Are we living in a Golden Age for literature?

[Ray McCarthy]

but those that do read now have access to an unimaginable amount of written material,

it is more available right now than ever before.

I think we all agree it's a golden age for readers.

 

[Brian G Turner]

What really strikes me is how technically weak some newly published books are. I'm easily given the impression that there must be quite a few agents and editors out there who are in the business for their love of reading, but have little technical understanding of storytelling.

And by that I mean simple things that would get negative comments in our critiques section - characters who start off bored, or who sit around for chapter upon chapter doing nothing but listen to other people infodump at them.

It's really underlined to me the importance of a writer having a good team behind them, to ensure that they can become as good as possible by themselves, rather than expect that people in the industry will do that for them. Not least because it is so easy to overlook or excuse your own mistakes - until someone that you trust points them out.

 

[BAYLOR]

The Golden age of science fiction in the 30s and 40's ?

 

[steelyglint]

The Golden age of science fiction in the 30s and 40's ?

True, the 30s and 40s are what is usually referred to as the 'golden age'. So I'll name the present the 'Platinum Age' for the 'hard SF' producers and consumers. The human knowledge base has seen an expansion since the 40s, on the order of the one the universe is thought to have experienced 12 or 13 billion years ago. The probabilities and possibilities of the heyday of Heinlein, Pohl, Asimov, etc. are so much closer to each other now that they breach one another's borders and may as well be 'prosbabilities.' The paths that lead writers from 'how it is' to 'how it will be' are bordered by flower beds bursting with high-tech blooms, and riddled with the seeds of ideas as to what may logically follow.

The John W. Campbell years had the new atomic/nuclear tech propelling storylines into the future. Today's Higgs/Graphine/nanotech/etc. highlights are just the starting block in a race run in much thinner mist than the pea-souper Mr Campbell tried to guide his stable of writers through, and so much more of what is very likely to be possible one day is discernible on the horizon, or detected even beyond it.

.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Today's Higgs/Graphine/nanotech/etc. highlights

Garbage Science Magic stories. Today is the Tin Age
50s to 70s was last good era. 80s to now better for fantasy, than SF, which has gone down hill, dominated by Science Fantasy and Space Opera