I finished reading my first science fiction only a week ago. It is Faster than Light by John Lucas and published in 2002. After reading a few chapters, I was so impressed by the author that I looked for his name on the Internet. I could not find the author on the Internet for two days. However, I did not give up. Eventually, the clever Internet learnt what I was repeatedly asking for; it finally gave up the details of the writer. As I have expected, he is a Cambridge maths graduate. That is why, this novel is that damned good! He knows the stuff he has written. Why has he not written his second novel? He is still young and he should keep on writing more books. Yes, of course, his book is not for someone who has little interest in economic theories, social theories, maths, physics, western philosophy and so on. Still then, if you regularly watch Dr. Who, it may not be that difficult.
I picked up this book on the dump in my tower block along with a number of other science fiction novels. Somebody must have just died and relatives just got rid of the departed's precious collection.
Science fiction was always a mystery to me. Yet I like watching science documentaries including lectures on particle physics or astrophysics or maths. Still then, I never thought of reading science fiction novels until recently. I have studied English literature and linguistics at the University and science fiction was not included in my curriculum. Crime fiction was not included either. I did not read crime fiction until I discovered P.D.James just as John Lucas is inviting me now to the mysterious world of science fiction.
In Burma, I did watch Hollywood blockbusters like Superman and liked them for special effects but did not treat them seriously. They were just fun and nothing more.
In 1985 at Aberdeen University, I watched an episode of Star Trek series in a student common room. It was about Time Travel and the crew were transported to the world of Greek Gods. At that time, I could still not accept fantasy in fiction and films as a serious genre. I thought it was another time-wasting stupid series and did not watch Star Trek until I came back to the UK in 1989. Only after I had watched science documentaries for many years, I appreciated these films and other television series. Still then I was not ready for science fiction or fantasy. To me, good novels must be about social realism.
A few years ago, I started watching Dr. Who. Although I dislike the characters of Dr. Who and his irritating sidekicks who are too juvenile for my taste, I realise that complex science theories and hypothesis are explained through plots to children and dumb people like me. I remember The Eagle Comic my father subscribed to in the fifties and sixties. My father used to translate Dan Dare to us. Now I understand why my father, an electronic technician, loved this comic so much.
You must love and understand something about science in order to appreciate science comic and television series like Dan Dare and Dr. Who. However, special effects and fantastic plots with flirtatious female and male eye candies prevent many from being intimidated by complex philosophical and scientific ideas. In 2007, I told my ex-teacher of English literature that I was watching Dr. Who. He asked me whether the ideas in this series were about the truth and I told him that they were. It was the wrong answer which will probably stop him from watching this series forever. More than a couple of decades ago, I excitedly learnt about the possible existence of black holes in the universe. Now the Hubble Telescope and other telescopes have proved their existence beyond doubt. Sometimes, we may not understand some complex theories in a novel or in a film; that does not make this novel or this film a bad one.
Fortunately, I have discovered John Lucas before I die. Sadly for many, this is not the case.
