Science Fiction

Science Fiction (Sci-fi) is a film, TV and book genre that typically deals with imaginative and futuristic themes

## History

Science fiction had its beginnings in ancient times, when the line between myth and fact was blurred. Written in the 2nd century CE by the satirist Lucian, *A True Story* contains many themes and tropes characteristic of modern science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms, interplanetary warfare, and artificial life. Some consider it the first science-fiction novel. Some of the stories from *The Arabian Nights*, along with the 10th-century *The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter* and Ibn al-Nafis's 13th-century *Theologus Autodidactus,* also contain elements of science fiction.

Written during the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Johannes Kepler's *Somnium* (1634), Francis Bacon's *New Atlantis* (1627), Athanasius Kircher's *Itinerarium extaticum* (1656), Cyrano de Bergerac's *Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon* (1657) and *The States and Empires of the Sun* (1662), Margaret Cavendish's "The Blazing World" (1666), Jonathan Swift's *Gulliver's Travels* (1726), Ludvig Holberg's *Nicolai Klimii Iter Subterraneum* (1741) and Voltaire's *Micromégas* (1752) are regarded as some of the first true science-fantasy works. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered *Somnium* the first science-fiction story; it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earth's motion is seen from there.

Following the 17th-century development of the novel as a literary form, Mary Shelley's *Frankenstein* (1818) and *The Last Man* (1826) helped define the form of the science-fiction novel. Brian Aldiss has argued that *Frankenstein* was the first work of science fiction. Edgar Allan Poe wrote several stories considered to be science fiction, including "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) which featured a trip to the Moon. Jules Verne was noted for his attention to detail and scientific accuracy, especially in *Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea* (1870). In 1887, the novel *El anacronópete* by Spanish author Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau introduced the first time machine.

Many critics consider H. G. Wells one of science fiction's most important authors, or even "the Shakespeare of science fiction." His notable science-fiction works include *The Time Machine* (1895), *The Island of Doctor Moreau* (1896), *The Invisible Man* (1897), and *The War of the Worlds* (1898). His science fiction imagined alien invasion, biological engineering, invisibility, and time travel. In his non-fiction futurologist works he predicted the advent of airplanes, military tanks, nuclear weapons, satellite television, space travel, and something resembling the World Wide Web.

Edgar Rice Burroughs' *A Princess of Mars*, published in 1912, was the first of his three-decade-long planetary romance series of Barsoom novels which were set on Mars and featured John Carter as the hero.

In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American science-fiction magazine, *Amazing Stories*. In its first issue he wrote:

In 1928, E. E. "Doc" Smith's first published work, *The Skylark of Space,* written in collaboration with Lee Hawkins Garby, appeared in *Amazing Stories*. It is often called the first great space opera. The same year, Philip Francis Nowlan's original Buck Rogers story, *Armageddon 2419*, also appeared in *Amazing Stories*. This was followed by a Buck Rogers comic strip, the first serious science-fiction comic.

In 1937, John W. Campbell became editor of *Astounding Science Fiction*, an event which is sometimes considered the beginning of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, which is characterized by stories celebrating scientific achievement and progress. In 1942, Isaac Asimov started his Foundation series, which chronicles the rise and fall of galactic empires and introduced psychohistory. The series was later awarded a one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series." The "Golden Age" is often said to have ended in 1946, but sometimes the late 1940s and the 1950s are included.

Theodore Sturgeon's *More Than Human* (1953) explored possible future human evolution. In 1957, *Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale* by the Russian writer and paleontologist Ivan Yefremov presented a view of a future interstellar communist civilization and is considered one of the most important Soviet science fiction novels. In 1959, Robert A. Heinlein's *Starship Troopers* marked a departure from his earlier juvenile stories and novels. It is one of the first and most influential examples of military science fiction, and introduced the concept of powered armor exoskeletons. The German space opera series *Perry Rhodan*, written by various authors, started in 1961 with an account of the first Moon landing and has since expanded in space to multiple universes, and in time by billions of years. It has become the most popular science fiction book series of all time.

In the 1960s and 1970s, New Wave science fiction was known for its embrace of a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, and a highbrow and self-consciously "literary" or "artistic" sensibility. In 1961, *Solaris* by Stanisław Lem was published in Poland. The novel dealt with the theme of human limitations as its characters attempted to study a seemingly intelligent ocean on a newly discovered planet. 1965's *Dune* by Frank Herbert featured a much more complex and detailed imagined future society than had previous science fiction.

In 1968, Philip K. Dick's *Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,* was published. It is the literary source of the *Blade Runner* movie franchise. 1969's *The Left Hand of Darkness* by Ursula K. Le Guin was set on a planet in which the inhabitants have no fixed gender. It is one of the most influential examples of social science fiction, feminist science fiction, and anthropological science fiction.

In 1976, C. J. Cherryh published *Gate of Ivrel* and *Brothers of Earth*, which began her Alliance-Union universe future history series. In 1979, *Science Fiction World* began publication in the People's Republic of China. It dominates the Chinese science fiction magazine market, at one time claiming a circulation of 300,000 copies per issue and an estimated 3-5 readers per copy (giving it a total estimated readership of at least 1 million), making it the world's most popular science fiction periodical.

In 1984, William Gibson's first novel, *Neuromancer,* helped popularize cyberpunk and the word "cyberspace," a term he originally coined in his 1982 short story *Burning Chrome*. In 1986, *Shards of Honor* by Lois McMaster Bujold began her Vorkosigan Saga. 1992's *Snow Crash* by Neal Stephenson predicted immense social upheaval due to the information revolution. In 2007, Liu Cixin's novel, *The Three-Body Problem*, was published in China. It was translated into English by Ken Liu and published by Tor Books in 2014, and won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, making Liu the first Asian writer to win the award.

Emerging themes in late 20th and early 21st century science fiction include environmental issues, the implications of the Internet and the expanding information universe, questions about biotechnology, nanotechnology, and post-scarcity societies. Recent trends and subgenres include steampunk, biopunk, and mundane science fiction.