I want to suggest an odd system for story construction.
Most stories are still told in the oral tradition of "once
upon a time" Story events are related to the reader using the past
tense:
"Joe Shmo took a wrong turn in life, and became President....."
Why not just present the story in the present tense? This forces the
story teller to be very concerned with setting the scene in time and space.
When I was in 5th grade, I almost broke my brain trying to make sense of
how people tell fictional stroies about the future using the "Once
upon a time.." format. I say, lets try something different.
Good Authors, worthy of emulation....
A is for Asimov, R is for robot.
CONTACT by Carl Sagan. Wow. Doing it right.
Timescape stands with The End of Eternity in time travel greatness.......Hogan's time travel is okay, too....Gregory Benford.
The "Old Goat" Robert Heinlein
The Ler Series is a personal favorite by Michael Foster
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic."
One of the giants with a subtle science/mystic mix: Arthur
Clarke
Just to prove I have read female authors: C. J. Cherryh
Another explorer of HyperText Web World authoring: The Nexus of Worlds
"A good hard SF writer, in a time when hard SF is getting difficult to find." James Hogan
Too much hard SF? Larry Niven
Just to prove I have read more than one female author: Ursula Le Guin
My Personal Favorite: Jack Vance.
This page by John Schmidt ......5/25/96
If you have comments or new pages to link to this one, email me at [email protected]