Stories that we would now consider science fiction were already being widely read well before that term was invented. Some historians of the field trace it back to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or even earlier. Scientific romances were not thought of as a separate genre until the 1930s when the rise of the pulp magazine segregated fiction formally into westerns, romances, adventure fiction, war stories, weird tales, science fiction, and others. These magazines reprinted work by H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, George Griffiths, and other established authors as well as new stories by writers whose names were considerably less familiar, most of whom have largely been deservedly forgotten.
First Lensman (1950) by Edward E. Smith
One of the most prominent writers of this period was Edward E. “Doc” Smith, whose Skylark novels had already begun to venture beyond Earth to explore the wonders of outer space, although it would be his Lensman series which would shape the way most genre writers would depict the universe at large. Smith assumed that there would be vast alien civilizations that spanned hundreds or even thousands of worlds, that there would be a form of commerce and communication between them, and that conflict would be inevitable among these enormous empires. The possibilities were almost literally infinite and during the 1930s and 1940s, a very large proportion of new science fiction was set in outer space.
The garish covers on the pulp magazines made an impression even on that part of the public which never read speculative fiction and today, if you mention science fiction to the average person, the first thing that they will think of will be space travel and alien planets. This reaction has persisted even though the trend away from stories set in outer space had already begun to develop during the late 1960s, and by the 1990s it had become just one of many sub-genres like alternate history, time travel, dystopian or cautionary fiction, psychic powers, post-apocalyptic novels, and other popular themes. Most of the space fiction that did appear was soon related to television shows and movies like Star Wars and Star Trek, or fell into the category of military science fiction, which was not about space exploration at all but rather a traditional military adventure placed in an unusual setting.
The Sands of Mars (1952) by Arthur C. Clarke
The manner in which space travel was described also evolved over time. During the 1930s, Edward Smith, John W. Campbell Jr., and their contemporaries could simply invent unexplained motive forces as an explanation with no reference to contemporary science. During the 1950s and thereafter, writers attempted to hew a little closer to actual scientific fact. Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and others provided detailed descriptions of travel into orbit, to the moon, and to the planets of our solar system. Novels like The Sands of Mars, The Man Who Sold the Moon, and even young adult fiction like Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter were cognizant of the mechanics of rocket propulsion and an understanding of conditions in space and on other planets, at least as far as they had been revealed by scientific investigation at the time.
Interstellar travel – beyond our solar system to other worlds – faced another stumbling block. Einstein’s theories suggest that while we might be able to approximate the speed of light, we could never reach or exceed it, and even the nearest star would require a journey of several years. Obviously this made an interstellar society difficult to imagine. To avoid this complication, writers invented faster than light travel, often explaining it with references to folding space, stepping temporarily outside the physical universe, and by other methods. Despite the trappings of science, these explanations are simply more sophisticated versions of the mythical and unexplained fourth order forces of Edward E. Smith.
Science fiction as a genre underwent a radical change during the 1960s and 1970s. A number of new authors within the field began to experiment with literary techniques and adapted methods and standards of mainstream literature to speculative writing. Many of these same writers wanted to deal with more serious, immediate themes like overpopulation, totalitarianism, the impact of scientific advances, ecological disaster, and the evolution of the human mind and body. Stories set in outer space continued to be written, notably by writers like Poul Anderson, John Brunner, A. Bertram Chandler, and Gordon R. Dickson, but space exploration became a smaller portion of their writing.
This transformation was reinforced by the growing commercial success of science fiction. For years the field had been treated by publishers as a marginal part of their business, like westerns or men’s adventure. As writers like Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Anne McCaffrey, and others began to attract critical attention or appear on the best seller lists, this attitude changed. In order to capitalize on this new market, publishers wanted science fiction that would appeal to as broad a range of readers as possible. A novel speculating about the near future of human society was likely to attract more readers than one in which a small group of adventurers explore an unknown and entirely imaginary world. There were, of course, exceptions such as Frank Herbert’s Dune series, but for the most part, the focus of science fiction was contracting to more immediate intervals of time and space.
By the end of the 1990s, stories of outer space had become increasingly scarce, with only a handful of writers working extensively in that form. For several years, Ben Bova was almost alone in writing scientifically accurate stories of near future space exploration. Writers like Timothy Zahn and Iain Banks continued to write space adventures, but they had little competition. The last few years, however, have seen an infusion of new writers, many of whom have returned to stories of galactic civilizations and alien races. Great Britain has provided readers with Alastair Reynolds, Peter Hamilton, and Chris Roberson. Canada is represented by Karl Schroeder. In the United States we’ve seen the rising popularity of Julie E. Czerneda, Allen Steele, Tobias Buckell, Jack McDevitt, and others.
Other established writers will certainly follow. Neal Stephenson’s 2008 novel Anathem, for example, is an other worlds adventure including an account of the first contact between two alien civilizations. In 2006, David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer edited the massive The Space Opera Renaissance, highlighting the latest turn of the cycle. Only time will tell how long it continues and what the next trend might be. And I, like science fiction writers in general, would probably be wrong no matter what I predicted.
– Don D’Ammassa has been reading science fiction since 1960 and reviewing it since 1970. He edited the Hugo nominated fan magazine Mythologies and has written scores of articles about the field for encyclopedias and other publications. He is also the author of several science fiction novels and dozens of short stories, including Narcissus, Haven, and Scarab. He has very eclectic tastes and savors the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, and H.P. Lovecraft, each in its own way. He is also the author of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror, and The Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction.
*************
For more on science fiction, try the sci-fi browse genre page at Books & Authors!
Want to know more about us? Check out “What is Books & Authors and Why Should You Care?”
