Just Finished Reading: Different Engines – How Science drives Fiction and Fiction drives Science by (Professor) Mark L Brake and (Reverend) Neil Hook

I stumbled across this book whilst browsing through Amazon and it looked interesting enough to buy – which I obviously did. Only later did I read a review that was less than complimentary. So it was with some trepidation that I dived into this history of how progress in science gave rise to Science Fiction and how SF returned the compliment by influencing the direction of science.

Bursting with interesting facts this book actually turned out to be rather good – despite the bad review. Running from the mid-seventeenth century almost to the present day this was a very readable overview of just about every highlight in SF placed within its scientific and cultural context. From the obvious link with the space shuttle Enterprise to the lesser known facts of early astronomers penning science fiction to by-pass Church censorship, the authors remind us of the pervasive influence of this so-called marginalised literary genre on the world today. Science fiction is often portrayed as the fiction of the future – and as often derided as such – but as the authors repeatedly point out SF is the fiction of the present and a clear reaction to the pace of change we all experience. Only SF deals with this area and, arguably, helps people come to terms with the often confusing world in which we find ourselves.

Regulars will no doubt have noticed my passion for Science-Fiction and if you read this book you’ll understand where that passion comes from. An entertaining and illuminating read.