Everytime I read a really good scifi novel, or one that at least persuades me to think, I start compiling a list of qualities that good scifi novels tend to share. Some of them are:

• realism
• smart machines/AI
• interlacing of technology and society
• epic scope
• a focus on people

I’m a little surprised to see that is as specific as I can get at the moment. Anyhow, the prototypical good scifi novels are Vernor Vinge’s works.

Possibly relevant posts:

• Kurzweil (6/12/2005)
• Fiction interests (6/13/2005)
• No nanowrimo novels freely available? boo! (6/11/2008)