Setting in an Alternative World in Science Fiction
Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. Oh, wait. You're not Toto. You're a robot dog with five heads. What's going on here?!
Science fiction, that's what. One thing we'll find over and over again in sci-fi is a setting that is strange, different, or faraway. Sci-fi writers are all about imagining an alternative world and bringing us readers to it.
That world can be in the future. It can be on a different planet. It can be in the past. We can't talk about sci-fi without talking about the fantastic settings that sci-fi writers love conjuring up. This is one of the major characteristics that divide science fiction from plain ol' fiction.
Chew On This
How exotic are the settings of Sci-fi works? Very. The setting of Isaac Asimov's Foundation is so out there that, it's literally out there: in outer space. Delve into this analysis of the novel's setting here.
This town in Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles may seem like your typical American suburban town. But it isn't. That's because it's on Mars. Home is where the heart is?