Ten Reasons Why SF Is Still Awesome
Science fiction isn’t dying, contrary to what people are saying (about literature, I mean)–it might be losing some ground, but proclaiming it on the verge of death is like saying books themselves are dying, which is another can of worms that people really need to research before babbling doomsday theories about. With that in mind, however, here are my nine reasons why SF is still awesome (not entirely about literature, I mean): TVSay what you will about some of the garbage on television, but shows like Battlestar Galactica are prime examples of why SF is very much alive and very much filled with awesome. The constant reruns of other classic shows, such as the multitude of Star Trek series, X-files, and even the original Stargate SG-1 have helped make SF television worth watching–you can get the new and the old in one bite. And don’t forget all the other interesting shows floating around (some good and some not so much)! MoviesLet’s just put aside the arguments about whether or not Star Wars is SF and also just put aside the prequel movies altogether. They don’t count. What does count are movies like Pitch Black, Sunshine, X-men (the first two mostly), Evolution, The Matrix (the first one, not the sequels), Terminator 3, “I, Robot,” The Chronicles of Riddick (say what you will about this one, but it was a good movie), The Island, Spider-Man, Children of Men, V For Vendetta, I Am Legend, Transformers, Iron Man, Wall-E etc. Those are just a few of the titles in the last 10 years that we all most likely remember, or should remember. The movies coming out are still good, some of them playing games with the SF elements (Evolution) and others taking them seriously (Sunshine). I love SF movies and thankfully there are plenty to come in the future that will keep me entertained. Cool IdeasYes, science fiction is still pumping out the ideas. Just because it’s not making us go “oh my lord, that is truly the most amazing thing ever” doesn’t mean the ideas aren’t there. It’s just somewhat more difficult to surprise us with technology anymore. Spaceships and nanotechnology don’t make us jump up and down like school children like they used to. But the ideas are still there, and they’re getting more complex and more fascinating and dangerous every year. The best part is that some of the ideas we’re seeing might actually come true because they are based on real science. Take nanotechnology, which might actually create super-humans and what not. Wouldn’t that be cool? I think so. Scifi GeeksOkay, so this is one of those things that is great and utterly crap at the same time. First off, scifi geeks can be a little too obsessed (like those Star Trek fans who actually think it’s real). The thing is, all forms of geekery, even literary geekery, have these overly obsessed types. That’s just the way it is. For the most part, thankfully, scifi geeks are some of the best geeks out there. They don’t always get it right (some shows/books/etc. really aren’t as good as they make them out to be), but at least they’re keeping the genre alive by consuming the hell out of science fiction books, television, movies, comics, etc. Without them, the genre wouldn’t be where it is today. At least that’s my opinion! Comic BooksOkay, so comics have been around for a hell of a long time, and science fiction comics just as long. But comic book movies haven’t been around quite as long, and good ones haven’t started springing up except in the last 10 years–and most of those have been science fiction or at least close. True, not all of these comic book movies have been all that great (some of them have been downright terrible), but the good ones have, in my opinion, revitalized the movie industry, for the most part, and done wonders for science fiction as a whole. Now we’re seeing a lot of cross over in the opposite direction: science fiction shows being turned into comic books and their stories/characters expanded as a result. True, this type of stuff has been going on for a while, but it seems like it’s more popular these days than in days past. And it doesn’t really matter if it’s an old thing or a new thing: it’s working, it’s cool, and that’s all that matters! Non-Genre Authors Driving FocusThe title isn’t clear, primarily because it’s hard to put all of what will be said here into a short title, but it will have to do. Basically, quite a few authors who have received acclaim outside the genre have written books within the genre and embraced them. Michael Chabon, for example, has basically flipped his middle finger off at all those folks that tried to claim he and other science fiction writers were writing crap. We need more folks like him out there, for sure, but thankfully the genre as a whole has been grabbing a lot of non-genre attention as of late. And, it drives genre readers to work outside of their comfort zone. That’s a good thing! Space OperaIt’s been around for a long time, I know, but the subgenre has really blossomed lately (at least that’s what I see). Whether or not it is “new” as the whole “New Space Opera” title suggests, space opera is still kicking. I love me some space battles and interstellar civilizations, even when it’s all blended together in a dark cup (if that makes any sense). Of course, I’ve always loved space opera, so the supposed revitalization of the genre brings a smile to my face. Give me some Tobias Buckell and John Scalzi any day of the week! And, if you’re feeling friendly, toss some Charles Stross and Alastair Reynolds in there too! Science Fiction Becoming RealityWe may not have nanotech-augmented super humans who can heal on command and survive the vacuum of space, or interstellar transports that can take
A Book Reviewers Meme
Technically I’m way behind on posting this, but I wanted to wait until the list was mostly finished. Below you’ll find a massive list of all the book reviewer blogs out there (or at least the ones that came forward and added themselves to the list, or were already added). They’re in alphabetical order and split up between English and foreign blogs. Maybe you’ll find some new blogs to read! Enjoy: 7 Foot ShelvesThe Accidental BardA Boy Goes on a JourneyA Dribble Of InkA Hoyden’s Look at LiteratureAdventures in ReadingThe Agony ColumnAndromeda SpacewaysThe Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.Ask DaphneaurealisXpressAustralia Specfic in FocusAuthor 2 AuthorBarbara MartinBees (and Books) on the KnobBibliophile StalkerBibliosnarkBillWardWriter.comThe Billion Light-Year BookshelfBitten by BooksThe Black Library BlogBlog, Jvstin StyleBlood of the MuseThe Book BindBookgeeksBookslutThe Book SmugglersBookspotcentralThe Book SwedeBookrastinationBreeni BooksCheaper Ironies [pro columnist]Cheryl’s MusingsCritical MassThe Crotchety Old FanDamien G. WalterDanger GalDark Wolf Fantasy ReviewsDarque ReviewsDave Brendon’s Fantasy and Sci-Fi WeblogDear AuthorThe Deckled EdgeDragons, Heroes and WizardsThe Discriminating FangirlDusk Before the DawnEnter the OctopusEve’s AlexandriaFantastic ReviewsFantastic Reviews BlogFantasy Book CriticFantasy CafeFantasy DebutFantasy Book Reviews and NewsFantasy and Sci-fi Lovin’ BlogFeminist SF – The Blog!The FixThe Foghorn ReviewFrances WritesFrom a Sci-Fi StandpointFruitless RecursionThe Galaxy ExpressGalleycatThe Gamer RatGenre ReviewsGraeme’s Fantasy Book ReviewGrasping for the WindThe Green Man ReviewHasenpfefferHighlander’s Book ReviewsHorrorscopeThe Hub MagazineHyperpat’s Hyper DayInk and Keysio9Jumpdrives and CantripsLair of the Undead RatLeague of Reluctant AdultsLiterary EscapismMichele Lee’s Book LoveThe Mistress of Ancient RevelryMIT Science Fiction SocietyMonster LibrarianMore Words, Deeper HoleMostly Harmless BooksMy Favourite BooksNeth SpaceThe New Book ReviewNextReadOF Blog of the FallenThe Old Bat’s BelfryOutside of a DogParanormalityPat’s Fantasy HotlistPiaw’s BlogPost-Weird ThoughtsPublisher’s WeeklyReading the LeavesRealms of Speculative FictionReviewer XThe Road Not TakenRob’s Blog o’ StuffRobots and VampsSandstorm ReviewsScifiChickSci Fi WireSciFiGuySci-Fi Fan LetterSci-Fi Songs [Musical Reviews]The Sequential RatSeverian’s Fantastic WorldsSF DiplomatSF GospelSF Reviews.netSF RevuSF SignalSF SiteSFF World’s Book ReviewsSilver ReviewsThe SpecusphereSpinebreakersSmart Bitches, Trashy BooksSpeculative FictionSpeculative Fiction JunkieSpeculative HorizonsSpiral Galaxy ReviewsSpontaneous DerivationSporadic Book ReviewsStella MatutinaThe Sudden CurveThe Sword ReviewTangent OnlineTehani WesselyTemple Library ReviewsTor.com [also a publisher]True Science FictionUn:BoundUrban Fantasy LandVast and Cool and UnsympatheticVariety SFWalker of WorldsWands and WorldsThe WertzoneWith Intent to Commit HorrorWJ Fantasy ReviewsThe World in a Satin BagWriteBlackYoung Adult Science Fiction Foreign Language (other than English) Cititor SF [Romanian, but with English Translation] Elbakin.net [French] Foundation of Krantas [Chinese (traditional)] The SF Commonwealth Office in Taiwan [Chinese (traditional) with some English essays] Yenchin’s Lair [Chinese (traditional)] Aguarras [Brazilian, Portuguese] Fernando Trevisan [Brazilian, Portuguese] Human 2.0 [Brazilian, Portuguese] Life and Times of a Talkative Bookworm [Brazilian, Porteguese] Ponto De Convergencia [Brazilian, Portuguese] pós-estranho [Brazilian, Portuguese] >Skavis [Brazilian, Portuguese] Fantasy Seiten [German, Deustche] Fantasy Buch [German, Deustche] >Literaturschock [German, Deustche] Welt der fantasy [German, Deustche] >Bibliotheka Phantastika [German, Deustche] SF Basar [German, Deustche] >Phantastick News [German, Deustche] X-zine [German, Deustche] >Buchwum [German, Deustche] >Phantastick Couch [German, Deustche] >Wetterspitze [German, Deustche] Fantasy News [German, Deustche] Fantasy Faszination [German, Deustche] Fantasy Guide [German, Deustche] >Zwergen Reich [German, Deustche] Fiction Fantasy [German, Deustche]
Five Irritating Things About Other Writers (part three)
Here is the final installment of this series. This brings us to a total of fifteen irritating things about other writers (including Part One and Part Two)! So, feel free to leave a comment and enjoy: Thirteen-year-old kids who self-publish a book and think they are worthy of the same adoration as J. K. Rowling, Terry Pratchett, or any number of legitimately published individuals who have sold millions of copies of books. While I’m okay with people self-publishing, one should understand that you are not entitled to fair treatment. You chose to subvert the publishing process by doing it yourself. By doing so you’ve taken upon yourself the stigma that is involved with self-publishing. If you don’t like it, then don’t self-publish. You have to earn the respect of your prospective readers; readers are not entitled to respect you (which works for legitimately published writers too, but you get what I mean). Thirteen-year-old kids who did the same as above and then get really uppity with you when you point out the obvious and irritating flaws in their writing. This is part of the business. If you don’t like people throwing slams at your work, don’t write (talking fiction, of course, because I can do whatever the hell I want with my blog). This goes for all writers. If I review your book and I don’t like it, don’t argue with me about it. Being classy like some writers have been and just take the criticism. If you act like a petulant child it doesn’t look good on your part. Literary writers who rip on genre writers for writing drivel. This is almost exclusively in the realm of jealousy on their part. Get over it. People don’t want to read literary novels as much as they did in 1810. That’s just the way it is. Writers who talk more about themselves than the person they’re supposed to be interviewing. I’m not listening to your audio interview to listen to you babble out yourself in response to your own questions. I want to hear what this other person has to say. I know about you already; that’s why I’m listening to your podcast. I don’t know about the other person. So let them talk! That is all!
Five Irritating Things About Other Writers (part two)
Irritation, it seems, is not limited to five things. Here is another list of irritating things about other writers (plus Part One and Part Three). Enjoy: People who think that free publication is the same as being published in a professional magazine. It’s not. Stop pretending that your free podcast fiction piece that nobody paid you for and is being put out on the net to about thirty people is the same as someone like Jason Sanford selling a piece to Interzone. It’s not remotely the same. It’s nice that you’re building yourself up and trying to get publication credits, but editors care about as much as I do about non-paying markets: none. It’s worth very little, especially when placed next to someone of equal skill who has sold to better markets. (For the record, I am editor of a small magazine, but we’re a paying market. We don’t pay much, hardly anything, but it’s better than free. Writers with talent deserve to be paid for their work. You wouldn’t work for Taco Bell for free would you?) Writers who say stupid things like “science fiction is dead” or “I write to the market.” Science fiction isn’t dead and you can’t technically write to the market unless you happen to be incredibly good at predicting the future. Trends change so damn rapidly these days that most people just get lucky when they hit on a big thing. Maybe a few writers are capable of writing fast enough to write to the market, but that’s still stupid. At least to me it is… Infodumps in short stories. It’s a short story; there isn’t time for that sort of thing. People who think they are better than you because they wrote a book. Nothing wrong with being humble. Seriously. Try it. People who think that science fiction is exactly the same as fantasy, based upon the terms’ standard definitions and common understandings. The categories are held to be generally distinct for a lot of reasons, but mostly for marketing purposes. Generally speaking science fiction is spaceships, technology, and science, while fantasy is dragons, wizards, and magic. That’s speaking generally. There’s certainly something to be said about the blending of genres, as discussed in the comment to one of my recent posts, but the two are still distinct genres for the most part. Any thoughts?
Five Irritating Things About Other Writers (part one)
Sometimes in this thing called the “writing life” you can’t help but be annoyed by the things going on in the profession you wish to be a part of. Call it jealousy in some cases or just being a jerk, but as a budding writer I find the following things to be discouraging, frustrating, and downright irksome (plus Part Two and Part Three): People with less talent/skill getting published and recognized for mediocre work. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for people who have success, but it really puts a dampener on things when you’re trying your butt off just to get your foot in the door and the people whose work you’ve actually read and wondered “how the hell did this get published” are simply doing better than you. People with more talent/skill not succeeding. I know several people who are actually better writers than me. I’m enormously jealous of them because they have a grasp of the craft that I don’t. Most of them are much younger than me, haven’t been doing it very long, and generally have little self-esteem about it, which is tremendously unfortunate. So when I see these talented writers who have a gift, who are better than me, and they aren’t doing well or don’t know what to do, I’m put in a position where I want to help, but I’m also disheartened that they aren’t doing well when they’re trying. Vampires without fangs. Sorry, that should be illegal. Yes, we should pass a law that bans this practice. It’s literary rape and the poor vampires can’t defend themselves. I’m setting up a charity next week… People who try to explain away cliches by calling them something else. There’s a reason why it’s called a cliche. The Creationism people didn’t get away with changing their name to Intelligent Design. What makes you think you can get away with something similar? People who write science fiction, but refuse to acknowledge it (Margaret Atwood, I’m looking at you). If you wrote a science fiction novel, then that’s all there is to it. You wrote it. Accept it. Hell, even embrace it! Trying to pretend that your novel isn’t science fiction because it’s literary is about as intelligent as Bush trying to explain why OBGYNs aren’t allowed to share their love with women. There you have it! What about you? Any irksome things you can think of regarding other writers?
Top Ten Worst Science Fiction Shows
So, I’ve done a “best” and “overrated” list, so why not a “worst” list? I’ll be overly opinionated and base many of those opinions on limited exposure. So if you want to point out things like “well, maybe you should watch more of a show before you damn it” or “you don’t know what you’re talking about, XXX show is absolutely super duper awesome” you can hold your breath. If you want to launch a valid, well-thought argument against my choices, please do. I’m curious what people think so long as their opinions are not based on zealot-ish loyalty to a show. Here goes: Stargate AtlantisSorry, this show is absolute crap. That’s why it’s being cancelled. It blows, especially that really annoying guy who sounds like a weasel. Sorry, but Stargate had its run and it ended with SG1. Get over it. (I’ve seen an episode of this show and it was so terrible I tuned out) LostGilligan’s Island without the jokes. No thank you. I’d rather laugh than have to consider how stupid Lost is. Not to mention that any TV show that is so complex that you can’t jump in late and at least make some sort of sense of things really doesn’t deserve to be on a network station. Put it on HBO or something. Leave network TV to shows that matter. HeroesThis is the retarded version of X-men…you have Wolverine without claws, and now apparently there’s a guy that’s exactly like Magneto, only nowhere near as cool. So, instead of doing something really cool with the whole mutant thing, this show just showed us what it’s like to be the retarded cousin of the X-men and all their Marvel buddies. Oh, and there’s time travel and samurai swords, which might be the only redeeming things about this show. In fact, I think the whole show should just be about that Japanese guy. Oh and there are too many damned characters in this show for me to give a crap about (and that’s in the first season, when I stopped watching). BSG at least was intelligent enough to spread their character development accordingly. Mystery Science TheaterI already hate it when people talk, or even whisper, when they’re in the cinema, so why would I watch a show with puppets talking over a movie? I’ve seen it and it’s stupid. And I blame this show for creating a generation of assholes who talk in movie theaters…no, the rest of us don’t think your silly joke about Jessica Simpson’s breast size is funny…not even a little. Okay, maybe we think it is funny, but the fact that we’re pissed off that you’re even talking overrides that. Besides, this is sort of like Beavis & Butthead, only not nearly as funny. Knight Rider (the new one)Hollywood is retarded. Not only are they incapable, more often than not, of being remotely original, but they are also completely inadequate about doing something new and interesting with old concepts. The exception is Battlestar Galactica, which took a rather ridiculous show that was basically cheese in television form and revitalized it into one of the best shows ever made.Knight Rider, however, is an example of when Hollywood does wrong. The premiere gave us the old Knight Rider, as I remember it, with all the cheesiness that that entails, and tried to make it seem new with a flashy new KITT, a more modern setting, etc. And it failed. Instead, we were left with a show that seemed like it was going nowhere. Add to it that the Hoff has announced his refusal to have a cameo appearance and you know this show is doomed. I mean, come on, the Hoff won’t even be in it? The guy who made Baywatch, the sleaziest show to ever grace television won’t do this show and there are still people who think it will succeed? Right.. Star Trek DS9Okay, so it’s supposed to be Star Trek, but divergent from the standard by being about a bunch of people living on a space station in the middle of nowhere. The cast includes an anally retentive freakish man-thing that supposedly can change shape, a sleazy and cliche guy with enormous ears and bad teeth, and a handful of other characters that all fit into some sort of stereotype. Then you throw in that the show is mostly about…okay I have no idea what the show is about. It’s not that DS9 is a bad idea–in fact I would argue that it is a good idea, since it’s something that isn’t often done as far as science fiction ins concerned–it’s that it’s a Star Trek show. I know there were cool space battles here and there during DS9’s run, but I never saw it, and in all honesty they could have done so much with the concept. Maybe I’m wrong on this one, but I just couldn’t stand DS9. It put me to sleep and I think half of that was because I expected it to be like the other Star Trek stuff, or at least similar, but it wasn’t. AliasJennifer Garner’s Neanderthal forehead. I rest my case. Bionic Woman (new one)Okay, I tried to watch this one. It had its moments, but between it failing to do what BSG did successfully (re-imagining an older concept) and the rather obvious non-American-ness of the star (her accent came through in her acting is what I mean here) this show just sucked. Let’s also talk about the fact that the main character, who is supposed to be forced into working for this organization/government/whatever miraculously can slip away to meet people that probably think she’s dead, or should think she’s dead or missing, or whatever. Meh. Total Recall 2070It’s not that this show is necessarily horrible in the same way as others on this list. It’s visually a well done show and it certainly has a good concept. The problem is it just doesn’t do anything with those concepts. It’s an intentionally boring