flowerclass: Easy-to-understand comparison of sci-fi authors: “How would you resolve the nuclear accident?” E. E. Smith, “A scientist suddenly invents a super-technique.” [James P.] Hogan, “A scientist invents a super-technique over the course of 100 pages.” Clarke: “An engineer discovers a solution through trial and error over the course of 100 pages.” [Stanisław] Lem and [J. G.] Ballard, “There is no resolution.”
snapwith: More. [Edmond] Hamilton, “Easily resolved by Captain Future.” [Edgar Rice] Burroughs, “A hero appears from Mars (or Venus, underground, moon, Tarzan) and resolves it with a miracle.” Heinlein, “Lazarus Long gives a speech for some reason.” Asimov, “Robots rush onto the scene but don’t work, so Professor Cameron appears.”
TOGO_Masanaga While we’re at it, Gibson: “100 cybercowboys dive in and resolve it.” Niven: “A very lucky person makes the right choice 100 times and resolves it.” P.K. Dick: “100 people who have lost their identity are wandering around. Nuclear power? What’s that?”
fum1h1ro: To add a few of my favorites: James T[iptree], Jr., “The president of TEPCO grabs the spent nuclear fuel and swims to the sea floor 100km off the coast of Miyagi” Lois M. Bujold, “The Crown Prince hits on a good idea.” Tanith Lee, “Actually, I was the nuclear reactor!”… or so I think.
snapwith: LOL at that last Tanith Lee. Okay… so: [James] Blish, “Use a spindizzy to lift the reactor into outer space.” Ryu Mitsuse, “The reactor, too, will vanish in the span of ten billion days and a hundred billion nights.” And Haruka Takachiho, “The WWWA reports that only a hundred million died.” [A Dirty Pair joke.]
From the comments:
HPL: “An impossible-to-describe, unearthly spectre–at the window! At the window!”
Heinlein: “With a soldier’s spirit, we can slaughter this so-called reactor!”
Hoshi Shin’ichi: “TEPCO develops a sophisticated fire-fighting AI, who cracks a lot of jokes but doesn’t actually want to go to the scene.”
[Stephen] Baxter: “Looking into the future when the earthquake happens, we wonder what to do, but merely by doing so create a different future.”