time travel: The Time Machine
space travel: The First Men In The Moon
interplanetary invasion: The War Of The Worlds
future history: The Shape Of Things To Come
Works by Stapledon, Lewis, Heinlein, Blish and Anderson can fit into this template. Briefly and partially:
Stapledon combines the four themes in one volume, Last And First Men;
CS Lewis' four Ransom works, the Trilogy and a fragment, address each of these themes (That Hideous Strength is not a future history but is about how society should be organized in future and is a reply to Wells and Stapledon);
we know of Heinlein's and Anderson's contributions.
Space travel permeates a lot of sf and might become difficult to differentiate as a distinct theme. However -
Wells: see above
Lewis: Out Of The Silent Planet
Heinlein: three "first men on the Moon" stories
Blish: Welcome To Mars
A Wellsian "space travel" story must describe both the journey through space and what is discovered on another planet. In Anderson's works:
"The Saturn Game" describes how to cope, psychologically, with space travel;
"Wings of Victory" describes what is discovered on one other planet;
Tau Zero describes an ultimate space journey.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course I agree H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon were among the fathers or earliest writers of true science fiction. But what puzzles me is how seldom you mention Jules Verne, an older contemporary of the young Wells. Verne was writing stories and SF like JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, and 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, etc., before Wells began writing. He too is one of the fathers of modern science fiction!
Ad astra! Sean
SEan,
Verne does not contribute on time travel, interplanetary invasion or future history.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I know, but Verne was still one of the fathers of modern science fiction. And I think his works are too often ignored or dismissed.
Ad astra! Sean
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