Frankenstein and The Island of Doctor Moreau each features a mad-scientist character who attempts to “play God” by creating new forms of life. In addition, both stories strike us as decidedly fantastic (fantastic in the sense of “remote from reality” rather than “really, really good”). Stories like “Land Ironclads,” by contrast, are not fantastic at all. In fact, the central innovation in “Land Ironclads” (what today we call tanks or armored vehicles) quickly became a reality in a way that Frankenstein’s monster and Moreau’s beast-men have not. Does this mean we should consider “Land Ironclads” a better work of science fiction than Frankenstein or The Island of Doctor Moreau? Why or why not? What would you say are the main criteria for judging science fiction–what, in your view, makes good SF good, and bad SF bad?
WhatsApp us