"Wizards, Aliens, and Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction" by Charles L. Adler

Publisher: Princeton University Press
Copyright: 2014
ISBN: 9780691147154

I came across this book when I was perusing the stacks at the University of Alberta, in their creative writing section. Why I was there was to find information on world-building, what I found was this.

As anyone who has read a fair bit of science-fiction and/or fantasy will appreciate certain authors tend to make up rules for their universes that at times don't make a lot of sense. No I'm not picking solely on the fantasy authors, as with the exception of those authors who write hard science-fiction the vast majority of writers play rather loose with the rules of physics, and math. This is, in my opinion, a bit of a shame but not because they do it, but because they don't explain it well enough to make it acceptable to the reader. The reader is simply supposed to take what the author says at face value, and not question them. This in my not-so-humble opinion borders on sloppy writing & plotting.

This book looks at a number of different concepts that have been, and continue to be mainstays of typical science-fiction and fantasy and puts them under the scientific microscope to show what is wrong with them based on our current level of scientific knowledge, but the author also takes an open-ended approach to see what would have to change to allow this too happen.

Once example is teleportation which was a main plot point in Star Trek, the Harry Potter series, and many others. He examines why it won't work the way it is described (or more frequently not described) in many works, and why.  The first section looks at basic concepts such as giants, transfiguration, dragon and other beasties in the fantasy realm, primarily from a Harry Potter standpoint as that is what a lot of people use for a reference today. He then goes on in the rest of the book to look at the future of transportation, space travel, computers, space colonies, propulsion systems, faster-that-light travel, and much more.

This would be a great resource for any science-fiction or fantasy writer, as well as anyone to is into debunking various offbeat pseudo-scientific concepts. The sections on the space sciences would also be quite useful to anyone beginning to study astronomy or astrophysics as the concepts are presented clearly and concisely.

WARNING: There is math involved, but it is fairly basic, so most people shouldn't have too much trouble with it.