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by sonofhans 134 days ago
FWIW it’s not that I don’t find the worlds logical, just that Bradbury doesn’t explain them. E.g., have you read Seveneves (Neal Stephenson)? At one point he spends about 30 pages describing in loving detail the tech behind a high-atmosphere human glider suit. Really cool stuff. I still don’t remember a damn thing about the person who wore it.

Were it Bradbury, or LeGuin, we’d have had two sentences about the tech behind the suit and pages about the people involved. We’d have learned more about the character and, maybe, our common humanity.

1 comments

I really enjoy the original Earthsea books. I guess my expectations of sci-fi are different than magic/fantasy; technology feels like it should be explainable in a way that magic doesn't. I'd probably enjoy Bradbury more if I approached his stories as fairy tales rather than sci-fi.
I think that’s a fair take. A lot of his stuff is straight fantasy, some is very nearly realism; a lot of time he seems to enjoy ignoring the lines while he colors. Try “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” perhaps; almost zero science to it :)