Where is the new age of Science Fiction Literature?

[Vertigo]

On a side note, I was surprised not to see a thread on his work on the Chrons? Have I missed it somewhere? Perhaps he's not as popular as he was about ten years ago, but for a while he must have been one of the best sellers in the UK at least.

ABS

Individual authors get their own sub forum based upon how much independent discussion is going on about them and their works. I don't know the actual number but I think it's down to how many active threads are currently running on them and their work. To be honest many of the author sub-forums are pretty quiescent only getting little flurries of activity when there is something new like a new book.

Personally I tend to read the Chrons via the "Recent Posts" button so most of the time I barely notice what sub-forum the threads are running on. If you want to discuss a particular author who doesn't have their own sub forum simply start a thread in the "General Book Discussions" area and others will soon chip in. There have been discussions of PFH here and he tends to get a mixed reception; there are those that love his rich detailed descriptions and plotting and don't mind having doorstops for books (like me ) others feel he pads his books with too much fluff and the books are way too long. Start a thread on him and it will soon filter down to those ideas.

As you say, though, we shouldn't derail this thread into one author!

 

[Cli-Fi]

I'd suggest not underestimating the abilities to see a particular solution no-one else sees, to borrow ideas, incorporate them into a desirable package and then make others want that package all at the right time.

These skills can change the world, as Jobs did with the mobile phone, tablet and music worlds, and began to do to publishing. As Elon Musk did with online payments, rocket launches and electric cars. As Ford did with the Model T, Florence Nightingale with nursing, Mohammed with Islam, Boeing with the 707, Thatcher with free market economics, von Braun with the V2, McCarthy with the fear of communism, Pol Pot with communism, and many many others. I am by no means equating or promoting any of these things, but, to me, this is one of the key lessons of history, of how humanity works. Key individuals can make a huge difference for good or ill if they market the right idea in the right way at the right time.

Telling the stories of those people bringing those ideas to fruition can be thrilling (biography is a big field), but just as engaging stories can be told by looking at the people who are impacted by the ideas, and, to my mind, especially the interaction of those ideas in unexpected ways. Who would have predicted that texting would enable the fall of President Marcos, and yet smartphones with Twitter, Facebook, et al would fail to bring about the crowd's wishes in the Arab Spring?

I guess the other lesson history suggests is that things can take a long time to change and things can change very quickly - so who knows what the world will look like in 100 years? In the developed world in about 30 years we've adopted IT to such an extent that 'net access is now seen as a basic utility, while the Catholic Church has for centuries and still does influence about 15% of the world's population. I believe the trick in SF / SF / F is to take a bunch of ideas from across human experience and extrapolate them somehow, while seeing how they consistently affect each other and the existing context - difficult, but also fun!

Back to another idea. That 100 years from now won't be much different from now despite a few technological changes. It is easy to see it this way if you resist the dystopian temptation (which I am rarely capable of) but think back to 100 years ago. Cars were barely a thing and legal prostitution still existed in New Orleans. Jazz didn't really have a name yet. (OK, I'm reading a book on turn of the century New Orleans.) Also think about 20 years ago and how much has changed since then. Dick Tracy watches are here. I remember thinking it would be so cool to talk to people through my watch.

I think 100 years from now will be drastically different, but we will still be people. Same strengths and weaknesses. That is the story, the rest is just cool to think about.

These are both great examples of where scifi must go. We are all becoming aware of how fast technology is moving. But the question of whether or not we really change as a species is something that definitely needs to be explored more. And I think a lot of sci-fi does not even attempt to ask those questions. They focus on the characters mostly and if they change. Whether it's the mom who yells, "I have to use another device to watch this?" or the current stream of world consciousness that social media is becoming. While I do agree that some of these topics may not necessarily make for great stories, it has always bothered me that sci-fi does like to play it a bit safe when it comes down to it.

All these topics everybody is bringing up and then when you compare them to the normal themes that you see in sci-fi doesn't seem to be too encouraging. Where are the sci-fi stories about all these topics that we've mentioned? Why always time travel to the civil war or JFK? Why always have space battles? Why are alien creatures so inherently human?

I can't tell you how many times I've been browsing Amazon or Goodreads, sites that didn't exist a decade ago. And all I see are space cowboy novels thrown in my face. Truth be told I enjoy a good one of those stories about once a year, but the advertisers are killing me there! Then I have to search around for something that is a bit more intriguing and of course, may not be entirely popular. Science Fiction movies that are not franchises and have actual believable plotlines come to me probably once every four years.

There could also be a problem with the fact that this technology may come too fast for the publishers and even the writers. As was previously mentioned. It's hard to keep up with this stuff even if you're as obsessed with it as I am! I don't even know how to use snapchat or twitter (and I'm 27), but lots of people younger than me swear by it!

I see this a bit differently. We are still in the information age where people cannot keep up with the stream of information that is available at their fingertips. Sure it has changed the world, but it has also created awareness of sicknesses and I believe is causing some increase in the popular learning difficulties young people are having. Not to mention really terrible paranoia in some people.

Despite there being several science fiction stories about JFK, perhaps Stephen King knew that a haunted driverless car wouldn't make for such a great story. Or perhaps he wasn't even aware of the technology itself! Since King is not necessarily a sci-fi writer his supernatural elements could be seen as sci-fi to a degree. Writers are almost forced into their niche. Especially if they have long contracts. I don't think George RR Martin is marveling at the new iPhones when he spends hours at a time staring at his old MS-DOS typing program.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Despite there being several science fiction stories about JFK, perhaps Stephen King knew that a haunted driverless car wouldn't make for such a great story.

Your trolling us right ????

I loved Christine when I read it in the early 80s!!!

But being serious, I don't recognise your concerns. I know it will be subjective - I don't know what you'd classify as a great SF book - but there are a great many of them out there. (Many of them pre-1990 and many, to me at least, easily fit your criteria). I have the advantage of being older and therefore of reading a great deal of the 'classics' and a great number of them, as well as being very picky in what I read - I know 'space dross' when I see it and avoid it.

Just being curious, how well read are you in the genre? (I say that because of the statement you made above, about Stephen King! ) I guess I've read a good 3-4 hundred SF books of different flavours (gawd knows how many more horror and fantasy books on top of that) and I've never read a single SF book about time travel to the civil war or JFK, I can probably only name a couple of books with actual 'space battles' and I've come across a great many attempts at compelling non-humans. True, some were awful, some were mediocre and absolutely none of them had iPhones in them (thankfully), but the good ones - and there are many - attempt in their own ways to contemplate the future of humanity.

What would you say is a book, that you have read, that really 'hits the nail on the head' on the topics you are talking about and does actually work for you?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I guess I've read a good 3-4 hundred SF books of different flavours (gawd knows how many more horror and fantasy books on top of that) and I've never read a single SF book about time travel to the civil war or JFK, I can probably only name a couple of books with actual 'space battles' and I've come across a great many attempts at compelling non-humans.

I agree.
Weird Aliens: James White, Larry Niven, CJ. Cherryh, Anne Maxwell, Ursula Le Guin and others.
Asimov only has real aliens I think in "Nightfall". Everyone is really from Earth.
The Space Opera is a sub genre and it has most of the space battles. I hardly read it. It might sell well, but it's a minority of published titles.
Read only a tiny number with Time travel, mostly short stories (as it's a very limited thing for SF and more a McGuffin to examine something else)
Hardly any are alternate history.

Who is JFK?

Been reading SF for over 50 years.

There could also be a problem with the fact that this technology may come too fast for the publishers and even the writers. As was previously mentioned. It's hard to keep up with this stuff even if you're as obsessed with it as I am!

Mostly since 1950s fifties we have had miniaturisation of Electronics. Start of Genetic Engineering and better observation of space. Almost no significant new basic science! Technological and production engineering.
The Internet is 30 years old.
Smart phones are only 5 or 6 years younger than Web sites, which are 24 years old.
Microprocessor based / Personal Desktop computers about 40 years old
First Compiler for a high level computer language about 60 years old
Liquid oxygen/Hydrogen Rocket motors and Inertial Navigation, over 70 years old
Radar almost 70 years old
Electronic TV is 80 years old
HD TV is nearly 70 years old
Fax machines 1851
Batteries 1799
Radio 1896
Lasers in 1960s
Transistor science in 1930s, but not successfully made till 1947.

Fusion Tokamak reactor is 1950s science concept. (ITER is current test, DEMO is next one)
Geosynchronous satellites outlined in 1945. 1950s start of successful satellite launches
People walking on the moon ENDED in 1973, that's 43 years ago!

Most of the stuff on Web sites is PR fluff and gadgets.

Computer Science has stalled in 1980s (How to actually better write software. Current GUI concepts, even touch screen gestures date from 1970s! Capacitive and Resistive touch LCD screens by mid 1980s. Plasma based screens earlier!)

 

[Cli-Fi]

What would you say is a book, that you have read, that really 'hits the nail on the head' on the topics you are talking about and does actually work for you?

Well from that point I guess we both know different things about the genre, but as I said before. I usually look for things that have a realistic near-future plot. I like political and cultural undertones as well, but I've watched more than I've read. One of my favorite books is The Light of Other Days. Baxter and Clarke really hit the nail on the head on the whole privacy issue and that was in the year 2000 when none of that stuff was really in the limelight yet, but now thanks to Social Media, their time viewing devices are essentially reality. As are the issues that they've raised. As you can go through someone's profile and see what they were doing four years ago. Not in real time of course and it has nothing to do with time-bending black holes. It's just that people genuinely want to share every moment of their lives. It's not called social media in that book, because that was even before the dawn of Myspace but stuff like that is what really intrigues me. Plots where you can superimpose what's going on in real life. Yes, every writer tries to do that, but rarely do so to my own satisfaction. Maybe I'm just picky that way.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I usually look for things that have a realistic near-future plot. I like political and cultural undertones as well, but I've watched more than I've read

Watching is very misleading:
1) Very narrow range
2) Visual
Program for a Puppet, Roland Perry. Written 1979. Some reason reminds me of current "data slurps", NSA, CIA and Presidential race today

Baxter and Clarke really hit the nail on the head on the whole privacy issue

Shockwave Rider, John Brunner, 1975
Loads of other stuff about privacy issues.

Harry Harrison To the Stars Trilogy, 1980 -1981. Great bit too where they watch old an movie and laugh at Star Wars!

 

[Aleph]

I follow tech news very closely but it looks like science fiction writers are stuck in the past! Oftentimes they tend to stay away from new tech and focus solely on what's safe. Spaceships, space travel, robots, etc... or they make up their own fantastical crap with a baseline in classic sci-fi. Holograms, teleportation, virtual reality etc.. But now that that stuff is becoming reality more and more every day, and all the classics are being redone for the golden age of television. Is it time to think of new things? .

UMMMMM with all respect are you even aware of what is even going on in the Science Fiction world??? The whole point of the Sad/Rabid Puppies Hugo mess and the fact that nobody even won an award last year was precisely BECAUSE nobody writes those things you quoted! Or at least nobody is publishing them any more. Therefore the Puppies were sad.