Bump in the Night - Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Greetings, intrepid adventures! Today we are going to venture deep into the forests of literature, to the home of strange and mysterious science-fiction and fantasy hybrids the likes of which have never been glimpsed by human eyes. Legends thrive here in the boiling primordial wilds, where new genres are born from the scraps of the old. Join me as we catalogue these fearsome creatures and judge their likely successes as future kings of the written jungle.

Hugnkiss Flytrap (Sci-fi/fantasy and Romantic Fiction) - Life’s complicated when your small stalk is intent on gobbling up enterprising heroes, but your primary stalk just wants to hold hands in the moonlight. Often found in the, ahem, dirtier patches of the literary forest, the Hugnkiss Flytrap is in frequent danger of offending the sensibilities of children (and some adults). Since most standard man-eating flytraps have something of a heart, and even the most placid Hugnkiss flowers have an adventurous petal or two, the combination does not always add interest and often detracts focus. Still, a stout-hearted author may yet have luck in taming this conflicted specimen. Three wizard’s hats out of ten.

Invisible Hobgoblin (Sci-fi/fantasy and Realistic Fiction) - The Invisible Hobgoblin is first frankengenre most boys and girls encounter and the one that appeals most to the child in us all. Who hasn’t dreamed of being whisked off to a school for wizards in the Hobgoblin’s claws, or searched for the signs of magic he leaves in the world around us? Almost infinite variations in habitat and behavioral patterns make this one of the most interesting hybrids to visit again and again. Nine wizard’s hats out of ten.

Giggling Lindworm (Sci-fi/fantasy and Comedy) - They say that the laughter of a Giggling Lindworm is infectious; unwitting travelers have been known to collapse in spasms at the mere sight of one. While a Lindworm’s ferocity and majesty are somewhat dulled by constant joviality, it succeeds in becoming an entertaining species all its own. I myself have passed many an afternoon in the company of specimens like Good Omens, bred by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Seven wizard’s hats out of ten.

Bionic Bandit (Sci-fi/fantasy and Westerns) - A rare and elusive beast, many young adventurers first encounter the Bionic Bandit when they stumble upon a copy of Stephan King’s The Dark Tower series in a winding library passage. While its habits may seem at first to be confined to a strict set of clichés, the action-packed nature of this frankengenre can be the source of hours of fun and mayhem. Remember, Star Wars is believed by many to be a member of this species! Although it may be an unintuitive chimera, the bionic bandit has nonetheless managed to claim a few strains of literary greatness. Six wizard’s hats out of ten.

At its most daring, cutting edge, science fiction is no more or less than a foreshadowing of tomorrow - unless, of course, its a blueprint. Some of the most prominent inventions of the 20^th and early 21^st centuries were previewed in the pages of science fiction novels almost a century before they were studied in a lab. History makes it clear that when literature not only morphs into reality, but shapes it, remarkable advances are born. From robotic limbs to underwater exploration, examples abound of works of pure imagination that have evolved into technological innovations with the potential to improve the lives of millions and make the world a more interesting place.

Not convinced? Consider Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, one of the first science fiction novels published in the modern era. While hers was primarily a tale of remorse for tampering with the boundaries of nature, it also raised the possibility of organ transplantation - a vision that would not become a reality until almost 140 years later. Or look at the works of Jules Verne, which have been credited with predicting air conditioning, television, submarines, helicopters, and the internet. More recently, bionics and genetic engineering have made the leap from fantasy to scientific fact. The cochlear implant (a device to aid the hearing impaired) is the most famous example of a mechanical implant fulfilling the role of a biological organ, but also of note are a totally implanted artificial heart¹, a silicon retina², and a robotic arm driven by an amputee’s own thoughts³, all of which have been developed to an advanced stage in the last five years. And clinical trials are currently underway which involve the manipulation of patients’ genomes to correct disease causing mutations⁴.

So what’s on the horizon? Nanotechnology is one rapidly growing field whose origins can be traced to science fiction (and is the main focus of Michael Crichton’s recent novel, Prey). The growth of individually tailored organs from a person’s own tissues is also a tantalizing (and viable) candidate for the next major advance. To reach further towards the boundaries of science and the physical universe, a good novel may be your best guide.

Since this blog post addresses the science in science fiction, I have included a few links that technology and biology junkies like myself might enjoy. The next time your parent chides you for browsing the internet when you should be doing your homework, lay one of these bad boys on them and prepare yourself for a dazed surrender.

1. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01443.html
2. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050429100652.htm
3. http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/09/25/bionic.arm/
4. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050418203454.htm

Whether soaring through the sky on broad wings or slithering over the earth on a scaled belly, no mythical creature has ever surpassed the dragon in its allure to writers and readers of fantasy alike.

Dragons in Literature and Popular Culture
Descended from giant crocodiles in mythology and lore, this creature has grown in popularity and complexity over the centuries to earn an eminent place in popular culture today. Novelists (Amazon turns up 140,864 books with dragons as the central theme) have allowed the basic fire breathing menace to evolve from a two-dimensional plot device into protagonists and antagonists - and everything in between - of its own right. In the modern era, dragons are often portrayed as being friendly to, partners with, or even mentors of humans (think Dragonriders of Pern and Eragon). Beyond the covers of books, dragons make themselves known in the form of intricate tattoos, cartoons, statues, ceramics, parables, songs, clothes, art, Chinese New Year celebrations, and more.

From Egg to Elegy: the Draconic Lifecycle
Due to their reptilian origins, almost all dragons begin life as stony-shelled eggs that can range in size from slightly larger than a chicken egg to more than four feet in length. Mythology varies on the color of a dragon egg, but they are sometimes said to be the same shade as their mother’s hide. When a dragon hatches, its wings and scales are wet, soft, and pliable, easily penetrated by most medieval weapons. As it ages, the dragon’s body will slowly harden until it is as tough as a solid coat of armor. One of the only vulnerable points on a mature dragon’s body is its eye, with a vertical pupil like a cat’s and three sets of translucent inner eyelids to protect it from dirt and the blinding light of the sun. When an Asian dragon dies, its counterpart, the phoenix, will sing a lament in its memory.

A Serpentine Menagerie
Many variations on the basic dragon legend have evolved over time, diverse in both appearance and behavior. Below is a short list of the most common species that an aspiring dracologist should expect to encounter.

Amphisbaena: Born from Medusa’s blood in Greek Mythology, this ant-eating dragon is distinguished for having a head on both ends (one on the front, and one in the place of a tail). Scales cover every part of its body except for its feathered wings and clawed, rooster-like feet.

Basilisk: A serpent so venomous that it leaves a broad trail of poison wherever it goes. Even its glance is fatal to humans. It ranges in size from tiny to over fifty feet in length depending on the source.

Cockatrice: First described in the later years of the 12^th century, the cockatrice has the body of an unusually large rooster and the tail of a lizard. The only reliable weapons against this menace are the sound of a rooster’s crow and a glimpse of its own reflection.

Hydra: An ancient water serpent with many heads (which are sometimes said to regenerate if severed), the original hydra was slain by Hercules as one of his Twelve Labors.

Komodo Dragon: Not actually a dragon, but the largest living species of lizard. It can grow up to ten feet in length and may weigh as much as 350 pounds (though half that size is more common) in its natural Indonesian habitat. Its forked tongue is deep yellow in color.

Long: Hailing from the East, the Long takes the form of a serpent with twelve curving sections that symbolize the twelve months of the year. Small fins line its back, while a magical gem (symbolizing humility, nobility, and knowledge) hides under its long tongue and crested nose. A symbol of the Emperor, the Long is a benevolent dragon credited with controlling the weather and ensuring a bountiful harvest, and may grant wishes.

Peluda: French for “hairy,” the peluda is a dragon clothed in the venomous quills of a porcupine. Rather than breath fire, the peluda spits out a powerful stream of water and acid.

Wyrm: The traditional European dragon, often depicted guarding an underground lair or treasure in paintings and tapestries. Also called a drake, it is usually portrayed with a serpentine body, a muscular tail, leathery wings, and the ability to breathe fire.

In the first of my two-part post for aspiring novelists I hinted at the importance of setting, but I believe that the where of a story is such a crucial element that it deserves its own comprehensive exploration in a separate article. Characters are no more than talking heads, and plot no more than a generic list of events, without a breathtaking (and believable) background to anchor and weave them together. When cracks appear in the fabric of your fantasy or science fiction world in the form of inconsistencies and blank spaces on the map, it is your reader who will tumble through them, instantly awakened from the world you have created. To convince your audience that your story is not just an entertaining tale, but something more real and substantial, the place in which it unfolds must hold together.

In my experience, most sci-fi/fantasy stories are set in one of two basic contexts. The first, often the realm of futuristic, off-world, or post-apocalyptic science fiction, is the “statonary” setting, embodied in a city, spaceship, or even wilderness outpost (some examples of novels set in this sphere include Brave New World by Aldous Huxley,The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, and Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card). The key to writing convincing stationary or city-centric stories does not necessarily lie in thinking like an engineer, but in looking at things like a sociologist. People are the heart of any city, so it’s primarily people and their patterns that you will have to consider. Even something as seemingly insignificant as population density - how many people live in an urban center, and whether most of them live downtown or towards the suburbs - can influence everything from air quality to defensibility to transportation. If a deadly virus breaks out in your fictional city or space station, how fast will it spread, and through what conduits? Remember, too, that not every part of a city is the same. A slum is far different from a neighborhood of high-rise penthouses, but both are usually found in a metropolis in some shape or form.

The second principal setting is the variable background of a moving or “quest” type story more common to fantasy novels (found in everything from J.R.R. Tolkien to Ursula K. Le Guin). In some ways, this is the easier setting to master, even though it is less self-contained. The most serious pitfall that I regularly see in science fiction novels of this context are settings that are scientifically impossible (often defying the laws of physics). I once read a series of essays on science fiction writing that provided the exact specifications for planet-sun diameter, density, and distance for habitable conditions, and while I will not go so far as to recommend that you pull out a supercomputer to compute the proper distance between temperate and tropical zones, I will say that you should think twice before placing a rainforest next to the polar ice caps (unless you are really reaching for the boundaries of possibility and are willing to deal with the consequences). In fantasy, the opposite is true: settings are often too-close parallels to real places in our own world. To counter this in your own writing, try to add at least one new element to each biome that has never been seen on terra firma. For example, the Arctic Circle might hold glowing trees that collect light rather than water in their leaves to overcome long nights.

Drawing the map of a fantasy or science fiction world can be exciting, an explorer’s trek through uncharted lands. And like that preverbal journey, a little thought and planning beforehand can illuminate the path and avert disaster.

When the school year is finally over and the lazy days of summer within reach, the requisite assigned reading list can seem like a shackle holding your freedom-yearning spirit to the cold, hard earth. All right, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I have long suspected that nothing turns teens off reading more than being forced to plod through winding, dusty volumes authored by people who died long before they were born. Today, everything you thought you knew about summer reading lists is going to be turned on its head. That’s right…you thought it was impossible, you thought someone would have to be crazy even to attempt such a feat, but today, I am going to give you a summer reading list that will make you want to spend your free time lost in the pages of a novel.

Book One: The Starry Rift, edited by Jonathan Strahan
The first book that I recommend is actually an anthology of short stories. Although I often find myself frustrated by anthologies - whether due to the inevitable mix of talent and disaster tossed together between the covers or the basic principal that you can only view a quick snapshot of each author’s style before being whisked off to the next - I found this one more interesting than most, representing enough different sub-genres and literary styles to give everyone something that they will enjoy. If nothing else, you may be introduced to new authors of whose work you weren’t previously aware (each story is accompanied by a short author biography and a paragraph about where they found their inspiration for the included tale).

Book Two: Shade’s Children and Sabriel, by Garth Nix
I love Garth Nix both for his vivid and complex science fiction and fantasy worlds and the deaths to which he illuminates the characters who inhabit them. The multifaceted cat spirit Mogget (from Sabriel) is my absolute favorite character in any sci-fi/fantasy novel. For younger teens (and older teens who like their fantasy with a softer edge), I also recommend Nix’s more recent “Keys to the Kingdom” series, which is arguably among the most imaginative and intricate YA creations being published today.

Book Three: Peeps, Uglies, and The Secret Hour (Midnighter series), by Scott Westerfeld
Scott Westerfeld is the archetypal YA sci-fi/fantasy writer - for good and for ill. His novels are innovative, fast paced, and exciting, but his writing technique is only just above average and he tends to either leave too many loose ends when wrapping up a story or throw in a contrived, disconnected finale. Still, he is fun to read and definitely worth a look.

Book Four: Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Fresh from Russia, Night Watch is the first novel in a trilogy that takes a surprisingly original take on the battle between Good and Evil (yep, with capital letters). If you like your epic battles often and your landscapes compelling (most of Night Watch takes place in Moscow), Night Watch is the book for you. The “cliff hanger twists” at the end of each section of the book can be annoying, but are not enough to cancel out the pluses of the raw action and intriguing political power scheme of the supernatural “Others” that are the central figures in this novel. Personally, I thought that there was a bit too much romance involved, but I hear that some people like a love affair or two in their books…

Book Five: The Dream Merchant, by Isabel Hoving (translated by Hester Velmans)
Generally less well known than the books outlined above, The Dream Merchant nevertheless deserves a place on this list for being one of the few relatively recent fiction books that still delivers plenty of surprises and a lot of raw fantasy punch. Arguably marketed towards younger teens, I would recommend this novel to anyone who is interested in economics, dreams, history, time-travel, or magic of any sort…more or else everyone.

Happy reading!