Re: Jump Distance
Another thing in the categorization of science fiction is the style of the stories.
Is the protagonist the greatest hope to free the universe from evil? And traveling around in a spaceship powered by chemical rockets (except for the obligatory faster than light superscience) and fighting the forces of evil with slugthrowers?
Is the protagonist an ordinary detective who was horribly wronged by powerful corporate villains, who travels in a personal spacecraft that has no obvious constraints on its mobility other than the needs of the story?
The first example is mostly hard science in its technology, but it's a space opera story. The second example (from Jack Vance) is space opera technology but human scale storytelling.
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