JDG wrote (belatedly): > At 08:19 AM 8/25/2004 -0700 Nick Arnett wrote: > >Doesn't science fiction require *fictitious* science, i.e., stuff that > >hasn't been discovered/invented yet? > > This would eliminate novels like _Alas, Babylon_, _On the Beach_, and _A > Canticle for Leibowitz_ - which I would be uncomfortable with. > > I guess the first question that would need to be answered is, does > speculative fiction exist as a separate genre for or as a subset genre of > science fiction. My preference would be for the latter - science fiction > includes any speculative fiction about the future, as well as any fiction > involving outer space or alien life forms. Of course, this definition > would make things like _Red Storm Rising_ and Isaac Asimov's short story > about sugar-based aliens part of the science fiction genre, but I don't > have a problem with that.
------------------------------------- I think the three post-nuclear war novels you list are definitely SF, unless you discount the soft science of psychology, sociology etc. I thought the "sugar-based" aliens story was by Ray Bradbury, but its been so long since I read it, I'm not sure. George A _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
