Word: fi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...work, The Dosadi Experiment, owes its prominence more to its ancestry than any distinguishing strength of its own. Dune, with its meticulously laid-out setting and equally convincing set of characters, proved that Herbert is the ultimate practitioner of the fantasy-science fiction art. As the best fantasy sci-fi should, it ensnarls its readers; entrapping the unsuspecting alien in a coherent, make-believe world that he can escape only when the author permits it, with his final page...
After reading Dune, sci-fi fans were convinced Herbert could do no wrong--sadly, though, he fails to maintain such heights in his following books. Perhaps Dune reached heights no author could reclimb. Sensing a mesmerized readership, Herbert continued with Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, well-crafted books but not quite on the same level as their forebearer. Dosadi uses many of Dune's conventions and provides some entertainment, but the reader no longer believes he is holding the ancient, jewel-encrusted dagger in his hand and is chanting the mystical incantations...
Sometimes Clarke's humor proves accessible only to sci-fi fans, as in his tongue-in-cheek query as to the current whereabouts of former colleague Ron Hubbard. "He was a damn good writer," Clarke says. "He could easily make ten cents a word today." For the uninitiated, L. Ron Hubbard was the man who casually remarked to a science fiction convention that writing for a penny a word was ridiculous. Anyone who really wanted to make a million bucks wouldn't waste his time writing science fiction, Hubbard contended, he'd start a religion. Hubbard then acted...
...landmark film comes in the form of Clarke's slightly defensive explanation of how astronaut David Bowman managed to survive in a vacuum for several seconds while re-entering his space ship. Clarke cites experiments on animals in vacuum chambers in an effort to disprove the old sci-fi truism that an astronaut would explode instantly in the vacuum of space. The book scintillates with such occasional tidbits, but otherwise the pickings are slim. Clarke reveals that he has decided to abandon non-fiction to concentrate on writing novels, and the overall mediocrity of the book inclines one to approve...
...science fiction authors, which has arleady covered Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein; books on Ray Bradbury and Ursula K. LeGuin are in preparation. For all its amateur wordiness, the book reflects the vitality of this literary genre today. While mainstream short stories can scarcely find a market, sci-fi anthologies have become so numerous that it's difficult to think of new names for them, as Clarke himself points out. Science fiction enthusiasts will enjoy comparing the critics' evaluation of Clarke's themes with their own, and newcomers to science fiction may have some questions about its nature answered...