Is it bad to use characters made of "pure-energy" in a Sci-fi story?

Question

I know it's a bit cheesy, it's done lots in SF and I don't want to tread that ground - but in my story everything is kinda pure energy. Hard to explain, but I dunno, super bad no no?

Elspeth - All the characters are beings made of pure energy and they all exist on a plane/dimention of pure energy. The characters are autonomous and resemble humans, though.

Answer 1

It is really, really tough to write a good story that contains no human characters. It’s easy to write, but hard to make it come out good. From your description, it sounds as though you could just make them humans who have the power to transform themselves into energy when they need to. If characters don’t have human weaknesses and limitations, the readers will have no sympathy with them, and lose interest.

The noted award-winning s/f author Larry Niven discussed this in his collection Scatterbrain, when he said “A story with no human characters is daunting. It’s a tour de force, a demonstration of skill. Isaac Asimov did it well. It’s never a stunt. Never try this unless you have something to say and no other way to say it.”

And this is a guy who has been writing professionally for forty years, talking!

You CAN mix both kinds of characters, having some human and some energy beings in the same story. That can be hard or comical, depending on how well they understand each other and how hard they are trying to communicate.

Good luck!

6 JAN 07, 0533 hrs, GMT.

Answer 2

no it's not. it worked well for earth final conflict. and look how long it lasted befor they chnged the writing and it went down hill towards the end. the only problem is the the producer's alway's want to make the show more wrestl mainia. then a actual show that make's you think. that's why show's like gene Roden barry's Andromeda Ascendant and the Spinoff of the Babylon 5 show the crusade got canselled. Cause they changed the good writer staff in exchange for writer's that screwed up those shows. it has nothing to do with the character's being pur energy or not. you can just tell in the lack of good story telling.

Answer 3

I think it is wrong because if there is a character made out of "pure-energy" then wont he be like super strong and he would probably hard to beat and that would ruin all the fun.

Answer 4

Bad? I guess it just depends on your opinion & how it's presented. I think it could be great, only, I'm not sure what you mean by "everything" is energy. Are they seperate entities, all part of the same thing, or one being pure energy & the rest normal?