Ack! How did I miss Sagan on my list?!? (I loved his (non-fiction) Cosmos when I was in college).
As for sci-fi vs. space fantasy, I agree that the difference can be important. I'm not sure I'd necessarily put Niven into the fantasy camp (and I'm not sure if that's what you were suggesting either) -- his style is more "fun" than Asimov or Clarke, but he has a lot more science in his work than many authors of the genre.
But how does one learn, 30 to 40 years after-the-fact, which authors influenced which? And it's also difficult to relate popular science of the time to the fiction being published then.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-03-16 04:17 pm (UTC)As for sci-fi vs. space fantasy, I agree that the difference can be important. I'm not sure I'd necessarily put Niven into the fantasy camp (and I'm not sure if that's what you were suggesting either) -- his style is more "fun" than Asimov or Clarke, but he has a lot more science in his work than many authors of the genre.
But how does one learn, 30 to 40 years after-the-fact, which authors influenced which? And it's also difficult to relate popular science of the time to the fiction being published then.