Even in the far-flung worlds of science fiction, being believable is a critical component.

On Saturday, May 14, the Lowell Observatory hosted three writers in the genre to talk about how they incorporate facts into the fantastic.

Authors Alan Dean Foster, Sedona resident Tony Taylor and Gerald Lamb came up to the podium to talk about their own challenges before sitting down as a panel for a Q-and-A. The event was hosted by the Arizona Authors’ Association.

Alan Dean Foster

A prolific novelist of his own works, Foster is also the author of several novelizations of popular films, including both the latest Star Wars, “The Force Awakens,” as well as the original “A New Hope.”

Foster, who lives in Prescott, admitted it was the first time he had been to the observatory, but he had a story linking himself to the place.

He was invited to watch the first flyby of Saturn at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. While he was waiting to see the first images download, he saw an older gentleman fiddling with the instruments. The man had no identifying badges or tags, so Foster felt compelled to let one of the JPL workers know, lest he screw up months and years of work.

“Oh, that’s Clyde Tombaugh,” the JPL worker said, “We let him do whatever.”

Tombaugh is the man who first discovered Pluto from Lowell Observatory in 1930.

Upon this realization, Foster managed to run to a local bookstore to get something written by Tombaugh, which he did, and got signed on his return.

Foster said that he was proud of the science in his science fiction but while adapting films, noted that Hollywood doesn’t really care.

“It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.” For Star Wars fans, it’s a line that stands out in infamy. For anyone who knows what a parsec is — a measure of distance — it doesn’t make any sense.

Foster was in a position to change that bad science. He attempted twice, during “The Force Awakens” and “A New Hope.”

He tried to write off Han Solo’s boast as not being heard correctly in the din of Mos Eisley’s cantina. But the Hollywood executives nixed the change. They said it directly contradicted what Solo said and so therefore, the error would remain. Similarly, when the line is reiterated in “The Force Awakens,” Foster was not allowed to touch it.

But there were some things he could fix. He said the Starkiller Base in “The Force Awakens” didn’t make sense for a whole host of reasons — the need for energy if one had the energy to draw from the sun, keeping the life on the base from being vaporized, real-time speed of the laser beam, etc. This time, Foster delved deep into astrophysics papers to find a more feasible answer.

This time it worked. Hollywood accepted his changes, where he drew upon gravitons, dark energy, the even more esoteric “phantom energy” all while playing into the words tied to the dark side of the Force.

However, some of the responses from his book called his diligent work hogwash. It just went to show what Foster tried to impart on the audience — you just can’t please everyone.

After sharing some of his own struggles, Foster lauded scientists in the field for their dedication. He said that few people realized the months and meticulous work involved in getting 20 seconds of footage for a nature documentary.

Tony Taylor

Taylor has written two novels, and his science fiction novel “The Darkest Side of Saturn” was the focus of his talk.

Taylor also had a tie to Saturn’s first flyby. Taylor has been involved — as a space navigator — in flybys of all the solar system’s planet’s, including the non-planet Pluto. It was while seeing the image display of a new perspective of Saturn that he came up with the working title of his book.

Research was a challenge for Taylor. His book follows two astronomers who find an asteroid that will likely hit Earth. The navigation was no problem, as that’s Taylor’s bread and butter, but an array of other scientific issues had to be addressed, as well as a bit of ballet.

“I learned a lot of that from my daughter,” Taylor said, noting his daughter’s performance later at Northern Arizona University.

Not only was some of the research rigorous, it was a good way to avoid writing, he said.

“I do not like to write, I like to have written,” he said, and noted that having a series of notes to warm up on often helped build his momentum when writing.

One of the things that Taylor said was too unrealistic for him in science fiction was the idea of a faster-than-light-speed drive.

“I don’t think Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is going anywhere anytime soon,” he said during the Q-and-A.

Foster countered by saying that everyone gets a few freebies, so long as they are not lazy, and that without light drives, a whole realm of science fiction is lost.

Gerald Lamb

Lamb’s book, “Filtered,” looks at a dystopian, propaganda-driven world where dirty air forces people to purchase their own.

Having a history degree, Lamb said he tried to incorporate the social sciences in a believable way when writing. He said that he created complex characters and a complex world and then followed them around to create this realism.

“There is no plot,” he said of his work.

Lamb also pointed out that “science fiction is true” — citing that the genre works within the confines of what is possible, whereas the sometimes associated genre fantasy simply suspends the rules without explanation.

Lamb also took some time to share the observatory’s next program, “Spaceguard Academy.” As opposed to Taylor’s life-eradicating asteroid, he said the program will look at the benefits of asteroids to man’s body of knowledge and will present it in a way that is engaging to youth.

Making science accessible to youth was something that was important to all three authors, and Foster noted that he wasn’t alone in his attempts to fix the 12 parsec problem. Many young fans have tried, too.

While realistically trying to create an unreal world, each author took different approaches to how their worlds affected their characters. Whereas Taylor, a large fan of the grimly prophetic “A Canticle for Liebowitz” enjoyed forecasting a cycle of doom as part of mankind’s evolution, and Lamb brought a twisted version of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, Foster said he had a more optimistic outlook and stayed away from dystopian books, fitting for some of his work, including the screenplay for the ever-hopeful Star Trek.

All three encouraged proper research to all prospective science fiction writers, and to not be intimidated by the blank page. As Foster put it, if a writer gets one page done a day, at the end of the year he or she will have a full-fledged novel.

For more information on Lowell Observatory, check its website. Visit the Arizona Authors’ Association website for more details.