Sci-fi reading and writing, part one…
[Note: This article is the first part of a three-part series on the topic of reading and writing sci-fi. In part two, I’ll discuss some non-fiction sci-fi reading—is that possible? You can find out why I think the answer is yes. In part three, I’ll talk about my solution to my sci-fi blues—writing a new sci-fi novel that’s also a rom-com.]
Maybe readers have noted that I haven’t reported on reading a good sci-fi book lately (such reports are often called reviews [chuckle], especially when I like the book). The truth is, I’ve already scraped the bottom of the barrel. Maybe I’m just asking too much, but the sci-fi published today is mostly drivel and/or techno-babble, even the Hugos. The threshold a novel must cross to make me buy a sci-fi novel might be too high, I’ll admit—being a sci-fi writer myself creates that high threshold—but I don’t think so. Let me state what I think is going on—you can always go after me for my hubris in your comments to this post. I accept that your opinions and tastes might differ.
I grew up during the golden era of sci-fi: Asimov, Heinlein, and many others were already well-established novelists, and their novels usually seemed to be reasonable albeit surprising extrapolations of current science and technology. Both Hogan and Pohl considered black holes in their Giants and HeeChee trilogies, respectively (they’re still a subject of scientific inquiry), while the first-named authors were ex-scientists like I am now (with all his pop sci works, Asimov was arguably always a scientist). Theodore Sturgeon, probably more famous now for Sturgeon’s Law (google it), invented the idea of spread-spectrum communications, and Atwood, Bradbury, Dick, Kornbluth, and many others pointed out the sociological dangers of how autocrats can exploit science and technology to further their evil agendas. Some of these novels are being reborn in streaming-video spectaculars that, for all their glitz and special effects, are faded shadows of the original stories.
That golden age of sci-fi has passed, its fantastic authors often considered dinosaurs, and new authors are offering us new sci-fi stories. Most of those stories can’t compare to those of the golden age, though, because first, the writers haven’t read those classic sci-fi tales; second, don’t have the background or skills to write new ones, and third, have been influenced too much by fantasy movies from Hollywood posing as good sci-fi.
Space opera and militaristic sci-fi dominate now—the first is often too close to fantasy, the second often a hidden celebration of nationalism, but making military campaigns against ET armies (Niven and Pournelle’s Footfall is a prime example)—so much so that the central theme of a novel all too often seems like a slap in the face to good sci-fi (I’m guilty of using that militaristic theme myself in some parts of The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection, but, in my defense, there are good ETs fighting with us against the bad ETs, and these parts aren’t fantasy like the Star Wars movies).
And now we come to the usual suspects for the downturn in sci-fi quality—indeed, for the downturn in reading material in general—the Big Five. Sci-fi novels tend to be long. While agents and acquisitions editors often call that verbosity or excess narrative, world-building is required. But some novels are still published, and the Big Five takes advantage of everybody and slaps a huge price on the book, calling it “epic” or a “saga,” code words for overblown verbosity describing real or fake science (Weir’s The Martian is an example—you can learn in excruciating detail how to grow potatoes in your own crap). Moreover, authors with more original stories never get past the slush-pile.
I won’t pay a lot of money for any book, especially Big Five sci-fi that’s poor or boring sci-fi. I don’t care what hype the Big Five apply in their marketing (I never pay attention to hype anyway—what the hell do critics or ad people know?) To be fair, agents and acquisitions editors haven’t read classic sci-fi, so they’re at least ignorant as ignorant as Big Five publishers, if not more so, and don’t know what “good sci-fi” even means.
But all that’s true of self-published authors too. It seems like everyone who’s watched Star Trek (generally bad science) or Star Wars (bad fantasy and no science) thinks she or he can write a sci-fi novel. In fact, most sci-fi writers write the same kind of schlock that some of us watch in TV shows and Hollywood movies. While some sci-fi readers are techies and scientists looking for good sci-fi novels, they usually don’t write novels. In these times of demanding deadlines and scarce funding (scarcer with each passing day as the Trump administration cuts science budgets and campaigns against science), these wannabe readers are too busy doing their work, let alone become sci-fi writers. That’s not a new problem, but it’s getting worse.
There are still a few sci-fi writers who write novels with sound extrapolations of current science and technology, but they’re often ponderous, boring, and lacking the necessary elements that make a good story. The 2015 Hugo winner Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem is a case in point (I stopped reading Hugos a while ago for the reasons given, but that boring book was an impetus…and the last one)—Liu’s book has almost nothing to do with the three-body problem, by the way, so I consider it a complete swindle. It’s only positive quality is that it taught me some more about the Cultural Revolution in China. The book is mostly half-baked magic that reminds be of bad fantasy, not good sci-fi. And it’s probably a rapprochement nod to that autocratic government that, after COVID-19, has caused so much pain for its citizens and the world at large.
Maybe I’m just an old writer who’s out of touch and ODing on nostalgia? I can’t find good sci-fi novels anymore. That’s why I’m reading more mystery and thriller novels now. But I’m still looking for good sci-fi books! Any suggestions? (Warning: I peruse many of them on Amazon and rapidly forget about them.)
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Comments are always welcome.
The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection. For the extrapolations of current theories, this bundled trilogy contains a superstring drive to provide the appearance of FTL travel, allowing one to jump between universes of the metaverse. Humans first encounter with ETs is with intelligent beings they call Rangers who communicate by telling elaborate stories via spread spectrum signals. But this trilogy is really a bow to Isaac Asimov—it even has my version of the Mule in the third novel. Available in .mobi (Kindle) ebook format at Amazon, and in all ebook formats at Smashwords and its affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc.) and lending and library services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Gardners, etc.). Enjoy!
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
