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Speculative fiction is a new name for science fiction. I am looking for books that are about moral philosophy
Posts: 5 | Registered: Dec 2007
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James Clavell (sp) is really good at balancing antagonists and protagonists. All of his characters tend to have very human motivation. I really enjoyed his characters in "Shogun". Let me know via email if you decide to check him out.
Posts: 278 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I think speculative fiction is more than just science fiction. However, I personally use the term "philosophical fiction" when I'm trying to describe it to someone.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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You know, I always thought that was the gift peculiar to good science fiction. Once you got past the techno-babble and the adolescent power fantasies so common in the genre--once you get, in short, to the good books like Asimov and Card--they become all about that sort of idea. They are free to discard some of the rules of the real world and thereby create interesting thought problems, whether moral, philosophical, or sociological.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I don't think what you are looking for fits within a particular literary genre.
Just about any of the truly good works of literature will deal with some pretty heady moral and philosophical dilemmas. Look at stuff from Card (pretty much this is his trademark), Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Dostoyevski, Victor Hugo, "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, The Bible, George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Huxley and many many others.
These are just some of the ones I came up with off the top of my head.
Many of them are SF (even if they deny it) writers. Good SF is a way in which the rules of the universe and reality can be suspended to pose a question.
Posts: 980 | Registered: Aug 2005
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My favorite books dealing with moral issues that aren't by Card are: 1984 fahrenheit 451 East of Eden Hominods the Giver The Giver is probably the Best!!
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I too really liked "the Giver". However, I was not so impressed with "Farenheit 451" or "1984". This might be because I didn't read them as an adolecent, as so many people do, but instead as an adult - after college. Maybe the main ideas they present are so completely and thuroughly discussed in other avenues that they just didn't appeal to me. I also have a hard time with Isaac Assimov.
Personally, after Card, I think my next favorite author right now is Terry Pratchett. His style is completely and totally different, and you have to look deeper for questions of meaning, but he uses satire to cut at the very core of so many ideas I find myself often caught up in that he is a lesson in self study. Yet, because he uses such light hearted ridiculous comedy to do it, the lesson isn't as painful as it might otherwise be. I really find it strange that I like Pratchett, since I never was one that really go into satirical comedy much. I am repulsed by Monty Python, could never stand the Three Stuges, and didn't like "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" because it was all just too silly for me. Pratchett, however, is awesome!
Michael Chrichton is also good for interesting ideas. The thing I like about him is that he really does his research before writing about an idea. On the other hand, Chrichton definitely takes a side, and often beats you over the head about it in the corse of the book. He doesn't seem to embrace nuance at all! Still, if you like things with real life application, he's a good read. My favorite was "The Andromeda Strain".
If anyone else knows of something awesome I've yet to discover, let me know. I'm on goodreads with this screen name.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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1984, Fahrenheit 451, and The Giver are all anti-utopias (you could also argue that Ender's Game is an anti-utopia with its draconian population control, drafting of 6-year olds into the military, and uber-Patriot Act monitoring). However, the genre that Xenocide and Children of the Mind could fit in, outside of the afforementioned speculative fiction, hasn't really been named, but I do like "philosophical fiction." If you ever find a defined genre for Anatomy of Peace, then you have the one you need. Nice to see a string of positive posts!
Posts: 2 | Registered: Jan 2008
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The Giver was the second book of real value that I ever read. I think I read That and the Whipping Boy during the summer of third grade and have been hooked on books ever since. Re-reading the giver last year was nice experience too, because I was able to grasp some of the ideas that were just way over my head in elementary school.
Those two books and The Scorpions, by Walter Dean Myers are all books that have excellent characters. they really are a good read for anybody, even if they are * supposedly * 'kids' books.
Posts: 278 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Everyone has read it...but Lord of the flies digs into that a lot. Could anyone recommend me novels which are heavy on character depth content as well as this phillosophical fiction? I am a huge fan of these kind of elements! Specially character depth.
1984 is a good read too, but it isn't as good as some others. If you want a semi-moral read, though, the Count of Monte-Cristo will give you what you want. You'll have to dig reeeeeally deeply into it, but I think in the end you'll love it.
Posts: 7 | Registered: Jan 2008
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^ I've been meaning to read that one for a while, it's only recieved good comments. I'll give it a read after Jurassic Park.
Posts: 7 | Registered: Jan 2008
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Try "Next" by Michael Chrichton as well. It's really about morality more than philosophy, but it does make you think about what they actual definition of "human" is. At what point is enslaving an "animal" the same as enslaving a "human". This can sort of feed into the things about the Piggies from the SftD/Xenocide/CoTM trilogy and EarthFall/Earthborn, but with slightly more "realistic" possibilities. Btw, have you read the Homecomming series? They are really interesting as far as the "philosophy of how things work" stuff goes. I know alot of people on here don't like them, but they're my favorites.
Anyway, in OSC says at one point that killing a "digger" is more wrong than killing a jaguar because a Digger is smarter than a jaguar. "Next" deals with much of this same argument, as well as the morality of genetic science and it's applications.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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quote:Originally posted by DDDaysh: Try "Next" by Michael Chrichton as well. It's really about morality more than philosophy, but it does make you think about what they actual definition of "human" is. At what point is enslaving an "animal" the same as enslaving a "human". This can sort of feed into the things about the Piggies from the SftD/Xenocide/CoTM trilogy and EarthFall/Earthborn, but with slightly more "realistic" possibilities. Btw, have you read the Homecomming series? They are really interesting as far as the "philosophy of how things work" stuff goes. I know alot of people on here don't like them, but they're my favorites.
Anyway, in OSC says at one point that killing a "digger" is more wrong than killing a jaguar because a Digger is smarter than a jaguar. "Next" deals with much of this same argument, as well as the morality of genetic science and it's applications.
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Sci-fi that deals with societal or character issues instead of scientific/technical aspects is usually referred to as "soft sci-fi." I'm a little late throwing that in, but in case the original poster is still here, that might help you find more works that are similar to Xenocide, etc.
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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I think that Octavia Butler is awesome for this sort of thing.
She's actually awesome at about everything, but since there's no 'everything' topic, I felt I needed to narrow the sentence a bit.
Posts: 438 | Registered: May 2006
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Thanks for the suggestions, people! I'll definately ad those to my list. Know any other character-driven books? *abuses*
Posts: 7 | Registered: Jan 2008
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