SF toolkit essentials, from the novum to the slingshot ending

Since science fiction emerged as a distinct genre in the first half of the 20th century, a large body of scholarship has built up around it. Exploring classic SF does not mean having to read academic papers, though - using the Science Fiction Encyclopedia (SFE) is a way to better appreciate the genre's history, techniques, and the development of its overarching structure, the so-called “megatext”. 

If we think of science fiction as a destination, then the SFE is the most valuable travel guide you could have. While a guide is not essential, the SFE offers some tips that can enhance your understanding and enjoyment.

What follows is a brief introduction - leaning heavily on the SFE and on the critic Darko Suvin - to five useful concepts in SF analysis: the novum, cognitive estrangement, the sense of wonder, conceptual breakthrough, and the slingshot ending. Each one is illustrated with examples from novels mostly previously covered on this site. Some of the terms may be familiar, others less so, and they are far from comprehensive. Think of these as suggested starting points for a deeper exploration of SF and its unique territory.

Something is unreal in small-town America

Written as an attempt to escape the treadmill of poorly-paid genre science fiction work, Time Out of Joint (1959) heralds Philip K. Dick’s growing preoccupation with unreal and deceptive worlds. It straddles aspects of his attempts at mainstream fiction, and the formula SF he was then pumping out for Ace Books. While unsuccessful on publication - with the strapline “a novel of menace” - Time Out of Joint can be seen retrospectively as a “bridge novel”, a step in Dick’s ascent to SF immortality.

While it eventually devolves into a thinly-described and routine genre SF scenario, the earlier parts of Time Out of Joint explore a uniquely deceptive environment. Opening in a small-town 1950s situation that is soon revealed to be an elaborate illusion, the novel addresses themes of nostalgia, paranoia, and the desire to explore, develop, and grow independently.

Scrambling for hope in a bleak near-future Morocco

Nekropolis (2001) is the fourth - and to date, final - novel by the American writer Maureen F. McHugh. Like her much better known debut China Mountain Zhang (1992), this is what could be termed “mundane” science fiction. McHugh’s characters live in an oppressive near-future scenario, but are powerless to change it - the best they can hope for is to live the best life they can.

Set in an alternate future Morocco, Nekropolis focuses on Hariba, a young woman modified for obedience to a contract owner. She begins to view the world differently upon meeting Akhmim, a synthetic human also condemned to a life of service. They long for a life of freedom, and to be together - but learn that these goals may be incompatible. 

A flawed but intriguing novel on the borderline between SF and realist fiction, Nekropolis is about control and agency, hope, and the costs of pursuing personal freedom in an autocratic society.

A soulful sequel to The Soul of the Robot (1974)

Sequels are an entrenched feature of contemporary science fiction. For publishers, the commercial appeal of sequels and planned trilogies is evident. It can be argued quite persuasively, though, that SF is at its best in the form of the one-off story or novel. Today’s writers must square this circle, and look for ways to extract thematic and narrative interest out of the continuations their publishers - and perhaps readers - are liable to want.

When Barrington J. Bayley was at his peak in the 1970s, it was instead the singleton novel that was strongly dominant. It was not until 1985 that Bayley published his first, last, and only sequel - The Rod of Light. A belated continuation of probably his best-known novel, The Soul of the Robot (1974), it again follows the adventures of Jasperodus, the only truly conscious robot in a neo-feudal era in which small states squabble in the long aftermath of a collapsed global empire.

Perhaps surprisingly, in The Rod of Light Bayley finds a way to extend his contemplation of the theme of consciousness - where it comes from, what value it has, and what lengths an intelligent but unconscious being would go to in order to acquire it.

A clash of the deep past and the near future

In the deep past, before the ascendancy of homo sapiens, a nameless young boy sets out on a rite of passage. He hunts a formidable bear - a dangerous quest which if successful will secure for him the bear’s powerful spirit, access to adulthood, and a name of his own. When the boy reaches the great creature, ready to do battle, both are enveloped in a strange, shimmering mist. The young Neanderthal believes they have crossed into the spirit world - but boy and beast have been transported hundreds of thousands of years into their future.

The Shadow Hunter is the debut novel by the American writer Pat Murphy. It was “obscurely published” in 1982 by Popular Library in the US, at that time winding down ahead of a three-year hiatus in new releases. In 1988, it was belatedly published in the UK by the then-recently established company Headline. This publication history did not help The Shadow Hunter receive the praise it deserves. This is a heartfelt, skilful novel of a clash between cultures, set in a vestige of nature in an over-exploited world.

Confinement and culture shock in a hyper-urban world

Robert Silverberg’s reflections on the sexual revolution, the ‘60s drug culture, and urbanisation are combined in his book The World Inside (1971). An assembly of six previously published stories, it is - like Keith Roberts’ Pavane (1968) - arguably a collection rather than a novel. 

Set in 2381, the stories each explore a future in which the world is rigidly bifurcated into two co-dependent societies. The World Inside focuses largely on the urban monads or “urbmons”, immense skyscrapers three kilometres tall and each home to 800,000 people - each one “a needle sticking into god’s eye”. Much of the rest of the world is dedicated to farmland, where a much smaller community produces the food for the vast and growing population of the vertical cities.

A product of Silverberg's prolific peak period, The World Inside is a broadly bleak look at life inside a pressure cooker of incredible population density, and a society closed off from past and future alike.

A personal struggle with cosmic consequences 

For John Breton, it is an ordinary evening - he is drinking heavily, bickering with his wife Kate, and being bored by her friends who are over for a visit. Then, he gets a disconcerting phone call which puts him on edge. Later, he receives a disturbing and seemingly impossible visitor at the house - an exact duplicate of himself, an intruder from another timeline with dark plans on his mind.

The Two-Timers (1968) is the second novel by Northern Irish writer Bob Shaw. It was originally published in the US as part of the first series of Ace Science Fiction Specials, edited by Terry Carr. A year later, it was published as a UK hardcover by Gollancz. In contrast with Shaw’s first novel Night Walk (1967), his second effort has a much more grounded setting in 1981 Montana, and a focus on a fragmenting marriage. But what begins as a domestic drama gradually morphs into a threat to the integrity of the universe itself. 

Centred believably on a decaying relationship, The Two-Timers also deals intriguing with time travel, human frailty, and loss.

Coming of age on a hollowed-out asteroid

In 1969, competition for the Nebula Award for Best Novel was fierce. Nominees included Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Joanna Russ’ Picnic on Paradise, and John Brunner’s formidable Stand on Zanzibar - which won the equivalent Hugo Award that year. But the winning novel was by a much less familiar writer. Rite of Passage is the first novel by Alexei Panshin (1940 - 2022), better known as a prominent scholar and critic of SF. 

Set in 2198, this is a coming of age story in a science fiction setting, specifically an unusual treatment of the generation ship theme. The protagonist is Mia Havero, a young girl who must undergo a gruelling challenge on an underdeveloped colony world to prove herself an adult and a citizen. The novel explores the changing perceptions that come with growing up, the nature of life on a starship which is home to 30,000 people, and the topics of colonisation, exploitation, and justice.

Much admired at the time for Panshin’s believable portrayal of a changing teenage girl, Rite of Passage has strong contemporary relevance in its examination of what the wealthy few owe the struggling many.

A tall tale of impossible products, mutants, and parallel Earths

Rapacious capitalism exploits our world, plundering its limited resources. The resulting wealth is then distributed in incredibly unequal ways, with disastrous consequences for human beings. This system is so obviously broken that its proponents can do little more than to continually rebrand it. One example is the so-called “abundance agenda”, which rules out radical change in favour of technocratic tinkering. Its pursuit of “supply-side progressivism” ignores our planet’s ecological limits, and deploys fanciful ideas right out of science fiction, like drug factories in low-earth orbit. 

But what if true abundance was available to us? What if instead of one Earth, with its troublesome limited resources, there were instead thousands or millions of untouched Earths just within reach? The US SF writer Clifford D. Simak imagined just this scenario in his novel Ring Around the Sun (1953). In this playful, fast-paced tall tale, the emergence of seemingly impossible new products is a clue to the discovery of many parallel universes, each with their own untouched, pristine Earth. 

As we know, capitalism is based not on abundance, but on scarcity. In Simak’s novel, the protagonist comes up against the powerful corporate interests threatened by discovery of the new Earths. Desperate to preserve their ability to profit, and to keep the masses under control, they will go to any lengths - even if it means provoking World War III.

Entropic tales from the end of time 

In the far future, Cinnabar is the only city that remains on a ruined Earth. At its core is the sentient supercomputer Terminex, powered by the vast energies of a captured black hole. The city's people are few, but long-lived - with the time and resources at their disposal they can plumb the depths of hedonism, or pierce the veil of time itself. The world may be an entropic wasteland, but change can still occur - and with Terminex losing its mind, even ageless Cinnabar can die.

Born in New York state, Edward Bryant (1945 - 2017) was a writer with associations with both the UK and US branches of New Wave SF. A short fiction specialist, his only novel was a collaboration with Harlan Ellison. Originally published in 1976, Cinnabar is a collection of short stories set in a troubled city at the end of time. 

Mostly previously published in several anthologies and issues of Vertex magazine, the stories reflect the transgressive experimentalism of the New Wave. Dealing with sex, ennui, celebrity, and time travel, the Cinnabar stories also have intriguing connections with British SF, including the works of Arthur C. Clarke, J. G. Ballard, Michael Moorcock, and Iain M. Banks.