The Effect of Star Wars on Sci Fi in the 80s

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"If your aim is to change whatever the system is, you have to acknowledge that that system's there before you can affect any change. And if you're not even there to affect change, you're just there to like see what's up," he says. "She was drawing inspiration from neuromancer and was kind of citing back to the 60s and 70s,. which is kind of going back to our tradition of Bradbury and Asimov even before him."

We're back to sci-fi this week, but we take a break from the politics-heavy universe of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow instead uses science fiction to discuss anthropology, colonialism, and theology. There's some genuinely funny and warm stuff in this book, but there's a shadow hanging over the proceedings from the outset: eight people set out to explore the first known alien planet inhabited by sentient life, but only one comes back, and he's much worse for the wear.

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