The guys at SFSignal are back with another Mind Meld question, this one asking, “Which sf/f story is your favorite example of worldbuilding? Why?”
Answers from such notables as Joe Abercrombie, Karl Schroeder, Nancy Kress, Orson Scott Card, Mike Brotherton, Jeffrey Ford, Jeff Vandermeer, Mike Resnick, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Jeff Somers, Paul Levinson, and Yours Truly.
This bit from Orson Scott Card caught my eye: “Science fiction is, in many ways, DEFINED by world creation. Anybody who’s any good in this field knows how to create worlds, at least well enough to get by. So what we tend to value are the worlds that surprise us. The master of the surprising yet apt detail is Bruce Sterling; I point to his “Green Days in Brunei” as an exemplar.”