Gay Science Fiction discussion

In August Chicks & Dicks is featuring posts about world building and series. I was wondering if I could get some comments from people on what you look for in a fictional world, or what makes it really real for you. I'd like to use the comments on the blog, and I'd attribute them to your Goodreads name. If you'd like to be anonymous let me know in your comment.

There are a couple of things that spring to mind. Rules and interaction.

I'm one of those that spots inconsistency in world building, even across many volumes. If a fictional world is going to work I need to be able to believe the fundamental principles of that world and if they keep changing, the rest of the story falls apart. It's also just annoying and draws my attention from the real focus.

Interaction versus info dumping. I don't want to read all the rules and descriptors of a fictional world in sections external to the storyline. For me it's important to experience the world through the characters eyes in the same way as I would in a contemporary story. The sky can be green, the clouds yellow, and the sea purple, but if the characters isn't looking at and experiencing those sights - I don't need to read about it. If the author wants to pain the picture for me, fab, but do so through the story/character rather than practising pretty prose that doesn't mean anything relevant. I like to see the world building through the expressions of the characters. Characters build the world and the world builds the character.

It's a tall order, I've yet to find the skill to do this, but I appreciate it when I find it as a reader.

One of the best examples I've found is The Administration. Everything you discover about the dystopian world and its rules is delivered through the characters lives and interactions with that world.

Hope that helps :)

I'm sure if I think more, there will be more bits that come to mind.

I look for several things:
1. material culture - has the author thought about how things will be made and used in this world? Where things come from? What limitations the material tech might put on things? What consequences?
2. social structure - how do people interact? How are their roles different from ones familiar to us? Caste systems? Men vs. women? Acceptable personal interactions?
3. language - this is not to say that every world needs its own language constructed for it, but what sorts of words would and would not work in this world? (If I say someone has honey colored hair, do they know what honey is?)What sorts of slang might have developed because of the surroundings and cultural melange?
4. history - while I don't want a dissertation on the early history of a world dumped at me, bits and pieces needs to be worked in. I need to believe that the AUTHOR knows the history, even if he/she doesn't share it all with me.

Sorry... that was a lot...

Casey wrote: "Characters build the world and the world builds the character."

I like that concept—it's so obviously true I don't know that I've ever thought about it before.

Angel wrote: "I look for several things:
1. material culture - has the author thought about how things will be made and used in this world? Where things come from? What limitations the material tech might put on..."

I like this too—the sense that there's a whole world the author understands well, and we're only getting the little bit we need. And as Casey said, consistency over volumes is so key to that sort of in-depth world building.

I like to get a sense or rather senses of a world. I love clever, visual and sensual descriptions as much as I love experiencing things through the senses of the characters, so either approach works for me. But it has to be there.

I've noticed certain authors who manage to create an experience of their worlds through very particular senses. This is something I adore. E.g. while one author manages to describe food and drink in a way which has me smelling and tasting even alien aliments, the next one describes clothing and courtly manners to the point that I can feel and see them. Others give me a particular sense of a different timeframe or touch.

Culture and interaction are very important. I have a lot of patience for learning about scenery and mores, but they need to work and have to be logical.

Something which really kills even an else good story for me are contrivances or divine interventions, particularly when they take place exactly when needed.

Ooh; great topic. I like more world building than practically anyone, so I am not a good source of advice or anything. I love to read about how things operate - tech, politics, tax systems, anything. But everyone else is glazing over by then. Some authors put this sort of thing on websites and I love them for it.

Like Casey, I tend to spot inconsistencies, and it bugs me. I also notice when a great new technology comes into being for the sake of the plot and then disappears for ever afterward. At least throw me a bone - foreshadow the tech and have a reason it can't be used again.

I love world-building. I don't read contemporary-I need a fantastical world and interesting rules to reel me in.

Everyone else has basically said what I want to say. I want to reiterate the importance of history, though. A created world must have a history, and in most of the really great books I've read, that history has repercussions in what is happening in the present. If a book just uses a made up world as a flimsy backdrop to an otherwise normal romance, that's not enough of a fantasy for me to get into it. Worldbuilding, character, and plot must be intertwined, and a rich history really allows for that.

Steelwhisper wrote: "Something which really kills even an else good story for me are contrivances or divine interventions, particularly when they take place exactly when needed."

Oy, this is my downfall... I've done it, I own it. Sorry? :-/

Charming wrote: "Ooh; great topic. I like more world building than practically anyone, so I am not a good source of advice or anything. I love to read about how things operate - tech, politics, tax systems, anyth..."

That's so you, to want all the details. LMAO!

Ravon wrote: "I love world-building. I don't read contemporary-I need a fantastical world and interesting rules to reel me in.

Everyone else has basically said what I want to say. I want to reiterate the impor..."

There are times I really need those worlds, too, but other times I'm fine with contemporary and history. But there's a feeling of being in an author's world that isn't possible any other way, not even through film for me.

All right, peeps, snippets of these answers will go up tomorrow on Chicks and Dicks, and I'll post the address here. Thank you, everyone!

Hey! Here's the link for the world building post, if anyone wants to check it out. :-)

http://www.chicksanddicksrainbow.com/...

This will probably show how old I am :) (as a Sci-Fi reader for 50 years or so......)

I really like 'futuristic Earth' as a natural progression from what is known (at the time): whether careful acknowledgement of scientific discovery (like E E 'Doc' Smith's Lensman series, or Isaac Asimov's Foundation series); or distopian progression after a cataclysmic event (OK, quoting E E Knight's Vampire Earth series here).

Then there are (what are usually classed as) Urban Fantasy, where paranormal skills are introduced into a slightly modified Earth (like Jim Butcher's Dresden series; or most other UF stuff!)

OK none of these are M/M; but I like things like Amy Lane's A Solid Core of Alpha, or Amber Kell's Planetary Submissives series, or Anne Tenino's 18% Gray etc etc.

(Looks like I'm easily pleased!) but as long as the science is 'probable', I'm happy :)

Carole-Ann wrote: "I really like 'futuristic Earth' as a natural progression from what is known (at the time): whether careful acknowledgement of scientific discovery (like E E 'Doc' Smith's Lensman series, or Isaac Asimov's Foundation series); "

Yeah, that stuff is great. Did you ever read any James H. Schmitz? So much fun, and great women characters. (Also not gay scifi, of course).

Anyway, one of his stories has a character on futuristic world, and he has communications trouble because he can't find a payphone. :-)

@ Charming - I've read (a long time ago) a number of his short stories, but for the life of me, I can't remember which :(

Anne wrote: "Casey wrote: "Characters build the world and the world builds the character."

I like that concept—it's so obviously true I don't know that I've ever thought about it before."

I agree. A character may leave their world and their culture. They may even intend to break away from it, rebel against it. But they always carry their culture with them and it will always have an effect.

One thing I don't like to see is a planet with a mono-culture. So it's like "oh, he's from that planet and they all look the same, act the same, think the same, dress the same." Well that's not even true of a small village on Earth, never mind the whole planet, so why would it pertain elsewhere?

Becky wrote: "Well that's not even true of a small village on Earth, never mind the whole planet, so why would it pertain elsewhere? ..."

Cloning?
Genocide?
Eugenics?
Biological warfare?
Selective sickness?
Restricted bloodstock?
Aesthetic surgery?
Natural selection?
Breeding programs?

And this is just off the top of my head ;) There are certainly also way more convoluted solutions.
Just visit a dog show ;)

Stop giving me plot bunnies. :D

Laughing so hard. Yes, I also was having a few while thinking about this XD

Becky wrote: "One thing I don't like to see is a planet with a mono-culture. So it's like "oh, he's from that planet and they all look the same, act the same, think the same, dress the same." Well that's not even true of a small village on Earth, never mind the whole planet, so why would it pertain elsewhere? "

Ah yes. The planet of the hats.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php...

As a reader I don't need to know every n'th thing about the world, as long as it's consistent and I learn things about it during the story.

As a writer I tend to only give out info on the world the story is in based on what the characters know. If a certain event took place in THEIR past that is important to the story I try to think what would be common knowledge about it for the characters. The readers usually only know what the characters do. I might know a lot more, but really, who cares what I know? The book isn't about me.