"Science fiction is naturally melodramatic and extreme... It asks two great questions, "What if?" and "If this goes on?" And it wants its answers — its disasters — to be big enough to be visible and understood. Is this depressing? Not necessarily. There is a line that comes (I think) from Isaac Asimov. It may be the great statement of science fiction. 'There will be a future, and it will be different.' ... As long as there is life, there is change and therefore history; and as long as there is life, there are alternatives." — Eleanor Arnason's Web Log