The Death of Science Fiction (Yet Again).

[Fried Egg]

Unfortunately, the major bookstores are driven by the profit motive, and if Star Wars & Star Trek, and video game knockoffs are what sell, there's no incentive to take a chance on a new, untried author, regardless of how good they are.

I blame the situation on the economic squeeze that's put so many small independent shops out of business. If people can't find new authors in Borders, Waterstones, etc, they aint going to buy them - and it's much safer for the big chains to stick to movie spin-offs and the odd Pratchett or vampire romance crap...

I wouldn't say the TV show spin-offs dominate the rest of the SF in any bookshop I've been in. Indeed, they have their own little section (which I'm thankful for) which is a fraction of the size of the rest of the SF/F section. So I don't see what the problem is.

Yes, most shops are driven by the profit motive, that's why they're still in business. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, they're giving people what they want.

But so what if "quality" SF is becoming harder and harder to find in bookshops these days as they narrow their range in order to stay in business? Online book retailers have huge selections where you can get pretty much anything in print so it's not like we're being deprived of anything, is it?

You can't blame shops for not taking a chance on a new author, that is ultimately down to the consumer. Consumers may often be reluctant to take a chance on a new author but I doubt that this is a particular affliction of SF nor of our current time.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Echoing the points of Fried Egg (and others) I don't see Star Wars etc pushing out other science fiction novels. If anything it may encourage others like Cyber to enter that part of the bookshop and pick something else up as well. Also, as Connavar said some of these novels are well written. Timothy Zahn wrote a very good series of Star Wars novels and I also read his original "Conquerors" series as well as a result.
To paraphrase someone I met; "There are no bad stories, just bad writers" so you'll have your share of hacks in any profession. Some even sell well and that's just life.

In fact, change "Star Wars" with "Forgotten Realms" or "Dungeons and Dragons" and you could just as easily level the same criticism to fantasy during the 80s.

I'd argue that far from dying, science fiction is undergoing a little bit of a rebirth with lots of new authors getting picked up. I actually think there is more 'drag' to new authors from the large volume of stock carried in shops by the greats like Clarke, Asimov, Dick etc. Great books no doubt, but old books and without new blood and stories injected into any genre it'll suffocate itself and decline.

 

[Connavar]

When i go to the book shop, i don't really see that much Tie in stuff compared to SF&F. Maybe i'm going to the wrong bookshops. I still see plenty of Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Hamilton, Neaal Asher, Richard Morgan, Alastair Reynolds and the like. There are even some classics like Asimove, Clarke, Bradbury and Dick in these shops. Theres enough out there to still give me a choice. Besides, Amazon's going to have a lot of SF.

Supply and demand is the oldest rule of economics. If the shelves are dominated by Star Wars and Star Trek books, it's because they're selling well. Does it matter in the long run? SF is just as much subject to fads as anyting else. It'll come around again soon. (Perhaps i should feel a little guilty here, as i collect the Star Wars Books. )

I have seen more alternate history books,shelfs than Tie ins. Our bookstores sound the same. I have gone to 5-10 books in town. The big mainstream shelfs with space only for the classics of PkD and co the best seller of modern writers.

To specialist genre bookstores that have more SF shelfs. Sounds our bookshops are the same because of the european connection.


Sparrow is another world books wise in US. What works on the other side of the atlantic isnt always the same in Europe. Tie ins might sell 100 times more than best seller SF author doesnt mean SF is dying.....

 

[Werewoman]

Oh and another thing, not mentioned that I can see, Science Fiction doesn't attract the skirts. The vast majority of girls and women are simply not into SF literature in any way shape or form. Fantasy get them in waves, SF has never really appealed to young women.

That's right. Only us old chicks read Dick.

 

[j d worthington]

That's right. Only us old chicks read Dick.

Though, again from my own experience and correspondence with quite a number of other people, more than Fantasy, Horror draws them in these days.....

 

[Rodders]

I've just bought some Star Wars books for the collection. I must say, there was a lot more Vampiric Romance Novels than there were tie ins.

 

[Interference]

Maybe because Twilight and Being Human are getting more airtime than Terminator (cancelled due to writers' strike) and -- I can't even think of another TV Sciffy prog ...

It's current fashion. Come the next Sci Fi blockbuster, the tide will change.

 

[Rodders]

Yes. Let us see what Avatar brings us.

 

[J-WO]

Hello! I guess this would be as good a place as any to ask. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there's a 'Death of SF' collection out there that I could buy? Basically a compendium of the best essays/ blogs/ thoughts on the subject from every decade.

And if not, why not, for heavens sakes? 'Death of SF' is a subgenre with a long pedigree and its high time the academic field regarded it. Perhaps the small press could pick up the gauntlet here.

 

[Sparrow]

J-WO~And if not, why not, for heavens sakes? 'Death of SF' is a subgenre with a long pedigree and its high time the academic field regarded it. Perhaps the small press could pick up the gauntlet here.

Except there's no gauntlet to pick up.


I'd love to see an essay on how it is an invention of the late 1970s (StarWars) is still the biggest thing in Science Fiction... only given a run for it's money by a creation from the 1960s (StarTrek). Wasn't SF suppose to be forward thinking, dynamic, dangerous?

So much for expectations.

 

[Vladd67]

Except there's no gauntlet to pick up.


I'd love to see an essay on how it is an invention of the late 1970s (StarWars) is still the biggest thing in Science Fiction... only given a run for it's money by a creation from the 1960s (StarTrek). Wasn't SF suppose to be forward thinking, dynamic, dangerous?

So much for expectations.

SF is forward thinking, dynamic, dangerous at times, unfortunately the people who publish books and buy for book shops have to make a profit and it would seem the majority of the paying public are sheep following the herd unwilling to look outside their comfort zone.

 

[Urien]

I am willing to try new things; but by definition uncomfortable outside my comfort zone. People don't like to be uncomfortable, I'm not sure that makes them sheep. In addition time is short; work, the internet, families, home life, TV they all compete for attention, consequently when they do wander into a book shop they gravitate to something they believe they know will be a positive use of a scarce commodity, time.

We on Chrons are experts relative to the bulk of the population; we have an active and knowledgable interest in science fiction and indeed all of speculative fiction. We know more, we are willing to make the time to try something of an exotic speciality within an exotic genre. For the bulk of the population who are inclined only to grab a book they grab what they can see, have heard of, or has broken out of the genre box. A logical choice for a non-expert in a time and money scarce world.

Our judgement could easily be flawed by our very expertise though it's not invalid, after all we can see trends, we can read the numbers. It may well be accurate to say that serious (definition your own) science fiction has declined relative to pop science fiction, however overall the popularity of science fiction might well have increased.

If we include all media: movies, games, books (spin offs and originals), internet, TV and whatever else I've forgotten, science fiction has probably never been stronger. If we discount all media except "serious" books then methodologically we are reducing the data set, this is probably an unsound basis on which to posit an accurate answer.

 

[J-WO]

I'd love to see an essay on how it is an invention of the late 1970s (StarWars) is still the biggest thing in Science Fiction... only given a run for it's money by a creation from the 1960s (StarTrek). Wasn't SF suppose to be forward thinking, dynamic, dangerous?

Yes, that's the kind of thing I mean; essays exactly like that. One hundred pages worth, perfect bound, hardback, fully annotated with an introduction by, say, that Mark Charan Newton fellow.

I've been looking on amazon and, so far, no joy...

 

[Neal Asher]

J-WO, I don't think it would be just one book.

 

[dustinzgirl]

Star Wars and Star Trek were both for different generations and they appealed to different generations. However, Lucas, being the smart guy that he is, did more Star Wars flicks and purposefully made them appeal to the younger generations, with princesses and jesters and knights, which is why it is still going and Star Trek is not. That and Lucas is an awesome marketer. There will always be people who look to the future and the stars and ask what if......

Science fiction is most assuredly not dead. It is however changing its traditional media. Pre-multimedia days, Sci Fi was mainly in comics, books, and mags, then more into radio (thanks Buck Rogers and HG Wells) and then into the tele. Now, Sci Fi isn't so much on the tele and radio as it is in interactive gaming. I play a LOT of sci fi games because there are a LOT of sci fi games and movies that are most definitely NOT dead. Well except in Doom and Dead Space. I also watch a lot of sci fi movies, which are also not dead, and in mainstream there are a LOT LOT LOT more science fiction movies than fantasy movies. There are a lot more fantasy novel series in literature in mainstream than there are science fiction books.

I don't know why this is. Perhaps because it is a lot more romantic to write about the fantastical world of dragons than to draw up images of dragons (which always look kind of hokey on the tele) and its a lot easier to draw up images of complex machinery and space faring cultures than to write it out for the mainstream audience (who aren't all that bright).

In my house right now I could easily think of ten to fifteen original sci fi game or movie titles, but not books--and if I took out the Star Wars books and manuals, then its really probably none. I could easily think of ten to fifteen fantasy fiction book titles, but not games or movies (well not any good ones, and certainly not any that weren't books in the first place, hence not original).

 

[J-WO]

J-WO, I don't think it would be just one book.

An entire shelf then, somewhere between the Paranormal romance and the Painful lives sections of Waterstones.

 

[Rodders]

I don't see how Science Fiction can be dying. Look at any list of the highest grossing films and SF is a huge player in those lists. Look at these "best" TV series that seem to come out at the end of the year and you'll see a lot of science fiction being represented, whether it be the best family movies or the best TV Show endings, SF plays a massive part. Avatar has just passed the $billion mark and is still going strong.

 

[AE35Unit]

Every now and then the prophets of doom come out saying SF is dying. But really its just changing. Just like a rock band it has to change or it will die!

 

[Vargev]

Personally i believe that SF isnt dying, and will most likely never die. The reason for this is that for every person who looks up into the stars wondering what if? and if anyone is out there? Then SF will still be around, and SF literature will still be around as there will still be the writers who want to write about it, whether for profit or just for the love of telling a good story.

 

[Uraeus]

As long as there are things we do not know about the cosmos, then science fiction will always explain them in story form, hopefully in a way that symbolises modern issues as well.