Science Fiction/Fantasy I - Lesson 1

Lesson I

ASSIGNMENT: LESSON ONE


Please tell the class about a science fiction or fantasy story (or both if you wish) which particularly impressed you with its beginning: whether positively because it captured and maintained your interest and attention, or negatively because it either didn't catch your interest, or it bombarded you with too much world-building information at once.


Phantom by Terry Goodkind

It started with a very upsetting scene in which 3 witches treat a prisoner (good-looking female with nice personality) horribly while she is under a spell where no one else can see or hear her to protect her. What was so gripping about it was the absence of any kind of humanity on the part of the witches. They kill a little girl without remorse and punish their prisoner for trying to save her. This beginning stuck in my mind for a long time. At first, I was repelled but I was glued to it in such a way I couldn't help but read it. And the rest has lived up to that kind of beginning.

SHORT ANSWER/ESSAY:


A little reading for this week's assignment. Please search on WDC under the two genres:

Science Fiction
Fantasy


Please select two items in each of these categories: one is to represent cliché writing; the other is to represent work displaying creative initiative without use of clichés.

Hopefully you won't find the former! But in any event, please post a static item with links in bitem format to the four items you've discovered; write a short comment for each item as to why you chose to include it--whether it's clichéd, whether it's well-written, whether it inspired you to seek more from this writer.


#1 Science Fiction: - Cliché

I really liked the following piece because it was so well written. But it was a total cliché. In it an alien species examines a planet they have to blow up. In the experiment they conducted the inhabitants became self-destructive and were about to ruin the planet - the alien's laboratory. The planet of course is Earth, giving it a Planet of the Apes like cliché ending.

ID: 1415907   (Rated: E) Experiment One  Short sci-fi/fantasy piece detailing the end of a world. by Paleon

#2 Science Fiction: Shows Creative Initiative

The following section is a prelude to a science fiction novel written by a writer attempting his first novel.

I thought it showed great creative initiative. The premise is a cliché - a big city after the economy has crashed and the world is in shambles - however the details provided gave me the feeling of visiting a world I had never been to before.

I could smell, taste, hear and see everything in the picture the author painted. It seemed unique to me in the way it described how men had adjusted and how life went on despite the fact they were just "surviving instead of living" as the author described it. I felt like it was the first time I've read this type of material - even though I have read similar writing before.

ID: 1415928   (Rated: 13+) The High Lords: Prelude  A young artist explains how the future of America has turned out. by WafflesandPancakes

#3 Fantasy - Cliché

The following chapter has the problem of being a cliché. It is another plot where the protagonist enters an alternate world from a dream state. Enough said.

ID: 1415386 Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. by Not Available.

#4 Fantasy - Shows great creative initiative.

The following piece is advertised as a comedic religious fantasy. It is a fantasy in the same way Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction. It is kind of a farce or a satire, but it is also a fantasy in not being grounded in reality. It is completely unique, unlike anything I've read for a long time, and one of the most creative things I've read in a long time too.

ID: 1414847 Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. by Not Available.