Sci Fiction

It has been ages since I read any Science Fiction. Just like other things in my life, my reading interests also adopted various phases - from fantasy, to Science Fiction to Romance. I concentrated on different genre in different phases of my life. Science Fiction used to be one of my loves when I was in Secondary School - Robin Cook was my favourite author then.

Robin Cook taught me alot about medical conditions including the different types of cancer. Robin Cook stories typically included some mystery but involving some diseases or virus. It was not purely Science Fiction like perhaps Star Trek. Yet, it was the closest I have ever been to reading about Science outside the Science School Textbook. Well, Science was clearly not my favourite subject.

When I recently picked up the book Philip K Dick's Minority Report, I was struggling with the concept despite it being a rather short story. I was completely lost in the description of precogs and how data about the future was extracted from them. The Department where the Police Commisioner Anderton worked used the precog to determine if there was any potential murders to happen. These potential murderers would be detained before the murder dates to prevent the murders from happening. Hence, the town was free from murders for many years, until one day the precogs predicted that the next murderer would be Anderton himself.

Anderton refused to believe it was true and suspected it was a ploy to remove him. He started his own investigation. was predicted to kill someone in one week's time. Was it a wrong prediction by the precog which meant that it would draw public outcry to the entire system as it meant that many innocent persons might have been unduly locked up in the past? Was it a correct prediction that Anderton was to kill someone?

I would keep the plot and the ending in suspense here.

After all, where is the fun in reading a Sci Fi than to discover the ending yourself? Moreover, this is a very short story which took place in the span of less than a week.

Btw, this was adapted to a film starring Tom Cruise.