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Science fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature (though some elements in a story might still be pure imaginative speculation).

Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a wide range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty by stating that "science fiction is what we point to when we say it",[1]

As a means of understanding the world through speculation and storytelling, science fiction has antecedents back to mythology, though precursors to science fiction as literature can be seen in Lucian's True History in the second century A.D., which includes a fanciful voyage to the moon. Following the Age of Reason and the development of modern science itself, Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels was one of the first true science fiction works. In the early 19th century, Mary Shelley's books Frankenstein and The Last Man helped define the form of the science fiction novel. Then, with the dawn of new technologies such as electricity, the telegraph, and new forms of powered transportation, writers like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells created a body of work that became popular across broad cross-sections of society. Pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers in the early twentieth century.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on science fiction.

SF in Forever Knight[]

One episode of Forever Knight may be considered to have a science fictional plot, "A More Permanent Hell", in which an asteroid threatens to crash into the Earth, causing panic and mayhem among the planet's population. Thus, although the series more typically plumbs motifs of dark fantasy and cop show, science fiction is not conceptually alien.

Forever Knight fan fiction with an SF bent is, nevertheless, relatively unusual. There are a few AU versions of "A More Permanent Hell"; and there is also some futurefic that extrapolates the presence of one or more characters in an era of space travel or an apocalyptic far-future that is radically different from the present. Among crossover fiction, for example, there are stories in which Forever Knight characters appear in the worlds of series such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Babylon 5, or Space: 1999.

List of References[]

  1. Knight, Damon Francis (1967). In Search of Wonder: Essays on Modern Science Fiction. Advent Publishing, Inc.. p. xiii. ISBN 0911682317.
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