The 8 Modern Rules of Science Fiction

It was 1895 and the Industrial Revolution was at its height. H. G. Wells published The Time Machine, about an engineer who built a time traveling contraption using the technology of the day (there were a lot of gears involved). Wells understood one of the rules of science fiction: the technology must be believable and understandable.

Fast forward to the latter half of the 20th Century and that rule was still going strong. Star Trekkies could tell you about the scientific theory behind beaming someone to a planet. The science had advanced, but the rule remained the same.

Then Star Wars came along and bent all the rules by splashing magic into the mix. The Matrix broke every one of the old science fiction rules that had coalesced since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818. With new books like Sea of Tranquility and Kaiju Preservation Society, new rules for science fiction had begun to form.

Rule: Story Before Science

The first, and potentially most important, rule of modern science fiction is to never let the science or technology get in the way of the story.

Old, pure science fiction from masters such as Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury loved to describe the mechanics behind the technology in their stories. Asimov is an engineer’s wet dream.

But today’s audiences are much fickler, and the competition for readers is much more ferocious. There is no time to go into deep explanations about the chemicals involved in a futuristic rocket engine or their history. The modern sci-fi writer needs to get to advance the story.

Rule: Science in Small Doses

All of which doesn’t mean modern science fiction ditches the science completely. There’s a fine line between technology and magic, and science fiction is not fantasy. Small, concise doses of science are necessary to keep the story in its appropriate genre.

For example, when describing a robot, the modern science fiction writer will avoid going into detail about the inner workings of the robot’s electronic system, and will instead write something like this:

"There was a soft electric buzzing and the machine’s eyes lit up in neon blue. It could now see the people who stood before it while its computer brain processed their faces and matched them to images stored in the cloud.”

The passage contains enough tech to explain why the robot recognizes the faces it sees, which will come in handy later in the story. But there’s no reason to describe how the lights in the robot’s eyes turned on, or how many megahertz the computer chip in its brain runs at, or how the cloud storage syncs to the robot.

Rule: Minimalist Green Technology Rules

Another rule in modern science fiction is green, or minimalist, technology. Solar power and ai-powered electric cars were unthinkable in Jules Vern’s time. Today’s science fiction is energy efficient and sleek.

Imagine the difference between a modern bullet train and an old steam engine from the wild west. That’s how slick and minimalist and green science fiction needs to look and feel.

The movie Passengers, starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, is an excellent example of modern science fiction. The ship they’re trapped on is gorgeous. It is sleek, modernist, and comfortable, like a Chinese bullet train.

Of course, cyberpunk can buck those trends, but there’s a reason the gritty, overly industrialized genre of Blade Runner is dying out. Modern green tech is in.

Rule: Ground the Story in History

Today’s audiences love history. Once the domain of nerdy guys who couldn’t get a date, today’s readers are well-versed in history and women are just as immersed in it as those nerds of yesteryear.

And so modern science fiction demands the future be grounded in the past. A backstory is required for the overarching themes in the story.

It’s important, however, that history comes in small doses, just like science. The backstory should not be the story. It should instead be a foundation for the story. This is how the Warhammer 40,000 franchise became so popular: by offering a made-up history linked to earth’s real history in order to tell stories about the future.

Rule: There Should Be Philosophy

Along with history, readers love a dash of philosophy. Readers want to be enlightened and inspired. This is where the author’s own views on the world and life can shine.

Neal Stephenson did this exceptionally well in Snow Crash, when Hiro is speaking to the Librarian about the idea that religion is a virus begun by the ancient Sumerians. It’s the perfect mix of philosophy and history.

Of course, nobody wants to read a philosophical tome, so like with all things, the philosophy should come in (extremely) small doses. The philosophy of the story should also be as apolitical as possible. Rants concerning the author’s own political gripes will only turn the reader off. That’s what blogging and non-fiction is for, not science fiction.

Rule: Fact is Stranger Than Fiction

Star Wars took great liberties with the science fiction genre, and there are those who will argue that the franchise is not science fiction. It is merely fiction. Fair enough.

There’s enough weirdness in the actual cosmos to forego the need for Jedi mind tricks. Modern science fiction should use as much of the natural universe as possible. Black holes, the space-time continuum, rogue planets and even lakes made entirely out of asphalt here on earth provide enough weirdness to fill a book.

These natural phenomena have the added benefit of not needing much scientific background in the story. Most sci-fi fans are already aware of them.

Rule: Characters Matter

Modern storytelling requires immense characterization. Today’s readers demand to feel connected to every character on an emotional level. The protagonists, antagonists, sidekicks, and even the helping hands here and there should have back stories and diverse personalities.

Modern science fiction is as much about character development as it is about the science. The xenomorphs from the original Aliens trilogy are an exceptional example of modern science fiction character building. The queen xenomorph had a purpose, and the final fight scene between her and Ridley in Aliens was the queen’s vengeance for the destruction of her hive.

Every sci-fi character should be like that.

Rule: One Twist is Enough

Readers love twists but overloading a story with twists and turns is overkill. The days of Sherlock Holmes are over. A good science fiction story should have one twist only.

Of course, because there’s only one twist, it needs to be a zinger. The twist should be big enough to alter the entire trajectory of the protagonist's adventure. It is obvious that the reader should also be taken by surprise.

The twist can come anywhere in the story. In Star Wars, Luke learns the truth about Darth Vader directly in the middle of the story. Neo learns the truth at the beginning of The Matrix. The placement of the twist should be the thing that propels the story forward.

Science Fiction Evolves

Science fiction evolves with the times like all forms of entertainment. Blade Runner was as much a story of the 1980s as Minority Report was of the 2000s.

The eight modern rules of science fiction are bound to evolve as society’s tastes change and progress.