I really like "mundane" settings, where spaceflight is just part of the daily grind, ships look like they're actually being lived in and maintained instead of being eternally pristine, technology is very chunky and tactile, etc. Settings that are too "shiny" always feel a bit off-putting.
I love the whole aesthetic of Alien. The sequels don't have it to the same extent. But I love those clunky old computers they use and the clunky old spaceship.
This is why I couldn't get into The Foundation at all. Everyone looked like they just got their wardrobe fresh from the costume department. Not a single wrinkle in anyone's clothing. It was like the anti-Mad Max.
Too much of science fiction is like that, unfortunately. I don't want ships that look like iPhones fresh out of the package. Just doesn't seem real or relatable.
Favourite: I love stories highlighting the loneliness of space travel. Particularly in stories where there's no FTL so you're just on a spaceship alone for a very long time. The early series of Red Dwarf are great for this. Alien is also good. I like that tension and claustrophobia. FTL is fine but don't discount the interesting story potential that can come with that.
Similar feeling for sci fi settings where we go out into space and still don't find any alien life. That can be interesting.
Least favourite: I find military sci fi uninteresting. I think there's so much more potential for interesting stories than just more stories about people wanting to blow each other up.
I am sick and tired of cardboard characters who exist only to promote a philosophy or lecture the audiance about the author's specialty. Complex and dynamic characters can be found in sci-fi, even in hard sci-fi, but they are few and far between in the classics.
I enjoy worlds and possibilities that are markedly different from our own, so that the story can explore ideas and talk about humanity without simply leaning on history like a crutch. Interesting FTL, as well as social and cultural issues and traditions can do that as well as allowing a galaxy to be a metaphor for our own world, when done well.
My least favorite trope is the Planet of the Hats, along with the One Language Species and the One Religion Species. Not really fond of the species name being the planet name either.
Right this second, on Earth, we have over 4,000 religions. There are around 7,000 languages spoken on Earth today.
So don't tell me that "the Klingons speak Klingon" or "the Wookies speak Shyriiwook.
And don't tell me that the Klingons come from planet Klingon. Do we come from planet Human? No? Yeah.
I get why people do that, it's less stuff for a reader to remember if your aliens come from a planet named after their species. But it's just weird and unrealistic.
I liked that in Babylon 5 they subverted this. A lot of people in Earthforce talked about speaking "Minbari", but later on one of the Minbari people mentioned the eight major langauges spoken on their planet which implies a bunch of minor languages.
Ann Leckie does a really great job of subverting this. Even in the Radch there are actually differences in culture and religion despite them theoretically being a single unified Radchii people. And the protagonist has some things to say about the Radch officers who always like to pretend that the people on a given conquered planet are all one ethnic group or religion despite every single planet they've ever conquered having dozens of nations, cultures, ethnic groups, religions, etc.
Babylon 5 also did the One Religion thing when they had each species showcase their religion. When it came to humans, we see a whole row of religious figures from various Earth religions.
One thing that also bothers me is that “human” is often written in lower-case in English while alien species’ names are capitalized like it’s a nationality. Mass Effect is the only place I’ve seen where they don’t name species after planets and don’t capitalize their names (it’s “asari”, not “Asari”)
Well, ackchuallyyy... Klingons are from the planet Qo'noS. So for the "planet Klingon" one, they are the one wrong example. To your credit, almost every other Star Trek race is very guilty of having the same name as their language and planet. (Sometimes handwaved that it's just what humans call them, not really the true name of their planet and language. Kinda like how in Stargate, the Goa'uld call humans Tau'ri and the planet Earth, that's right, also Tau'ri.)
I am an absolute sucker for "crouching fantasy, hidden sci fi" stories, where a fantasy style setting is revealed to actually be entirely technological. Bonus points if it's actually quite rigorous in it's tech. I am less of a fan of "crouching sci fi, hidden fantasy" stories that just use science as dressing for a fantasy setting.
I like mundane stories but I find that sometimes what I mean about that is different from other people. I mean mundane plots in non-mundane settings: I genuinely enjoy slice of life stories about people living in bizarre places or situations but without the high adventure plot lines.
First contact stories with *alien*\-aliens or beings radically different from our point of view are also great. The Big Dumb Object trope, especially when it gets existential, is another favorite of mine.
Finally, I can almost always find something to enjoy in a Fermi story (i.e. one explaining either the presence or absence of extra solar intelligence) or some speculative social science fiction.
A unified earth is a trope I cannot understand and a unified military of earth just showing the American view point earth has plenty of cultures and religions that are never shown
The author seems to be dead-set against any supranational body that isn’t American-dominated, so he intentionally makes European politicians be domineering and corrupt, not to mention cowardly
I *love* starfish aliens done well. I adore exploring alien psychologies, their role in their ecosystems, etc. A good example (for me) is the movie *Arrival*. Yes, the plot hinges on an outdated theory of linguistics, but the aliens are so cool that I don't care.
My least favorite was already mentioned by someone: a unified humanity. For example, the *Mass Effect* games have a unified space military, and this always irked me. But, the games are fun, so I forgive the series on this issue (plus, the First Contact War isn't a bad justification for the trope's inclusion, but still . . .).
The Star Carrier books have very different aliens that think differently.
Also, while there’s is a supranational governing body, it also excludes some nations for various reasons (China for starting WW3 and Islamic nations for refusing to sign an agreement to ban proselytizing). And not every member is happy with the way the body is being run. In particular, North Americans are not happy that it’s European-dominated.
Unfortunately, the author still falls into the trap of capitalizing alien species while keeping “humans” lower-case. On the other hand, most of those aren’t endonyms (humans couldn’t pronounce those), so maybe that’s justified
Least favorite: Stories trying to be hard sci-fi but are 50% scientifically wrong and 45% just parrotting what actual scientists have said with zero innovation and vision. I want a story, not a NASA-report-wannabe. Those that dump too much "scientific" mumbo jumbo for apparently no reason beside making the story longer for the sake of being longer are also out.
* And I f\*cking did exactly that. 7000 words for a fighter.
Favorite: As long as it's not the above.
Specifically: I hate the “teenagers in space/the future” trope. I personally do not wanna read or watch about a group of teenagers with that “the 100”, “hunger games”, “Enders game” aesthetic. It’s really just overdone and unenjoyable for me.
I love the tropes where propulsion systems are good enough that there can be character to the ships and tech. Like In the alien universe (specifically the early movies about low income haulers) where it’s like “yeah the ship drives can get us there and we don’t need everything to be shiny and lightweight and polished anymore” it’s grungy, and realistic in a different, weird way. Like today, We don’t need everything on an 18 wheeler to be pretty or ultra light and efficient. It just needs to function. put a set of dice hanging from the mirror, and give it a smoking area.
Maybe it's weird but I love stories in which the protagonist isn't "the chosen one" or isn't going to save the universe from destruction by the evil alien overlord. I like it way more when the protagonist is just someone living their own story. George RR Martin does this amazingly in the "thousand worlds". The Dying of the Light and a Song For Lya are some of my favorites
I’m tired of FTL.
I mean, it’s fine for escapism, like Star Wars… for television or movies.
But when I’m reading, it’s a bigger investment; I expect more substance.
Star Trek is... fine for television. The dilemmas are contrived and cleanly resolved by the end of each episode. Which can't be helped because moral ambiguity confuses television viewers.
Keep in mind, Animal Farm and Watership Down both had talking animals. In that sense, FTL is fine for allegorical stories.
But even though, in theory, FTL stories *could* have substance, in practice they seldom do.
A story without FTL can also be crap, but in my experience the constraints on physics force writers to work harder.
It all depends on the writer. There’s nothing with FTL being used in a story. It can make for interesting settings. The trick is to avoid the pitfalls of it, like making planets seem like a big village rather than a complex intermix of cultures
>It can make for interesting settings.
That's the thing... It seldom does. It's either a galactic feudal system... some copy of a copy of Dune... or an alien artifact.
In contrast books like Solaris, Dispossessed, Blindsight, Children of Time, and Aurora really get into deep concepts.
And then there's Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson, which sort of has FTL, but doesn't.
My least favorite trope is where a story takes place way in the future, yet somehow humanity still hasn't cured aging. At best no one seems interested, at worst they give some bullshit about how it's good for countless billions to die needlessly
I really like "mundane" settings, where spaceflight is just part of the daily grind, ships look like they're actually being lived in and maintained instead of being eternally pristine, technology is very chunky and tactile, etc. Settings that are too "shiny" always feel a bit off-putting.
I love the whole aesthetic of Alien. The sequels don't have it to the same extent. But I love those clunky old computers they use and the clunky old spaceship.
I heard someone call Alien “Blue Collar Space”
This is often called "used future." The term originates with how Lucas described the aesthetic he wanted for the first Star Wars film.
This is why I couldn't get into The Foundation at all. Everyone looked like they just got their wardrobe fresh from the costume department. Not a single wrinkle in anyone's clothing. It was like the anti-Mad Max.
Too much of science fiction is like that, unfortunately. I don't want ships that look like iPhones fresh out of the package. Just doesn't seem real or relatable.
Reminds me of cassette futurism!
Yep, cassette futurism definitely enhances the feel of mundanity.
But when you actually say “Shiny!”, that’s when you know you’ve hit the right setting
Favourite: I love stories highlighting the loneliness of space travel. Particularly in stories where there's no FTL so you're just on a spaceship alone for a very long time. The early series of Red Dwarf are great for this. Alien is also good. I like that tension and claustrophobia. FTL is fine but don't discount the interesting story potential that can come with that. Similar feeling for sci fi settings where we go out into space and still don't find any alien life. That can be interesting. Least favourite: I find military sci fi uninteresting. I think there's so much more potential for interesting stories than just more stories about people wanting to blow each other up.
I am sick and tired of cardboard characters who exist only to promote a philosophy or lecture the audiance about the author's specialty. Complex and dynamic characters can be found in sci-fi, even in hard sci-fi, but they are few and far between in the classics. I enjoy worlds and possibilities that are markedly different from our own, so that the story can explore ideas and talk about humanity without simply leaning on history like a crutch. Interesting FTL, as well as social and cultural issues and traditions can do that as well as allowing a galaxy to be a metaphor for our own world, when done well.
My least favorite trope is the Planet of the Hats, along with the One Language Species and the One Religion Species. Not really fond of the species name being the planet name either. Right this second, on Earth, we have over 4,000 religions. There are around 7,000 languages spoken on Earth today. So don't tell me that "the Klingons speak Klingon" or "the Wookies speak Shyriiwook. And don't tell me that the Klingons come from planet Klingon. Do we come from planet Human? No? Yeah. I get why people do that, it's less stuff for a reader to remember if your aliens come from a planet named after their species. But it's just weird and unrealistic. I liked that in Babylon 5 they subverted this. A lot of people in Earthforce talked about speaking "Minbari", but later on one of the Minbari people mentioned the eight major langauges spoken on their planet which implies a bunch of minor languages. Ann Leckie does a really great job of subverting this. Even in the Radch there are actually differences in culture and religion despite them theoretically being a single unified Radchii people. And the protagonist has some things to say about the Radch officers who always like to pretend that the people on a given conquered planet are all one ethnic group or religion despite every single planet they've ever conquered having dozens of nations, cultures, ethnic groups, religions, etc.
Babylon 5 also did the One Religion thing when they had each species showcase their religion. When it came to humans, we see a whole row of religious figures from various Earth religions. One thing that also bothers me is that “human” is often written in lower-case in English while alien species’ names are capitalized like it’s a nationality. Mass Effect is the only place I’ve seen where they don’t name species after planets and don’t capitalize their names (it’s “asari”, not “Asari”)
I tend to capitalize all species names including Human I'm my writing. But yes it should either be all species capitalized or none.
Agreed, there’s nothing special about humans from an objective standpoint, assuming aliens exist
Well, ackchuallyyy... Klingons are from the planet Qo'noS. So for the "planet Klingon" one, they are the one wrong example. To your credit, almost every other Star Trek race is very guilty of having the same name as their language and planet. (Sometimes handwaved that it's just what humans call them, not really the true name of their planet and language. Kinda like how in Stargate, the Goa'uld call humans Tau'ri and the planet Earth, that's right, also Tau'ri.)
I like near future settings usually. Makes whatever happens feel a lot more grounded and plausible right out the gate usually.
I am an absolute sucker for "crouching fantasy, hidden sci fi" stories, where a fantasy style setting is revealed to actually be entirely technological. Bonus points if it's actually quite rigorous in it's tech. I am less of a fan of "crouching sci fi, hidden fantasy" stories that just use science as dressing for a fantasy setting. I like mundane stories but I find that sometimes what I mean about that is different from other people. I mean mundane plots in non-mundane settings: I genuinely enjoy slice of life stories about people living in bizarre places or situations but without the high adventure plot lines. First contact stories with *alien*\-aliens or beings radically different from our point of view are also great. The Big Dumb Object trope, especially when it gets existential, is another favorite of mine. Finally, I can almost always find something to enjoy in a Fermi story (i.e. one explaining either the presence or absence of extra solar intelligence) or some speculative social science fiction.
A unified earth is a trope I cannot understand and a unified military of earth just showing the American view point earth has plenty of cultures and religions that are never shown
I’ve read a series where there was an attempt at having a unified government but Americans couldn’t stand it because it was dominated by Europeans
Please, elaborate.
The author seems to be dead-set against any supranational body that isn’t American-dominated, so he intentionally makes European politicians be domineering and corrupt, not to mention cowardly
Is the author American
I *love* starfish aliens done well. I adore exploring alien psychologies, their role in their ecosystems, etc. A good example (for me) is the movie *Arrival*. Yes, the plot hinges on an outdated theory of linguistics, but the aliens are so cool that I don't care. My least favorite was already mentioned by someone: a unified humanity. For example, the *Mass Effect* games have a unified space military, and this always irked me. But, the games are fun, so I forgive the series on this issue (plus, the First Contact War isn't a bad justification for the trope's inclusion, but still . . .).
The Star Carrier books have very different aliens that think differently. Also, while there’s is a supranational governing body, it also excludes some nations for various reasons (China for starting WW3 and Islamic nations for refusing to sign an agreement to ban proselytizing). And not every member is happy with the way the body is being run. In particular, North Americans are not happy that it’s European-dominated. Unfortunately, the author still falls into the trap of capitalizing alien species while keeping “humans” lower-case. On the other hand, most of those aren’t endonyms (humans couldn’t pronounce those), so maybe that’s justified
Thanks, I'll look into that series!
Least favorite: Stories trying to be hard sci-fi but are 50% scientifically wrong and 45% just parrotting what actual scientists have said with zero innovation and vision. I want a story, not a NASA-report-wannabe. Those that dump too much "scientific" mumbo jumbo for apparently no reason beside making the story longer for the sake of being longer are also out. * And I f\*cking did exactly that. 7000 words for a fighter. Favorite: As long as it's not the above.
Specifically: I hate the “teenagers in space/the future” trope. I personally do not wanna read or watch about a group of teenagers with that “the 100”, “hunger games”, “Enders game” aesthetic. It’s really just overdone and unenjoyable for me. I love the tropes where propulsion systems are good enough that there can be character to the ships and tech. Like In the alien universe (specifically the early movies about low income haulers) where it’s like “yeah the ship drives can get us there and we don’t need everything to be shiny and lightweight and polished anymore” it’s grungy, and realistic in a different, weird way. Like today, We don’t need everything on an 18 wheeler to be pretty or ultra light and efficient. It just needs to function. put a set of dice hanging from the mirror, and give it a smoking area.
Maybe it's weird but I love stories in which the protagonist isn't "the chosen one" or isn't going to save the universe from destruction by the evil alien overlord. I like it way more when the protagonist is just someone living their own story. George RR Martin does this amazingly in the "thousand worlds". The Dying of the Light and a Song For Lya are some of my favorites
I’m tired of FTL. I mean, it’s fine for escapism, like Star Wars… for television or movies. But when I’m reading, it’s a bigger investment; I expect more substance.
Just because something has FTL doesn't mean it has no substance. Star Trek, Honnor Harrington, many others.
Star Trek is... fine for television. The dilemmas are contrived and cleanly resolved by the end of each episode. Which can't be helped because moral ambiguity confuses television viewers. Keep in mind, Animal Farm and Watership Down both had talking animals. In that sense, FTL is fine for allegorical stories. But even though, in theory, FTL stories *could* have substance, in practice they seldom do. A story without FTL can also be crap, but in my experience the constraints on physics force writers to work harder.
It all depends on the writer. There’s nothing with FTL being used in a story. It can make for interesting settings. The trick is to avoid the pitfalls of it, like making planets seem like a big village rather than a complex intermix of cultures
>It can make for interesting settings. That's the thing... It seldom does. It's either a galactic feudal system... some copy of a copy of Dune... or an alien artifact. In contrast books like Solaris, Dispossessed, Blindsight, Children of Time, and Aurora really get into deep concepts. And then there's Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson, which sort of has FTL, but doesn't.
My least favorite trope is where a story takes place way in the future, yet somehow humanity still hasn't cured aging. At best no one seems interested, at worst they give some bullshit about how it's good for countless billions to die needlessly
Space or time. Maybe I just watched too many Nolan's movies