The World of Science Fiction
Science Fiction Lectures
Science Fiction Short Stories
Writing Activities
Start thinking about the theme or message in the story. What is the message or lesson that the author is trying to send to the reader? Go back and find three examples in this section that promote this theme. Your examples might be a character, the setting, dialogue, narration, or an event in the plot. Compose a paragraph in which you identify the theme and analyze how the examples support the theme.
First published in 1962, “2BR02B” imagines a dystopian future in which scientists have found the cure to aging.
A group of space explorers from Earth return from an expedition to a remote star system, where they discovered the remnants of an advanced civilization destroyed when its star went supernova.
"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" is Ursula K. Le Guin's philosophical narrative that questions the equity of happiness. With vague and vivid descriptions of utopia, the narrator depicts a summer festival in a city where prosperity depends on the perpetual misery of a single child.
"The Last Question," by Isaac Asimov, is a short story about the evolution of humanity and technology, a single question, and the inevitable end of the universe due to increasing entropy.
Written as a chapter in Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, "There Will Come Soft Rains" narrates the lonely tale of a house that stands intact in a California city that has otherwise been obliterated by humanity's self-destructive technology.
The story, set in a world where humanity lives underground and relies on a giant machine to provide its needs, questions the future of the human species when "The Machine Stops."
The Veldt is Ray Bradbury's tale about a family who lives in a fully automated house called "The Happylife Home." But what happens when the children, obsessed with their "nursery" virtual reality room that can recreate any desired scenario, become unhappy?
Personal Short Stories
Babies Incorporated
A company offers a medical service that is illegal but not immoral until a doctor blurs the line between the two.
A Game of Chess
A simple game between strangers reveals the dirty underbelly of commercialization, in a brutal "kill-or-be-killed" game of chess.
The Last Teacher
What if the Coronavirus never ends? What if only some survive? What if those who survive cannot remember our way of life? "The Last Teacher" is a dark, prophetic tale of what our future may be.
Time Variants
If there is one thing humanity can't control is time. Until now. But what happens when we loosen our grip?
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