Meh.
I like keeping stories as accessible as possible, especially for new readers.
"Blaster," "space warp," and "dimensions" are all familiar terms.
No point in reinventing the wheel.
mho
this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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Also, no need to invent more technobabble as an excuse for more poor storytelling.
Two things spring to mind.
Asimov made his first professional sale as a teenager. "Marooned Off Vesta" used actual science to tell the story. Even if it was elementary stuff, it made a good story. You don't have to invent crazy tech if you actually know about science.
The other is in "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson. There's a long passage where he goes into advanced number theory. The first time I read the book I just skipped over it, and the second time I slogged through it. Later I was talking about the book with another guy. He told me his wife was in a post-grad astrophysics program. She showed the passage to her professor, who told her that it was all kosher.
My favourite Asimov story is The Gods Themselves, which uses the membrane theory. Earth comes into contact with the people of another hyperlayer with different laws of physics, and they use the differences in the laws of physics to create free energy.
Reminds me of Absolution Gap and its insistence on brane cosmology theory. Most of the book is a side quest for a transmitter to an adjacent “brane” having the deus ex machina. I haven’t seen “brane” used instead of dimension/timeline since.