Hard science fiction /

This volume is an important science fiction critical work because it addresses questions other volumes have avoided: How much, if any, science must there be in science fiction? Are there important differences between science fiction and fantasy? Not surprisingly, these 16 essayists present varying answers to the questions. The practicing authors of ``hard'' science fiction (Robert Forward, David Brin, and Gregory Benford) insist on essential differences between ``hard'' science fiction (that which is consistent with the laws of physical science) and ``soft'' science fiction (that which contains little science or social science). Benford even draws parallels between the constraints of physical science and the constraints of the sonnet form, adding that hard science fiction is written by a distinctive type and has a distinctive tone and audience. Frank McConnell and John Huntington, however, attempt to deconstruct the boundary between ``hard'' and ``soft,'' suggesting that below its surface even the hardest science fiction is fantasy. The most abstruse of the essays, those by George R. Guffey and Robert M. Philmus on Lem and the summative essay by George E. Slusser, even more paradoxically treat both ``hard'' and ``soft'' an inadequate descriptors. This is a challenging but worthwhile book, appropriate for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students.-C.C. Smith, University of Houston-Clear Lake