The trouble I'm finding with a lot of the Sci-Fi I've read recently is that people don't know when to *stop* being Sci Fi authors. IMHO the 'science' in science fiction should basicaly be invoked in the setting up of the tale - this story takes place on a Human colony around Alpha Centuri, this story takes place on spaceship, in this reality there are humanoid robots, but otherwise it is the 1980's... etc. The science isn't there to be a deus-ex-machina when the plot reaches a hole.
Obviously the classic example would be Star Trek, however that can be somewhat excused on the grounds that in a typical episode they only had 45 minutes to tell a story.
A related thing is stories become 'too' Sci Fi. I may have grumbled about this before, but I recently read 'Snow' by Adam Roberts. It starts as a great story, with snow falling and not stoping until it covers the earth to about three miles deep. There are a lot of political machinations as a new society is created on top of the snow, included rumors that the southern hemisphere is snow free, and there is an idylic life to be had in Australia.
Then about a third before the end its revealed that Aliens did it. They lived in snow so terreformed our world, without knowing it would hurt us. What a pile of Bull S**t. The chap who wrote it is an English professor so there's really no excuse! [Although he does go to Warwick IIRC...]
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Obviously the classic example would be Star Trek, however that can be somewhat excused on the grounds that in a typical episode they only had 45 minutes to tell a story.
A related thing is stories become 'too' Sci Fi. I may have grumbled about this before, but I recently read 'Snow' by Adam Roberts. It starts as a great story, with snow falling and not stoping until it covers the earth to about three miles deep. There are a lot of political machinations as a new society is created on top of the snow, included rumors that the southern hemisphere is snow free, and there is an idylic life to be had in Australia.
Then about a third before the end its revealed that Aliens did it. They lived in snow so terreformed our world, without knowing it would hurt us. What a pile of Bull S**t. The chap who wrote it is an English professor so there's really no excuse! [Although he does go to Warwick IIRC...]