Similarities Between Historical Fiction and Science Fiction

io9.’s Daily 10 compares themes present in both historical and science fiction.  It’s a very cool list, and it makes points about both genres that you might not have thought of before.  My favorite point is the first, about world-building.  I love reading about the vastness and diversity of well-developed fictional worlds.  (Part of why I liked A Feast for Crows more than some is because it spent a lot of time showing us places we’d never seen before, particularly Dorne and Sunspear, home of the Martells.)

Stephen King Understands the Rules of Time Travel

In preparation for his new book, about a time traveler who tries to alter the Kennedy assassination, Stephen King spoke to Wired about his views on how time travel works.  (io9. provides a nice distillation of his answers.) According to King, time is watched over by guardians and history is changeable, but “larger” events require more effort to change.

One thing that makes time travel stories so interesting, and also probably infuriating, is that each author has his or her own views on how the “rules” work.  Therefore, each work can tell its story differently and can use storytelling devices differently.  For example, if the traveler can go back and forth, a “ticking clock” is probably not a viable motivator for the traveler to act as fast as possible.  Also, the tension is much different in stories in which time is changeable, such as this King story or Back to the Future as opposed to stories in which time is fixed, like LOST and Harry Potter.  In the former, the traveler has to be very careful not to mess anything up, while the latter allows for more uses of irony (I’m looking at you, killer of Daniel Faraday).

I will always love Back to the Future and the (first two) Terminator movies, but I’ve always taken the “whatever happened, happened” approach to how things would work if time travel really were possible.  In fact, that is the rules set I am using in the story I’m writing for NaNoWriMo.  What are your preferred time travel rules, and what is your favorite time travel story?

Ten Stand-Alone Episodes Emblematic of Their Shows

A good list from io9. giving 10 one-off episodes from 10 shows, which can both be viewed out of context and introduce newcomers into the shows’ respective universes.  Of the 10, I’ve only seen the Star Trek, Futurama, Doctor Who, and Angel, but three of them are truly fantastic.  Smile Time has some elements of the season’s arc (Gunn’s struggle to retain his legal knowledge and the customs form), but is immensely entertaining for someone who hasn’t seen any other episodes.  And I have shown Blink to people who would appreciate it, if not have an interest in actually watching Doctor Who.  (My thoughts about City on the Edge of Forever, and Star Trek in general, however…)