, or anyone who likes science fiction that gets you thinking.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester- Fully deserving of its classic status. Exciting, strange, and wonderfully inventive.

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson – I read this book’s predecessor, Gardens of the Moon, on the strength of various reviews. I liked it, but didn’t see why Erikson was so huge. Then I read the sequel, Deadhouse Gates, and was utterly blown away. It’s just stunning in every respect- action, imagination, emotional impact.

Coalescent by Stephen Baxter – One of the creepiest and most disturbing science fiction novels I’ve read in a long time.

Pandora’s Star/ Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton – One continuous story, so I’m cheating a bit and counting this as one rather than choose between them. Lots of excitement, and some interesting speculations on subjects like the social effects of immortality and personality downloads.

Orion Shall Rise by Poul Anderson – My all-time favorite post-apocalyptic novel, by my all-time favorite author.

The Wreck of the River of Stars by Michael Flynn – An absolutely stunning work- hard science fiction combined with wonderfully drawn characters and tremendous emotional power. Utterly heartbreaking.

The Line of Polity by Neal Asher- Had to buy it as an import because the geniuses at Tor decided to release books 1 and 3 of Asher’s Ian Cormac series in America without publishing this one, which is book 2. But it was well worth it! Asher demonstrates himself to be a master of space opera here, with intense action, a fascinating future society, and one of my favorite alien characters, the bizarre and enigmatic Dragon. I can only hope that Tor gives this book a proper release in the United States soon.

Chindi by Jack McDevitt- A wide-ranging story about an expedition sent out in search of an enigmatic alien civilization. Full of enjoyable characters, intriguing mysteries, and the thrill of discovery.

A reader comment at this post got me thinking: what out-of-print works would you like to see reissued?

My first choice would be Poul Anderson, which is why I’m so pleased that Baen has released their second book of Anderson stories. I hope they sell well enough to do more; there are so many Anderson stories and novels that deserve an audience. What I’d really love to see is the complete Technic History gradually brouight back into print, but that would be a huge project, and I dimly recall reading on Baen’s Bar that there’s some sort of rights issue that would make it a difficult undertaking. The other stumbling block might be tone- the Baen editors have talked a lot about wanting to publish stories with an upbeat and optimistic sensibility, and the Technic History has a rather melancholy feel.

David Drake has been getting some reissues from Tor, first The Forlorn Hope and then Bridgehead. What I’d like to see out again is The Sea Hag, one of Drake’s lesser-known fantasy books. I can understand why it wasn’t a huge hit- it’s a weird book with a sort of fairy tale structure- but it’s greatly underrated in my opinion.

So, those are my picks. What are yours?

Orbit Unlimited is a book by Poul Anderson, published in 1961; I’m not sure whether to call it a connected short story collection or a fix-up novel. In either case, it is a hard science fiction story that tells the tale of the colonization of the distant Earthlike world of Rustum by a band of exiles.

The futuristic Earth portrayed is grim, with an authoritarian hereditary ruling class of “Guardians”, a small middle class of “Citizens”, and a vast underclass living in ignorance and squalor. Twenty years before the story begins, the last armed resistance to the world government ended when a revolt in the former United States was brutally put down. Humanity’s ambitions in space have all but died, and the government’s fleet of interstellar spacecraft sits unused, awaiting the scrap heap.

The government is plagued by a small group called the Constitutionalists, political and philosophical dissidents opposed to the Guardians. When the government decides to stamp out the Constitutionalist menace by shutting down their private schools and instituting compulsory public education in order to indoctrinate their children, the Constitutionalists threaten revolt. Though few in number, their overrepresentation in technical fields makes them a serious problem. With a showdown inevitable, a compromise is reached: the leading Constitutionalists will leave, using Earth’s space fleet to colonize Rustum, a newly discovered habitable world orbiting e Eridani. With no hope for freedom remaining on Earth, a few daring souls accept and flee to the stars. The main characters of the story are:

Joshua Coffin- A member of Earth’s interstellar explorer corps and co-discoverer of Rustum, he has newly returned to Earth after 87 years of relativistic travel to discover that the society he knew is gone forever. With nothing worth staying for on Earth, he departs again to command the fleet to Rustum.

Jan Svoboda-Son of a high-ranking Commissioner among the Guardians but a leader among the Constitutionalists, driven to radicalism when he sees the state trying to take his children from him. He helps lead the colonization of Rustum.

The bulk of the book tells the story of the journey to and colonization of Rustum itself, focusing on Coffin and Svoboda. As is sometimes the case with Poul Anderson’s protagonists, the main characters are interesting, even sympathetic, without being very likable.

Rustum is an interesting environment, an Earthlike world with considerably higher gravity and atmospheric pressure. Falls are deadlier, and the air at sea level is too dense to breathe; all the human settlements have to be on mountains and plateaus.

There are some interesting glimpses at the development of early Rustum society: tensions between farmers and manufacturers, the role of mutual aide, and the challenge of maintaining a culture of liberty while struggling to survive. Anderson also has an interesting solution to the question of how to create a large and diverse gene pool when you can only physically transport three thousand people to your new settlement, and any new immigrants are a forty-year trip away.

Orbit Unlimitedis well worth reading for the Poul Anderson fan, for those who like fiction with libertarian themes, or anyone interested in a hard science fiction exploration/colonization story. I also recommend the follow-up, the story collection New America.

Inspired this post at John C. Wright’s livejournal from a little while back, I’m taking a look at what science fiction books and stories would (or wouldn’t) make good movies, and how they might fare in that medium. I am evaluating on the basis of not only the quality of the book, but how well it would translate to the medium of the feature film, as well as the likelihood of achieving commercial success in that format. As much as I love John C. Wright’s Golden Age trilogy, for instance, I can’t see it being made as a movie without it being mutilated beyond recognition.

Since I’m mentioning John C. Wright, I think his “War of the Dreaming” books would be great, as two or perhaps three movies. It’s got likable characters, exciting and often over-the-top (in a good way) action, evil conspiracies, and all sorts of fantastic creatures and locations that would look awesome with modern movie-making technology. I would love to see the city of Acheron rising from the sea in modern CGI.

There are a couple of David Drake stories that might work. Rolling Hot would be a good choice: lots of action, a lot of emotional power, and a good audience identification figure in the form of the young journalist who gets dragged along with the mercenaries. It also has the advantage of not requiring a lot of setting background exposition to fully understand, which is a big advantage if you’re translating a science fiction novel into a two-hour movie. Commercially, though, such a movie might be hampered by the sheer darkness of its source. The novel was utterly heartbreaking; faithfully putting it on screen would probably not make for a rousing action blockbuster.

Drake’s Cross the Stars would be cool to see on screen, though its episodic nature might not really work for a feature film.

I would love to see Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous With Rama as a movie. The interior of Rama realized with modern effects would be stunning to see. Morgan Freeman has apparently expressed an interest in making this, so there’s a chance.

John Steakly’s Armor would be awesome, but there’s a serious problem: it would be hard to conceal the big surprise near the end if you’re using live actors. If you’ve read the book, you know what I mean.

I can’t leave Poul Anderson out, of course. “No Truce With Kings” has everything: big battles, family conflict, secret manipulative aliens, and crazy mind powers that would look great in CGI. I’m not sure Hollywood would be likely to leave in the pro-localist, anti-collectivist themes, though. People of the Wind would probably work pretty well as a movie, but the amount of background exposition needed might be too much.

There’s a lot of stuff by William C. Dietz that would work pretty well, with the McCade stories probably being the best choice. Lots of action, and the story would remain readily understandable without a lot of setting exposition.

I often hear David Weber’s “Honor Harrington” series suggested, but I think there would be too much explanation needed. Specifically, the way space combat works in the Harrington universe is fairly atypical, and would require some awkward explaining, not to mention the political setup. For Weber, Mutineer’s Moon would probably be a better choice. Very fun story, and the way the story is set up (human from present day discovers ancient artificial intelligence that explains what’s going on to him) makes it easier to relate to, as well as making it easier to explain the setting without resorting to narration or “As you know, Bob” dialogue.

The problem, I think, is that a lot of great science fiction would either be too short or too long for a typical movie. The miniseries would probably be a better medium; I can think of science fiction that would work in that medium much more readily than I can think of books that would make good two-hour movies.

Well, I’d like to hear what anyone reading this has to say. What do you think would translate well to film?