Lessons

F & SF Assignment 1

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.

From the first page of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather I was hooked. It began talking about beginnings, and moved on to talk about the Assassins' Guild and its recruiting of a very dubious member, then summarized the history of human theology. How it all starts with blood and bone, and the movements of the sun. It is done with humor and finesse that carries the reader into the world of unreality and fantasy, but whose themes ring true in the real world. A story to make you think and entertain you all along the way.

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.

For my WDC science fiction choices I chose:

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because I thought it was cliché. It seems to feel like shades of 2001: A Space Odyssey with humans in stasis and classical music. Then it drops the big bomb on us... cockroaches.

Cogito Ergo Sum  (13+) A Sci-Fi story- are our memories our own? and if we have none, are we truly human? #1361039 by The Masked Potato

is less cliché, but still has some of the overused themes (ie. religion and psychic crime solution) of many a science fiction future society. It is saved by focus on the humanity of the main character.

For my WDC fantasy selections, I chose:

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as my non-cliché story. It has the usual elements, a witch, a knight, and a unicorn, but the theme is dark and the story is well-done.

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is my cliché entry, and my is it a winner. Oh dear, are we playing a video game or are we talking to hobbits? The writing is passable, but really, a short hissing creature, a ring of power and a wizard casting incandescence spells in a maze-like temple?


IdaLin