Welcome
The Upper Hutt Science Fiction Club is the oldest existing Sci-Fi club in New Zealand. It began in 1980, meeting then at the Library. We meet one or two Tuesdays a month. Details can be found on the 'About us' page.
New on the site
The new TVNZ One seriesWe have an episode by episode review of This Is Not My Life
It's on TV One Thursday 8.30 pm, repeated Sunday 9.30 pm.
Another Toon 'toon. The previous one is now 'stuffed' into the Toon archive.
What is Science Fiction?
Science Fiction is a genre - that is, a grouping of books, movies and the like that seem to fit into a group. It is more correctly called Science Fiction and Fantasy. So called 'hard' SF is supposed to be scientifically exact, and is usually set in the future, to explore the implications of technology. Fantasy on the other hand, makes no pretense to science at all. It allows any society at all to be generated, especially one that sells lots of books and makes the writer rich.It is not really about describing the future, or other planets. Rather, authors create worlds and societies to comment freely on how people interact, and how this affects societies. The original Star Trek series were televised in the three years before the first moon landing. They also occurred as the US became increasingly disenchanted with the Vietnam War. It was set in the future, but really dealt with how late sixties America was creating its future.
Over the 40 years since Star Trek, the trend has been away from science into fantasy. Similarly, the function of a computer has become not to compute, but to entertain. Is Western culture abandoning reality? A novel on that theme would be science fiction. For it to be successful, it would have to be well written. The core question is not 'Is it good science?' but 'Is it a good read?'
We like it for its variety. We also differ in our likes. The monthly meetings cover the variety, and introduce us to new authors and areas of interest.
Enjoy the website, and you are welcome at our meetings.
©2008