The character of science fiction changed around 1960. The field saw an increase in:

• the number of writers and readers;
• the breadth of subject matter;
• the depth of treatment;
• the sophistication of language and technique; and
• the political and literary consciousness of the writing.

The know-how of engineers who applied a techno-fix to a problem became a much rarer plot device.

Unlike the science fiction written under the guidance of John W. Campbell, modern science fiction increasingly explores failures, limits, ends, and final things.

Contemporary science fiction dates roughly from the publication of Frank Herbert's Dune in 1963-4. This dense, complex, and detailed work of fiction features political intrigue in a future galaxy, strange and mystical religious beliefs, and the eco-system of the desert planet Arrakis.

The other acknowledged giants who have dominated the field since before World War II are Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke.

Of these four men, only Clarke is still alive.

Up to this point in time the field was dominated by what is commonly characterized as "hard" science fiction. The term is both descriptive and evaluative.

Hard science fiction generally uses high-tech iconology with a strong scientific component which is solidly thought-out, well-researched, and tough-minded. Its values are often male-centered, often politically rightwing or militaristic.

Hard science fiction is that variety of science fiction which highly prizes faithfulness to the physical facts of the universe while building upon them to realize new fictional worlds. In other words, hard science fiction values accurate extrapolation of known science.

"Soft" science fiction is an implied counterpoint to hard science fiction. It is often characterized as fiction of the "left," without gender bias.

Generally soft science fiction does not present violence as either an ethical standard or a necessity of plot.

The New Wave started in England when Michael Moorcock became the editor of the magazine New Worlds (which had been founded in 1946).

The movement was supposedly named by Judith Merril in an essay in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1966; she preached its cause vigorously.

Harlan Ellison, editor of the Dangerous Visions anthologies, is called the chief prophet of the New Wave.

Basically the New Wave is an attempt to bring science fiction into the literary mainstream.All New Wave writers generally exhibit a greater concern for style than the writers of the Golden Age.The movement is marked by experimental writing with more attention to literary style and less to scientific accuracy.

Editors involved with the movement encouraged literary experimentation. The movement became the focus for a re-evaluation of the standards of the genre.

Many New Wave authors write "soft" science fiction; that is, they are primarily concerned with sociological and psychological themes.

Themes that generally appear in New Wave works include:

• the gloom emanating from a shared conviction that things are getting worse, not better;
• a general distrust of both science and technology as well as of mankind itself;
• a lack of faith in man's intelligence to get us out of our current predicament;
• often the belief that mankind's intelligence is what got us into our current predicament;
• disbelief in the perfectibility of mankind or even its essential goodness; and
• a perception that mankind is fatally flawed and that man is essentially contemptible or of no consequence.

In many ways the New Wave merely exaggerated earlier trends:

• the shift in emphasis from physical to social sciences;
• increasingly radical visions of society;
• awareness of the darker side of science and technology; and
• convergence with the literary mainstream.

Just about every writer who came of prominence in the 1960s and who wrote with some consciousness of literary style got tagged as a New Wave writer. The most prominent of these authors include:

• Brian Aldiss
• J. G. Ballard
• Samuel Delany
• Philip K. Dick
• Harlan Ellison
• Philip José Farmer
• Ursula K. Le Guin
• Michael Moorcock
• Roger Zelazny

By the late 1970s science fiction had become dominated by the new technologies:

• computer science
• ecology
• cloning and other advances in biotechnology
• psionics
• experiments with mind-altering substances.

New Wave had by now firmly established literary criteria for science fiction.Scientists began to write hard science fiction that was also literary in style and character development. Prominent authors include:

• Greg Bear
• Gregory Benford
• Michael Bishop
• David Brin
• Orson Scott Card
• Joe Haldeman
• Frederik Pohl
• Kim Stanley Robinson
• Dan Simmons.

Women initially existed on the fringes of science fiction, often writing under their initials or a male or androgynous pseudonym.

Now they are some of the most prolific and popular writers of science fiction. Many of them write both science fiction and fantasy. Ursula K. Le Guin, probably the most prominent woman in the field today, also writes young adult fantasy.

Early women writers of science fiction include:

• Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Anne McCaffrey
• Andre Norton.

Women whose writing generally has a strongly feminist slant include:

• Octavia Butler
• Joanna Russ
• Sherri Tepper
• James Tiptree, Jr. (pseudonym of Alice Sheldon).

Lois McMaster Bujold and Connie Willis often write humorous science fiction. Bujold is also currently writing fantasy.

Kate Wilhelm moves easily between science fiction and mainstream novels, most notably mysteries.

Another aspect of the increasing prominence of science fiction during the latter quarter of the 20th century is a high incidence of crossovers between science fiction and other modes, including the literary mainstream.

• Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut managed to change categories or avoid labels altogether.
• Mainstream authors who also write science fiction include:
  • Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale)
  • P.D. James (The Children of Men).
• Some authors move back and forth between fantasy and/or horror and science fiction; the most prominent include Ira Levin and Stephen King.

English translations of the works of foreign writers begin to appear.

• Stanilas Lem (Solaris 1960; trans. 1970), from Poland

Original science fiction films begin to appear:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968);
• THX 1138 (1969);
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

Syndication revitalized the cancelled television series Star Trek.

The influence of fantasy on the genre resulted in what is now called science fantasy.

Contributions of these works to the literature of the fantastic include an awareness of irrationality and the inexplicable, the transformative force of language, and the power of myth to organize experience.

The film Star Wars (1977) is the most powerful example of this trend.