Appendix

Another Path Through the Book

Copyright © 1994 by Kathryn Cramer.


In one phase of this book's gestation, it was to be divided into sections according to the manner in which science was used in the story. This appendix gives an alternate order from the table of contents in which to enjoy the stories. Hard science fiction -- the part of sf that takes science as its central subject -- is sf's center. What we bring to you is an anthology of sf stories in which science plays a crucial role and is in the foreground. Of course, one can find science in many different aspects of the science fiction story, and so this book is an attempt to reveal many of the varied ways in which science is manifest in science fiction.

1. Stories using the imagery of science and technology (as you read these stories, you will notice that these writers use scientific and technological images in quite different ways, which was of course the point):
   
   
   
   • Arthur C. Clarke's "Transit of Earth"
   • Poul Anderson's "Kyrie"
   • Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter"
   • J. G. Ballard's "Prima Belladonna"
   • John Sladek's "Stop Evolution in Its Tracks!"
   • William Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic"
   • Philip Latham's "The Xi Effect."
   
   
   
2. Stories in which science and technology are central to who and what the characters are include:
   
   
   
   • James Tiptree, Jr.'s "The Psychologist Who Would Not Do Awful Things to Rats"
   • Gregory Benford's "Exposures"
   • John M. Ford's "Heat of Fusion"
   • Greg Bear's "Tangents"
   • C. M. Kornbluth's "Gomez"
   • Cordwainer Smith's "No, No, Not Rogov!"
   • Vernor Vinge's "Bookworm, Run!"
   • Hilbert Schenck's "Send Me a Kiss By Wire"
   • Alfred Bester's "The Pi Man."
   
   
   
3. Stories in "built worlds," created by the author's extrapolation from today's science and technology include:
   
   
   
   • Anne McCaffrey's "Weyr Search"
   • George Turner's "In a Petri Dish Upstairs"
   • Rudy Rucker's "Message Found in a Copy of Flatland"
   • Gregory Benford's "Relativistic Effects"
   • Raymond Z. Gallun's "Davy Jones' Ambassador"
   • Gene Wolfe's "All the Hues of Hell"
   • Donald M. Kingsbury's "To Bring in the Steel."
   
   
   
4. Stories in which science and technology shaped the literary point of view include:
   
   
   
   
   • Ursula K. Le Guin's "Author of the Acacia Seeds"
   • Henry Kuttner's and C. L. Moore's "Mimsy Were the Borogoves"
   • Kate Wilhelm's "The Planners"
   • James P. Hogan's "Making Light"
   • Gordon Dickson's "Dolphin's Way"
   • John M. Ford's "Chromatic Aberration"
   • Gene Wolfe's "Procreation."
   
   
   
5. Stories in which the pacing was controlled, shaped, or distorted by the scientific and technological content include:
   
   
   
   • Ian Watson's "The Very Slow Time Machine"
   • Arthur C. Clarke's "The Longest Science Fiction Story Ever Told"
   • Frederik Pohl's "Day Million"
   • Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question"
   • Hilbert Schenck's "Morphology of the Kirkham Wreck."
   
   
   
6. Stories created around one big scientific idea include:
   
   
   
   • Bob Shaw's "Light of Other Days"
   • Edward Bryant's "giANTS"
   • John W. Campbell, Jr.'s "Atomic Power"
   • Philip K. Dick's "The Indefatigable Frog."
   
   
   
7. Stories built around the problem-solving science fiction plot include:
   
   
   
   
   • Larry Niven's "The Hole Man"
   • Edgar Allen Poe's "A Descent Into the Maelström"
   • Katherine MacLean's "The Snowball Effect"
   • Hal Clement's "Proof."

While we did not, in the end, opt for this organization of the book, the reader may wish to read these stories in groups, exploring the ways in which science manifests itself in hard sf through the various aspects of fiction.

[Author's Note: An astute observer may notice that not all of the stories in the book are represented in this structure. Fitting in the remainder is left as an exercise for the reader. -KC]

The Ascent of Wonder copyright © 1994 by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

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Interactive Intoduction to THE ASCENT OF WONDER copyright © 1995-1997 by Kathryn Cramer.