Science fiction has long been the leader in teenage books, because it can stimulate the endless imagination and yearning for science of young readers. After reading more, there is naturally an urge to try your hand. As a result, there are not a few young writers who write science fiction novels, like Chen Yufan, who is now a flagship figure in the new generation of writers, who won the first prize of the sixth campus science fiction story competition at the age of 15. After reading this "Golden Planet Adventure" by young creator Cao Zheng, I seem to have seen myself at that time, but I also have to sigh that blue is better than blue. For example, for all kinds of weapons and equipment in the novel, as large as the modern large destroyer with a displacement of nearly 10,000 tons (for details, see "Knowledge is Power", No. 5, 2016, "The Adventures of the Golden Planet (Part 1)"), from various firearms, all of which are as small as several treasures, showing the creator's rich knowledge. For another example, the time and space travel from the earth to the golden planet, the creators have constructed a beautiful other world for everyone, which shows its good imagination.
Military science fiction themes such as "The Adventures of the Golden Planet" are actually rare in China. This is because modern military science is a highly comprehensive science, from weapons and equipment to strategy and tactics, and even international law, etc., the knowledge spans the arts and sciences, covering a wide range. More importantly, in the current group of Chinese science fiction writers, there are very few military life experiences. As one of the giants of the golden age of science fiction, Robert Heinlein has created many military hard science fiction works, if it were not for the fact that he had studied at the Annapolis Naval Academy in the United States, which is known as one of the "three major naval academies in the world", and at the same time personally experienced the flames of World War II, it is difficult to imagine that he could write the "Starship Paratroopers", which is known as the "military science fiction masterpiece".
In fact, military science fiction was one of the earliest sub-genres of science fiction to emerge. The Chinese novelist Bao Xiaotian of the late Qing Dynasty once created a science fiction novel called "The Future of Air Warfare", which depicted the magnificent scene of a huge flying fleet fighting a decisive battle in the air. The famous British science fiction writer Herbert George Wells once wrote a book called "The World Free", which depicted a devastating world war caused by the invention of the nuclear bomb.
However, the work that really makes military science fiction more stereotyped is the landmark "Starship Paratrooper". Prior to this, alien invasions and space wars had been written, but those works could only be counted as space operas at best. As a science fiction work that can depict space warfare in detail from the two levels of science and technology (mainly weapons and equipment) and military (strategic and tactical), "Starship Paratrooper" is undoubtedly groundbreaking. In particular, the insect race described in the novel has created a classic image of an alien invader, which has been imitated by many science fiction works in later generations.
By 1984, the famous work "Hunting Red October" launched by the American novelist Tom Clancy created a new genre of military science fiction - high-tech adventurous military science fiction. Similar works of subject matter include "Minsk Attack" by Japanese writers. At this point, military science fiction began to turn its attention from the distant starry sky to the earth with hidden crisis, and integrated real military science with fantasy superweapons and battlefield environments, thus raising military science fiction to a new realm.
After the mid-1990s, with the development of computer special effects technology, more and more military science fiction novels were put on the big screen: "Top Secret Flight" showed the majesty of the artificial intelligence fighter on the battlefield of the future; "Special Forces: The Rise of Cobra" appeared in the teeth-armed super special forces and incredible nanoweapons; in "Transformers" and "Super Battleship", people used standard weapons to defeat powerful aliens; and in "Godzilla 2014", The mighty carrier fleet has been given a special mission to fight prehistoric monsters... It can be seen that military science fiction has become a popular theme in contemporary science fiction creation.
Comparatively speaking, although the starting point of China's military science fiction creation is not high, it has made great progress in the past ten years. In recent years, a number of more influential military science fiction works have emerged on the mainland, including "The Gate of Doom" by Qiao Liang, professor of the National Defense University and major general of the Air Force, Liu Cixin's "Full-band Blocking Interference", "Ball Lightning", "Pegasus in the Persian Gulf", and Zheng Jun's "Decisive Battle in the Stratosphere". Among them, Professor Qiao Liang, as an advocate of "ultra-limited warfare", embodies his in-depth thinking on the future form of war in his works. In "Doomsday's Gate", he put forward the war concept of the "flying army", that is, large-scale airborne troops as the main force of the war. The work also won the first prize of the 1996 All-Army Literary New Works.
To say that the biggest charm of military science fiction, I think it lies in its "realism", that is, the creators expound their innovative military science concepts in a simple and simple way, and thus resonate with readers, although it can not be regarded as an accurate prediction of future wars, but shows the infinite possibilities in future wars or military fields.
As mentioned above, the difficulty of military science fiction writing lies in its requirements for knowledge reserves, whether it is depth or breadth is greater than the general science fiction works, which is also an important factor why military science fiction can be new and brilliant. Fortunately, we are now in the information age, for the "post-00s" indigenous people such as Cao Zheng, with the help of convenient and fast Internet, he knows the information of various weapons and equipment at a young age, and the hearing of various military science fiction blockbusters has also made them no longer unfamiliar with the battlefield environment. There is no doubt that this is a unique generational advantage for a new generation of teenage science fiction writers.
Reading Cao Zheng's "The Adventures of the Golden Planet" is like watching a well-made military science fiction blockbuster, from the most advanced destroyer of the US military to the alien battlefield where bullets are flying, the transition is natural and there is no sense of violation. If you hadn't read the introduction, it would be hard to imagine that the author was still just a middle school student. This gives me more anticipation for his upcoming long-form science fiction work.
Chinese science fiction literature, which has gone through several ups and downs in the 20th century, has bred world-class science fiction masters after experiencing the hard work of "20 years across the century". In order to continue to maintain the glory of Chinese science fiction literature, we must attach importance to the construction of the echelon of science fiction talents. It is gratifying that the strong rise of young science fiction talents is allowing us to see the development potential of China's science fiction cause. Looking forward to the emergence of more teenagers Verne, young Zheng Wenguang, little Liu Cixin in our youth group...
(This article was published in Knowledge is Power, No. 6, 2016)