: Re: Does the concept come before other "literary devices" in philosophical science fiction? I have read in a few books about writing science fiction that a compelling concept should override considerations

@Ravi5107385

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The concept is everything, but also not the only thing.

In The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, she explores many concepts but the major one is gender and what gender means to both others and the id (ego/super-ego). What made it a Hugo winner wasn't the concept. It was the way she explored it, by building a world where the concept had evolved naturally and ran freely throughout.

In The Hand Maiden's Tale Margaret Atwood explores female subjugation and religious totalitarianism. It won the Nebula and Booker prizes because the field in which her ideas had been had been sewn... was a complex, extremely well imagined and cohesive world.

In Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein explores the concept of self, the nature of innocence and about a zillion other things. It won a Hugo and was named as one of 88 books that shaped America by Congress. The concepts in it were literally mind altering, but the reason it and many other Heinlein works were so popular, was his world building was like nothing that had ever been done.

The concepts were the keystone of each story and yet without the world that defined the rules of that concept, all would be shadows of their former selves.

A concept is extremely important, but it needs a lot of narrative support or it becomes an essay. All three books aren't exactly high concept sci-fi, but they take concept and give it a place to flourish. World building is critical if you don't want your concept to be only that. It doesn't have to be flashy, but it needs to be vivid, otherwise you're just preaching.

Good luck!

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