The combination of science and fiction does not always yield science fiction, that speculative genre of what-ifs and maybes.  Sometimes an author blends the two disciplines into literary fiction that uses scientific fact to drive a realistic story.  Here, the author deals only with what is, not with what may be.  The characters are often working scientists themselves, and they integrate their intimate knowledge of science with their everyday lives.  Think of television’s House, but in written form.  My newest novel Captivity is one such example, although it is hardly the only one.  Writers such as Andrea Barrett, Rebecca Goldstein, Barbara Kingsolver, and Jim Lynch use science as the framework for some of their stories and characters.

The success of this form depends on both the writer’s detailed knowledge of the subject matter and her ability to resist the temptation of dumping information on the unsuspecting reader.  Unlike textbooks, scientific fiction needs only to be correct, not comprehensive.  In the best examples, science becomes subservient to the story and the characters, even as it defines them.  It does not lecture or footnote, but instead entertains and illuminates, revealing the hearts of its characters and the universality of their emotions.

That’s not to say that scientific fiction does not instruct.  It does.  But the scientific knowledge imparted comes in the most painless of forms:  an engaging story that keeps the reader turning pages to see what happens next. 

Copyright 2008 by Debbie Lee Wesselmann