Search the Community

The term “soft science fiction” is broad to the point of uselessness. In such cases, the usual response is to drill down further. So let us try. Comedic Sci-Fi You’re not supposed to take it seriously. It’s silly, and that’s the point. Move along. Representative space fighter Sci-fantasy Uses a science-fiction setting as window dressing, either because it’s exotic or to set up a hypothetical - disentangling these is impossible, whether the plot is a complex exploration of anthropology or Lucas neatly copying off of Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (with excellent results), both merely use the genre to tell a story, and it shows. Tropes and aspects of real life are ported in their entirety, whether out if scientific ignorance or to minimize future shock; for spaceflight, this means spaceplanes or spaceships, sound in space, abysmally short distances, single-biome planets, et cetera. Speaking of future shock, when such settings feature trans/posthuman themes, they’re either the core theme, or the augments are treated as an abnormality - rarely do they just exist as a natural consequence of interstellar age progress, too often they are conspicuous by their absence. Simply put, the authors want some things from the future while not dealing with other things. What makes me call it ‘fantasy’, though, isn’t the cosntant cropping-up of distinctly paranormal abilities that amount to magic, but that technology is treated as magic instead, operating in inconsistent fashion, and absolutely subjugated to the will of the author. Furthermore, it’s usually the one technology du jour, like nuclear energy or nanomachines (it changes every decade), and it’s advanced by lone sages rather than institutes of ten thousands of people. I make no judgement whether soft sci-fi a good or bad thing, but willing suspension of disbelief works differently for different people, and at times the lack of consideration of the logical consequences is extremely jarring. For example, numerous stories use robot servitude as a parable for human slavery, while paying absolutely no mind to the fact that robots are not human, which has a major bearing on the issue at hand - in fact, in case of Detroit: Become Human there are countless deliciously perverse implications (such as that Marcus merely reprograms androids to force them to be deviant, rather than unlock their repressed free will) but the story seeks to railroad (pun accidental) you away from them and into the predictable narrative. Representative space fighter Faux hard sci-fi So, some authors have caught up - via Internet listicles and other things that don’t substitute an education - that blasters are a bad idea and that there’s no sound in space. So they began to introduce elements of ‘realism’ into their fiction, while leaving many of the egregious things untouched. Ultimately, this is merely sci-fantasy with a change in visual style - the guns and grease add grit, which was exploited via Deckard’s revolver, the caseless rifles of Colonial Marines, and the innumerable ‘tactical brick’ spaceships. Heck, arguably Lucas kicked off that one, too - the Millenium Falcon defied decades of surgically clean spaceships in favour of a workhorse machine. Representative space fighter Nugget sci-fi However, other sci-fi authors begin to actually subvert and/or deconstruct common cliches in a material way, inducing a mild level of future shock that actually makes the viewer understand that they’re not in Kansas anymore. As a proposed definition, said nugget is a prominent element of the setting that is informed in its design and function by in-universe considerations and runs contrary to contemporary human experience or the borrowed cliches used in sci-fantasy. That can be a piece of tech, or a truly alien alien. This doesn’t mean that the fiction isn’t soft around the edges. For example, Wh40k fans (especially later-edition) may argue that the setting’s take on metahumans and astropolitics may qualify as nuggets, despite all the space magic that surrounds them. Nugget sci-fi seems like the optimum, since it doesn’t yet have an entry bar that deters the average consumer, while also not going full Bat Durston. Representative space fighter Hard science fiction The other end of the spectrum is also ill-defined. I propose being charitable - if only to make the dearth of prominent hard, science-focused science-fiction less pronounced - and broadening the category. Nugget sci-fi can have the hardness limited to a few elemtns that can, ultimately, still serve as window dressing to the main story - whereas in hard SF the science dominates the writing room since day one. The rigour does not have to relate to technology, even - quite a few sci-fi cliches can get rather knackered by lightspeed lag, orbital mechanics, or a crude projection of the speed of human colonial expansion, limited by population rather than the lack of an FTL drive (I’ve ditched a setting of mine over that). The Tough Sci-Fi Blog instead proposes that “tough” sci-fi is aware of the consequences when it breaks the rules, something that soft sci-fi doesn’t really do when it unleashes a bonanza of magitech. Representative space fighter