Different Engines: How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science

by Mark Brake

Since its emergence in the seventeenth century, science fiction has been a sustained, coherent and subversive check on the promises and pitfalls of science. In their turn, invention and discovery have forced fiction writers to confront the nature and limits of reality. Different Engines explores how this fascinating symbiosis shapes what we see, do, and dream.

From Johannes Kepler's Somnium to Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 , science fiction has emerged as a mode of thinking, complementary to the scientific method. Science fiction's field of interest is the gap between the new worlds uncovered by experimentation and exploration, and the fantastic worlds of the imagination. Its proponents find drama in the tension between the familiar and the unfamiliar. Its readers, many of them scientists and politicians, find inspiration in the contrast between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Brake and Hook's Different Engines is a unique, provocative and compelling account of science fiction as the arbiter of progress.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 5, 2007

Reviews

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different Engines How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science had an interested concept and some good ideas, but it fell short of my expectations. First, I thought it would focus on science fiction writing, but once it reached the 1960's, it started focusing more on movies. In some cases, I doubt the authors even read the books that the movies were based on. I really thought 2001 A Space Odyssey, On the Beach, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? should have been discussed in their literary versions, not in their cinematic forms. The authors also go into a discussion of the book Earth Abides that didn't even sound like the same book I read and loved. I wonder if they read it, or just used Cliff's notes.

I did find it very interesting that Kepler was one of the first people to write science fiction. It seems that people have been writing the genre at least since the Age of Discovery to explain science in ways ordinary people can understand and imagine it. It's been used at least that long to imagine the possibilities that science opens up.

Different Engines How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science has a rather unusual format. Instead of having the notes at the end of the volume, the notes are at the end of each chapter. The result is a volume that reads more like a series of college term papers rather than a cohesive unit. I found that the authors tended to be a bit overambitious in their scope. I sometimes ended up rather confused and had difficulty figuring out where the transition was from one concept to another.

There were a few books mentioned by the authors that I'd like to read someday:


Ishi in Two Worlds A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America

The Last Man by Mary Shelley (I didn't know there was anything other than Frankenstein)

and

Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon

This book deserves three stars. I really wanted it to deserve more.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea that science and science fiction can drive each other forward is not a new one, but this book really struggles to make its case. Much of the book comprises a series of superficial observations, stretched to implausibilty by the need to make a point.

[Ralphz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good look at how science and sci-fi have intertwined over the years, one pushing the other to new heights.

The ones you expect are here, like Wells and Asimov and Heinlein and the rest, and how their writings are tied to the scientific developments of the day. You'll learn how writers conceived of evolution and nuclear weapons and other Innovations before scientists did. And how scientists helped sharpen the vision of the writers.

The book tracks the phases of the literature and discovery, from the wide-eyed possibilities of the mid to late 1800s to the dread of the Cold War years to the uncertainty of today.

For a short book, it packs a punch.

[Rebecca Schwarz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three stars are for the first two thirds of the book. An interesting overview of early and very early science fiction (Copernicus wrote a scifi novel! Or was it Kepler - dang I returned the book to the library and can't check). The chapters on "The Age of Discovery," "The Mechanical Age," and "The Astounding Age" take us from the demise of Aristotilan world view through Einstein and the Cold War, which is the meat and potatoes of this book.

It's like the authors read all the classics right up to about Dune. The last couple chapters gives up on covering books for the most part, talking about movies instead. I don't mind talking about movies but there were so many books that the authors neglected (and because these were more current many by women authors too). Here's a short list of who I missed: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro in the section about cloning, Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress in the section about genetic mutation/manipulation, anything by Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood for either The Handmaid's Tale or Oryx & Crake or Year of the Flood for that matter...

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise behind the book is pretty cool: how science and science fiction have commented on and influenced each other over the years. Unfortunately, there isn't any real concrete thesis behind the book, just some silly nonsense about engines driving each other. (whut?)

It does do a good job giving a lot of context to a lot of classic science fiction novels, starting all the way back from before Verne and Wells appeared (which I had never heard of before) and a good way up to the present, but a lot of the history is a bit too condensed and generalized, even for me.

Still, since Historians aren't exactly tripping over each other rushing to do a history of science fiction in a historical context, you might give it a try if only because it's one of the paltry few books on the topic...

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history of Science Fiction and how it is shaped by - or in the Authors' opinion, shapes - the culture and technology of the time. An interesting read: and lots of references to books I get the feeling I should be reading - or have read long ago. That said, this is not an overview of the sci-fi canon: you could read every book mentioned here and still not feel comfortable at a sci-fi convention.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains the best section heading ever: ”Cylon, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye” :)

[Sabot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provides an interesting account of the last few centuries of prospective fiction and its interplay with scientific progress.