What is your favorite type of sci-fi? For me since Ive always been interested in life in the universe/space exploration, anything regarding that. I love golden age sci-fi and reading what they thought we would do in space back in the 40s and 50s
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I absolutely loath the "I will explain everything about the world in incredible detail" sci-fi. The kind where they have an unique name for every new thing, and explain how the starship works down to a tiny level, and basically exist just to jerk off how super smart they think they are. And then the rest of the universe is filled with humans but with ridges! and spiders with more spikes! and worms but huge! and "the desert/forest/frozen planet!"
Because that's what type I like, the kind where the universe is actually filled with unique things that have their own biology and life cycles that clearly evolved on a fucking foreign planet instead of just clearly Earth with parts stapled on. And then something is done with that fact, instead of it just being worldbuilding.
Sadly, it seems to only exist in sci-fi horror works. The kind where all the sci-fi isn't a thinly veiled metaphor for the author's politics.
Dune?
That is what turned me off Dune in like the first 30 pages back in the day. I got into some scene with a "gomjabbar" and was just uninterested.
I won't paint it as bad on just that brief impression, but I absolutely hate it when stories are like that. Same with fantasy works that do the same thing.
Makes sense.
Dune is one of my favorite science fiction books--but only the first one.
Now I'm wondering when the trope of "ice planet" or "desert planet" or whatever started. Dune certainly really popularized the concept (and Star Wars really drove that home), but I would imagine it goes back to pulp fiction and the early days.
Probably a billion years ago when Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Pluto, Uranus, etc. formed. Idk if you've ever looked at them but they don't exactly have diverse climates.