Edward M. Lerner Quotes

16 quotes in 267 categories

• What kind of hard SF do I write? Everything from near-future, Earth-centric techno-thrillers to far-future, far-flung interstellar epics.
• Anything that can unambiguously represent two values - while resisting, just a wee bit, randomly flipping from the state you want retained into the opposite…
• The challenge - and much of the fun - of writing in an established future history lies in incorporating new knowledge while remaining true to…
• Happily, researchphilia is not the problem it once was. The Internet makes just-in-time research very practical.
• Too much detail can bog down any story. Enough with the history of gunpowder, the geology of Hawaii, the processes of whaling, and cactus and…
• History buffs expect historical background in historical fiction. Mystery readers expect forensics and police procedure in crime fiction. Westerns - gasp - describe the West.…
• Lots of science fiction deals with distant times and places. Intrepid prospectors in the Asteroid Belt. Interstellar epics. Galactic empires. Trips to the remote past…
• The distinguishing characteristic of the techno-thriller is technical detail.
• A funny thing about near-future stories: the future catches up to them. If the author is unlucky, the future catches up faster than the book…
• I like to think readers appreciate a well-drawn near-future as well as a well-drawn far-future.
• I want to believe humanity has not forgotten how to explore.
• I have to believe SF writers will continue to inspire the public to have faith in - to demand! - a future that is at…
• In mainstream literature, a trope is a figure of speech: metaphor, simile, irony, or the like. Words used other than literally. In SF, a trope…
• Many a fine SF story uses science or technology merely as backdrop. Many a fine SF story presumes a technological breakthrough and explores its implications…
• One of the bedrock principles of physics is the conservation of energy. In this universe, energy can be neither created nor destroyed.
• The biggest fatal flaw in most fictional portrayals of nanotech - what sends those books arcing across the room - is ignoring that the nanobots…

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