clark

It should be said that Clark is the most "hard-core" science fiction style among the Big Three. Science fiction is divided into soft science fiction and hard science fiction. The content of hard science fiction is mainly fantasy on the material level such as science and technology, while soft science fiction mainly describes the influence of science and technology on social system and human spirit. Of course, this is only a very rough division. The more wonderful science fiction is, the harder it is to distinguish between hard and soft.

Clark's style and personal feeling are the traditions of Verne and Hugo Gensbeck's technical science fiction. The scene is grand, the scientific and technological conception is advanced and reasonable, and the weakness lies in the plot and characterization.

Verne's idea of submarine and manned landing on the moon inspired many generations to realize this fantasy. What's more, based on rigorous scientific knowledge and inference, Verne's idea of a manned launch base on the moon happens to be the location of the Florida Space Center in the future, which is really great. On the other hand, the main characters in Verne's novels are almost all "awesome people" with iron will and determination, such as Captain Nemo in Two Wan Li under the Sea, Barbican in From the Earth to the Moon, and Mr. Fogg in Travel Around the World. The plot of the novel is mostly traveling around the world.

Clark's situation is similar. He himself put forward the idea of satellite communication in the form of a paper as early as 1940s. And his idea of "sailing in the sun" has been partially realized, except for a deep space exploration spacecraft that is really powered by solar sails.

The pictures in Clark's novels are magnificent, spectacular, brilliant and exciting, but the microscopic characters and plot details are even worse. Many people know about 200 1 A Space Odyssey, but how many people know about Bowman and Dr. Freud? When it comes to Clark's novels, people will think of Du Shi, Rama, Asteroid and Solar Sail, but unless they are hardcore fans, few people can think of the names of the protagonists in Clark's novels, let alone their images and characteristics.

Inheriting the characteristics of technical science fiction, Clark's science fiction style is full of light and hope, that is, the so-called "rosy utopia", or "dare to let the mountain bow and tell the river to make way". (Technical fantasy novel is generally utopian, while social fantasy novel is generally dystopian) But there is no passion and inspiration from beginning to end. Is to suppress and promote. There may be some depression in the process. After reading the whole novel, readers feel that the future of mankind is still full of hope.

For example, sailing on the sun, if it is that kind of passionate novel, can make the protagonist win the final victory after overcoming all difficulties. However, the novel forced the protagonist to give up the competition and the homemade solar sailboat because of the solar flare, but at the end of the novel, the scene of the protagonist watching his solar sailboat slowly fly out of the solar system was very shocking.

Another feature of Clark that is unique among the Big Three is that he co-wrote many novels with others. Some are sequels of his previous novels, such as the sequel to Meeting Rama, the Rama Trilogy, and more are independent novels.

I guess Clark co-wrote it with others to make up for his weakness in plot details and characterization. But my feeling is that these co-writing are not very successful. Many co-written novels are boring and featureless, and can only be regarded as second-rate novels.

In Clark's novels, the part directly related to China is the most among the Big Three. For example, "A Space Odyssey" series, "200 1" takes China as the background detail. In the year of "20 10", a spaceship independently manufactured by China surpassed the United States and the Soviet Union and took the lead in reaching Europa on Io. In addition, the name of the China spacecraft is called "the spaceship of money". According to Clark, this is a tribute to Professor Qian Xuesen. However, movies made in the United States have deleted all the plots about China people. It seems that Clark was greatly shocked by the independent development of China's space industry in the late last century. "206 1" unfolds the story on a commercial space tourist spaceship of China and Hongkong tycoons, and echoes the "money spaceship" in "20 10" again. According to Clark's memory, he presented a set of "A Space Odyssey" series to Professor Qian Xuesen.

Clark, who is similar to China, is rare in the older generation. Zheng's scene is spectacular, but the technical details are not as solid as Clark's (the latter was so scary that he even drew the design drawings for the plane appearing in the novel). A new generation, it should be Liu, but the technical details seem to be similar.

Heinlein

I have seen the least of the Big Three. On the one hand, few of his novels have been translated into Chinese; on the other hand, I don't like most of his novels. In my opinion, heinlein is a mixture of Ni Kuang and Ye Yonglie.

Judging from the writing characteristics, heinlein's novels contain many YY things and propaganda of his political and social ideals. Novels like Starship Paratroopers (the original movie Starfleet) are controversial even in America. It is said that heinlein is also an advocate of the American Star Wars program, and he fell out with Clark. It should be said that heinlein really believes in something and will express it in an exciting way. So, just like Ni Kuang, people who like him like it very much, and people who don't like it don't like it very much.

What heinlein is good at is exactly the characterization that Clark is not good at, and many of them are written by short stories. This is probably why heinlein's novels are more attractive. In heinlein's novels I have read, there are two kinds of characters that are common, namely, a young trainee (astronaut) and a middle-aged professional. The former is common in heinlein's juvenile science fiction. Of course, the protagonists in heinlein's novels are often idealistic and passionate heroes, and it is relatively easy to mold them.

Judging from the subject matter, heinlein has written many juvenile science fiction novels, targeting a large number of teenagers, which is why I think heinlein has the characteristics of Ye Yonglie. The protagonist is often a teenager on a starship or an alien colony, and the plot is relatively simple, mainly depicting how these young heroes grow up. The representative works of this kind of novels include Star Jones and Citizen of the Galaxy.

Secondly, there are a large number of short stories based on the development of the moon, including some juvenile science fiction novels. These novels all have the same keyword-Moon City. In these novels, the lunar colonists are the protagonists, struggling bravely under the threat of low gravity, high radiation and air leakage; At the same time, we have a broad vision and sense of superiority for the inhabitants of the earth. I think it is actually a symbol and psychological projection of early American colonists. His masterpieces include The Moon Soldier and Gentlemen, Please Sit Down. I even think that the description of the Moon City and its residents in Asimov's novel Gods themselves in the third part is influenced by Heinlai's theme.

Once again, it is a series of novels and reflective novels of "the immortal". The background of the former is a group of people born with a life span of several hundred years. Their longevity and youth are likely to come from their genes, so in order to keep a secret and ensure that their next generation will not degenerate, these people only marry among their own kind. A masterpiece is love that lasts long enough. The latter are some satirical and reflective religious novels with yellow plots, such as Dream of Job and Cat Walking Through the Wall. In fact, these two novels are hard to get together here, because I think they are both long, obscure and boring.

Finally, there are some independent novels whose writing styles are close to those of the Moon City series, such as Double Star, Green Mountain on Earth, Rebirth, Puppet Master, Lifeline, Summer Gate and Universe.

Heinlein's novels seldom involve the hostile camp of China.

To tell the truth, I can't stand many of heinlein's novels at first, such as the first and third novels above, so my views may be biased. If I recommend it, heinlein's short stories with the moon city as the background can be read. Conversely, anyone who takes teenagers as the leading role can be exempted from liability. In novellas and novels, I recommend Double Star (abridged version translated by China into Imperial Double Star) and The Man Who Sold the Moon (never seen a Chinese translation).

Heinlein's famous novels include Starship Paratrooper, The Moon is a Tough Woman and The Stranger. I don't recommend it. Starship paratroopers is almost invisible, but the background of Star Wars does not occupy an important position in the novel, and the author mainly advocates Superman philosophy. The American projection on the moon is a stern woman. Obviously, I can't watch it. If you are not so sensitive or so, you can think about it. A foreign land is a reflective novel, which is not entertaining and may be very tired (I can't stand it at all).

Isaac asimov, the most famous contemporary American science fiction master, the world's top science fiction writer, is also a literary critic and one of the representatives of the golden age of American science fiction. He was prolific all his life, and wrote nearly 500 books in his life, including more than 0/00 of science fiction/kloc, which has already far exceeded the level of "equivalent works". He is one of the best science fiction writers in this century. He has won Hugo Award, the highest honor in science fiction, and Master Award of Nebula Lifetime Achievement Award. Asimov's science fiction magazine, named after him, is one of the best science fiction literature centers in the United States today. He is an American Jew born in Russia. His works are extremely rich, including Me, Robot, Base series, Cave of Steel series, Naked Sun and so on. In his book Avoidance published by 194 1, he clearly put forward the famous "Asimov's three laws of robots" for the first time. Asimov Science Fiction Magazine named after it is still one of the best-selling science fiction literary magazines in the United States.

The doctor of chemistry from Columbia University, an associate professor at Boston University, first wrote science fiction as an amateur, and 1958 began to write full-time. With his profound scientific knowledge and rich imagination, he soon became a striking science writer. His science fiction novels are represented by Robots and Bases, and other popular science works include A Brief History of Biochemistry, A Brief History of Chemistry, A Carbon World, The Moon, Marine Knowledge, Space Knowledge, Introduction to the Bible and Introduction to Shakespeare. Asimov's robot changed the old slave tools of robots in science fiction or the monster face of human enemies, and began to become friends and relatives of human beings. The "three laws of robots" formulated by him in science fiction has always been regarded as the classic of robot science fiction, which has almost become the law that science fiction writers must follow when creating works about robots in the future.

Asimov interprets his sci-fi world with real material science and human phenomena, and adds detective and mystery novels to make his works vivid, gripping and hilarious.