Do novels using an experimental model science fiction?
- ecoman
- Posts: 53
- Joined: 28 Aug 2013, 13:24
- Favorite Book: Coma
- Currently Reading: The Doomsday Key by James Rollins
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Do novels using an experimental model science fiction?
Scientists have experimented with DNA based computers and have had some success. Also, as a microbiologist, I know that a virus is nothing more than a DNA molecule surrounded by a protein coat. Therefore, is my novel a thriller or science fiction?
- RussetDivinity
- Posts: 398
- Joined: 04 Jul 2014, 13:44
- Bookshelf Size: 44
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-russetdivinity.html
- Latest Review: "Heart of Flint" by Scott Stricklen
This reminds me of a series (I can't remember the name, sorry) that an author gave up on because he had written it as science fiction but it was getting too close to reality. It dealt with an independent Scotland and a plot by terrorists to use MMORPGs to communicate in secret. The series started coming out a few years before Scotland began seriously considering separating from Great Britain, which happened at about the same time the US government began suspecting terrorists of using World of Warcraft to communicate among themselves. The author was frustrated by how close reality was getting to his fiction, though perhaps if he had adjusted his genre to "science thriller", it might have worked out.
- desheikh
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 15 Jan 2015, 02:40
- Bookshelf Size: 0
______________
OMAIR
- KS Crooks
- Posts: 112
- Joined: 11 Nov 2014, 12:33
- Favorite Book: Voyage of the Dawntreader
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- moderntimes
- Posts: 2249
- Joined: 15 Mar 2014, 13:03
- Favorite Book: Ulysses by James Joyce
- Currently Reading: Grendel by John Gardner
- Bookshelf Size: 0
Techno-thrillers often deal with speculative events or slightly amped up events that are offshoots of reality. The simple fact that the item you mention hasn't yet occurred doesn't make it SF. That's because the item is very close to actual events. Now if the story involved human clones or using, say, an alien biological organism? Maybe that would be SF.