The Smart Core Manifesto

"There is no definition of science fiction that excludes fantasy, other than prescriptive definitions so narrow that, were they applied, this encyclopedia would be reduced to ten per cent of its present length."
-- Peter Nicholls, The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction

This book is for that ten per cent.

A NEW DEFINITION OF PLAUSIBLE SPECULATIVE FICTION

Science fiction is like opening a book on astronomy, only to find that nine out of ten of its pages are about horoscopes.

Why do we turn new readers or viewers loose on the ever-expanding world of science fiction with no clue whether they're going to pick up a book or go to see a movie that opens their mind to the possibilities of mankind's adventure in the universe or fills it with unicorns and vampires?

The smart core manifesto carves out space for a fiction of scientific advance that places clearly defined limits on the encroachment of fantasy.

In this book Robert Maas argues for a new definition of plausible science fiction freed from its traditional subservience to time travel, psychic powers, and superheroes. A science fiction that better reflects the world we live in. A science fiction that unshackles the human imagination without dulling its intelligence.

Special features include:

The definition of smart coreHow smart core permeates speculative fiction How science fiction uses real and bogus science as a genre signifier Reality and rationality in science fiction Fantasy in science fiction The James Bond test (is science fiction as plausible as techno-thrillers?) Arthur C. Clarke's third law in the real and fictional worlds The history of smart core Gernsback, Tremain, Campbell, and the golden age The failure of science fiction Smart core and the new wave How smart core relates to hard science fiction The future of smart core The ten values of smart core What is permitted and what is excluded, from space drives to mind swaps More than 350 examples from the 19th century to the present day