meticulous verisimilitude

[Paul DiFilippo]

I think that TRP's scrupulous attention to historical and 
scientific details stems from the same impulse that motivates
the writers of "Hard SF".  Hard SF is definied as that science
fiction which does not violate any of the tenets of science as
they are currently understood (though of course it may expand
upon them).  One of its practitioners, Greg Benford, has
likened non-Hard SF to "playing tennis with the net down."
By forcing their imagination to deal with the stubborn facts of 
existence as currently understood, Hard SF writers find their
imagination works more evocatively.
Think of it as akin to writing a haiku or sonnet, or some other
constraint-bound poem.

--
Paul Di Filippo/2 Poplar St./Providence, RI 02906/401-751-0139
Motto of the Pronoids:  TISATAAFL:  "There is such a thing as
a free lunch!"