"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...
This is
the first I've heard of Spider Robinson, but will give his stuff a
look.

Spider's not as "hard tech" as some of the others have
been, but has been compared with Robert Heinlein in
overall style. (A comparison which I am very sure he
wouldn't claim himself, as RAH is a longtime hero of
Spider's.) But his stuff is just an amazing amount of plain,
unadulterated FUN. Try, especially, the "Callahan's
Saloon" stories.


Arthur C. Clarke, who, thank the FSM, is still with us and writing.

Yeah, but he can certainly beat the "2001 Space Odyssey" theme to
death. At 89, I'm really impressed that he's still working. However,
his last few books have been co-authored by Stephen Baxter and read
more like Baxter's complex writing, than Clarke's neatly clipped short
lines.

In my book, Clarke's earned the right to do whatever he damn well
pleases at this point. And he certainly has done quite a bit besides
the "2001" stuff; there's the "Rama" stories, "The Fountains of
Paradise," etc...and I don't think the work with Baxter has been all
that bad - you didn't like "The Light of Other Days"?


Ok, I'll concede the hard sci-fi hasn't gone down the tubes completely
and that there are still authors catering to a technically astute
audience. However, even the best of these (as you've itemized) tend
to drift toward the popular media, mass market, and general audience
market, which deals primarily in entertainment.

Well, as the Grand Old Man himself once noted, "Writing is like
prostitution - first you do it for love, and then for a few close friends,
and then for money." A writer who doesn't - or can't - write what
sells won't stay around long enough to write the Important Stuff,
should he or she care to do so.


invariably devoid of technology, lacking in a basis on physical
reality, and is dominated by space opera and general idiocy. For
every sci-fi author that knows his science, there are perhaps 50 that
are lacking. Little wonder that space opera predominates as it
requires very little technical expertise to write.

Again, though - Sturgeon's Law applies to EVERYTHING. No
exceptions.


Maybe that's why I like reading Mr. Radium's muddled tech rants. It's
the closest approximation to science fiction I can easily find.

But they sure don't seem to be grounded in anything even resembling
reality. If you want hard SF, and not the sort of fantasy that makes
"Star Wars" look like a physics text, you'd really have to look
elsewhere.

Reminder: None of the sci-fi authors up to about 1970, ever predicted
the rise of personal computah.

To be sure, but then, neither did anyone else. One of the nicest
things about the future is that it always is full of surprises for
everyone.

Bob M.