Flip Flop Genre

[Parson]

I've just finished an supposedly SF book. It was a first contact book where the contact was distinctly hostile. The book was about earth's resistance to the take over, which while surprisingly fierce (to the alien mind set) was clearly going to be futile, but then the day was saved by (get ready for it) VAMPIRES!!!! I don't believe I've ever been so frustrated by an ending. This was not a Fantasy book, it was not even on the fantasy side of SF, almost every bit of science in it was not only possible but well thought out. And then VAMPIRES!!!! of all the cheap tricks. I could well have lived with a defeated, even a lifeless earth because that was the way logic dictated and it would have made a memorable book, even if possibly hard to sell, but VAMPIRES!!!!!

Questions: Am I right to be angry? Do you know of any other books that have done this kind of genre switch? If so how did you react?


(Not naming the book to avoid spoilers, and to protect the guilty. If interested I'll PM you the name and author.)

 

[The Ace]

Well, I know a lot of US writing doesn't make it to this side of the pond. Now I know why.

 

[Parson]

Unfortunately, this one is decidedly on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

[booksforlunch]

I'm not entirely sure what to think of that. It would help if you'd clarify a bit:

Were the Vampires introduced deus-ex machina style? Or were they there from the beginning, a la "Gentlemen, you all know General Vlad, in charge of our nocturne division"?



Generally I wouldn't mind a genre-mix. E.g. standard LOTR-world and then ~Fire from Heaven~ and space ships over (local equivalent of) Mordor. Ancient evil and the forces of light and wholesome living uniting against the common foe!

But then again, I like Steampunk, which tends to have science so soft, it could just as well be magic.

 

[Parson]

The Vampires appeared as if out of the smoke. Now that I look back at the book there were a couple of hints, setting, talking about Vlad the Impaler, and that sort of thing, but nothing to make one think that there would actually be vampires in a SF story. If this had been marketed as a Fantasy book (it would have been very short on Fantasy) I would have been looking for them because of the hints.

 

[HareBrain]

"Hm, I've written a hard-SF first contact story. But SF isn't selling at the moment. What is selling ...?"

 

[booksforlunch]

Ah, I see.

Well, that's really just stupid. Something like that robs a story of it's pay-off, which for me is the basic premise thought to it's logical, inevitable end. Genre mixing is okay, but simply stealing something from Fantasy just to present it as some kind of 'twist'-ending is pretty lame.

And now I'd really like to know which book it was, lest I purchase it in error.

 

[J Riff]

The sequel is out- this time, it's ZOMBIES!

 

[Ursa major]

The Vampires appeared as if out of the smoke.

Given your phrasing, I take it that the vampires are of the traditional, not-to-be-understood-by-science variety.

 

[alchemist]

I read the blurb for this last week, but can't remember the details. I think there's a link to the publisher somewhere on Chrons. Or...now that I think about it, it may be an author Parson has mentioned a number of times before.

 

[Parson]

Given your phrasing, I take it that the vampires are of the traditional, not-to-be-understood-by-science variety.

Ah, yes. Very traditional vampires.

Alchemist:

I read the blurb for this last week, but can't remember the details. I think there's a link to the publisher somewhere on Chrons. Or...now that I think about it, it may be an author Parson has mentioned a number of times before.

Parson hangs his head. "Indeed, often extremely complimentary too."

Harebrain:

"Hm, I've written a hard-SF first contact story. But SF isn't selling at the moment. What is selling ...?"

This is also what I am thinking.

 

[Ursa major]

Given that these creatures are

Very traditional vampires

the answer to the question,

Am I right to be angry?

is a resounding YES.

(Bearing in mind that I don't know anything else about the book.)

 

[alchemist]

Yes, it was who I thought it was. The customers on Amazon share your pain. I've just bought an early work by this writer, for research purposes. I haven't started it yet, so I can only hope I got him at his best.

It might be acceptable if the vampires were presented in an SF style i.e. a scientific-style explanation for their powers, or some ancient link between them and the aliens. Sounds like that didn't happen either.

"Gentlemen, you all know General Vlad, in charge of our nocturne division"?

Very nicely put.

Edit: only saw Ursa's post now. Great minds etc etc

 

[Dave]

I think you had might as well spill the beans now. You would be doing a service to other Chrons members if they didn't buy this book.

 

[Ursa major]

There may be others less fortunate than you, Parson. Think of the unfortunate young person who likes the idea of a vampire/Norse myth crossover experience and so buys a ticket to Twilight of the Gods....

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

That may be one of your best puns ever, Ursa.

I think it's time to take pity on us all, Parson. You could write it in white to avoid spoilers for those who don't want to know.

It seems to me, from your description, that it's not a problem of genre so much as it is a fault of the plot. If benevolent aliens previously unmentioned had descended in spaceships to save the day without the main characters lifting a finger, wouldn't you be just about equally disappointed?

 

[J-WO]

Would we accept ET saving VanHelsing and Mr and Mrs Harker?

 

[Parson]

Okay, I will give you the Spoiler in white. You all know what to do:

David Weber's "Out of the Dark"

By the way. I am angry, very angry, I feel cheated and abused. I suppose one could think that it was clever, but I am not one of those.

Teresa Edgerton said:

It seems to me, from your description, that it's not a problem of genre so much as it is a fault of the plot. If benevolent aliens previously unmentioned had descended in spaceships to save the day without the main characters lifting a finger, wouldn't you be just about equally disappointed?

Somewhat less, because in a SF book dealing with a group of aliens another group of aliens is at least a possible scenario. If I were writing it however, I would put the "warring" aliens in from the beginning. I've read books like that and it seemed okay by me then.

[However, this site has made me a little more of connoisseur of writing.]

PS> I love the new avatar!

 

[Riselka]

As for the question of a novel suddenly changing genres, the one that instantly springs to my mind is Jane Lindskold's The Buried Pyramid.

I knew going into it that Lindskold was a writer best known in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy world. But from the start, it read like an adventure thriller, solidly based in the real world, and very enjoyable. And it continued to read that way until about 90% of the way through the novel - that's where it suddenly turned into some kind of weird Fantasy novel.

In my opinion, it would have made for a much better novel if she'd just stuck to the adventure thriller genre. That Fantasy ending pretty much ruined it for me.

If you're going to start a novel out in one genre, and then introduce elements of another genre part way through, then do what China Mieville did in Kraken, by introducing it at the end of the first chapter - NOT at the very end of the novel.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Thanks, Parson. The artist goes by the name of Blom, and it's from AllAvatars. The other avatar was looking more and more grim to me, and I wanted something more light-hearted.

Looking at most of those disgruntled reviews, the majority of angry readers hated the deus ex machina aspect more than the genre switch. While those who liked the book thought the twist was very clever.

It's so easy for writers to cheat with a surprise ending. After all, readers only have the writer's word for what is true and possible in that particular story. How can they be expected to know when they are being deceived?

Misdirection, of course, is quite another thing.

Since I haven't read the book, of course I don't know which one it was, but most of those readers seem to feel they were deceived, and by a writer they had grown to trust over the course of many books. If so, no wonder they are angry.