[MilSF1]

These are the stories, usually from Campbell's time that revolved around a single "big idea": a.k.a. Asimov's "Nightfall", Godwin's "The Cold Equations" or Shaw's "The Light of Other Days" (Three EXCELLENT stories BTW)

Fav Short Story: Surface Tension by James Blish

Fav Book: Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement (I even have a signed 1st edition paperback) http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

Let the List Begin!!

p.s. - A good discussion of this type of hard sf can be found in The Ascent of Wonder By Hartwell and Cramer

[Shehzad]

Would Asimov's The Gods Themselves and The Last Question qualify?

[MilSF1]

Been a while since I read The Gods Themselves but I just happened to re-read The Last Question last night http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif and I'd say that they would fall into that category

[This message has been edited by MilSF1 (edited November 08, 2001).]

[Shehzad]

Well there you go--my two favourites. Need I elaborate that Asimov is my favourite SF author?

[Rocketsheep]

OK, there is one in every crowd... one brave enough to ask while the others sit back and try to figure it out without looking silly.

What exactly do you mean by "Big Idea"? Do you mean the story revolves around one expounded scientific theory? Or is does it revolve around one major event? (My reading has only covered a couple of the above books and to be honest I'd probably only propose some obscure Eastern European work anyway.)

[Sammie]

Nothing wrong with obscure.

[Shehzad]

Or Eastern European either.

[Sammie]

Yeah! So propose away!

[MilSF1]

Rocketsheep, I was thinking along the lines of a single exounded theory. The short stories that fall into this arena tend to minimal in character development, though of course books have a bit more http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif In my two examples:

Surface Tension goes with the idea of man writ small... really small.. microscopic in fact. But they still have the "quality" of humanity. In Mission of Gravity Clement deals with a world with such mass and rotation that the gravity reaches hundreds earth normal at the poles, down to only four or five at the equator. While there is character development, everything centers around how the natives deal with the gravity of the planet.

Clement in particular has many short stories and books that could fit in this definition.

[lior]

I don't know if it qualifies the definition but I would mention Greg Bear's Hugo winning short story Blood Music. this was later extended to a novel which I didn't read, but the story was absolutley chilling.