A pizza isn’t just about the cheese. But it’s not just about the base either. You have to have quality cheese and a good base to make the slice palatable. The base cannot merely be a delivery device for the cheese and the toppings. The base has to have its own characteristics—soft in the middle with a little crunch on the outside. Salty, with a hint of sweet, maybe.
In the same way, a science-fiction story cannot just be about the idea.
You have to have characters that are somewhat interesting and prose that’s fairly enjoyable. Otherwise the reader just feels like the story was a delivery device for an idea. It’s nice to have the cheese but if the base isn’t good, the whole experience falls flat.
I often find this phenomenon in older science-fiction. For example, the characters in the stories lack depth because the dialogue is solely used to explain technologies and theories. Some of these classic science-fiction stories explore really interesting ideas, but it’s not enough to make me want to keep reading. This is because slogging through stiff dialogue and prose that reads like a research paper just isn’t fun. Good cheese and toppings are made better by a good base.
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