Science fiction television (Photo credit: Wikipedia) My NaNoWriMo 2017 novel, Lit By Another Star, features a telepath as the main point of view character. It also claims to be hard science fiction. How can this be? Aren't Telepaths magic rather than science, shouldn't it be a fantasy story? That's a good question, and I'm glad that you asked. Here's my take on it. Let's remember Clarke's Third Law, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Defining Hardness in Science Fiction Hard science fiction requires that there's a sound explanation in our current understanding of the universe for the story. We don't have to have exploited that science yet, and there can be an element of handwavium provided the results are consistent with science as we currently understand it. The hardness of science fiction is a scalar thing rather than…
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