Science fiction: a dying genre?Follow

Ofcourse, now I'm talking about books. Although there also isn't really an abundance of television series that can be seen as science fiction. Sure, Battlestar Galactica is pretty big but that's done this season and is a remake to begin with. Stargate is big too, but that got started well over ten years ago. Still going strong with Stargate Atlantis but not new anymore.

Doctor Who? About the oldest still running televsion series out there, even if there were huge gaps in continuity as it has been stopped for quite a long time before the recent new series. Torchwood, that's new. Also quite bad so I won't count it as one. (as always, just imo!)

Living in Europe, and Belgium to boot, that does mean that if there are new shows, we're the last country on earth to see them. Star Trek Enterprise was never even shown in full, BSG has only begun after the third season started, forget Firefly completely. The BBC used to be trustworthy and picked up shows pretty quickly, but those days seem to be gone I'ld say.


No, what I wanted to start a thread on was literature. In the "glory days" (a relative term naturally, all depends on personal taste), well known and great authors were in large supply. Ever since the eighties and nineties, the number decreases rather rapidly. Asimov, Heinlein, ****, C. Clark, Wyndham (granted, he's been dead for a long time now), Zelazny, Vonnegut,... Vance and Moorcock, perhaps Gibson, would seem to me to be the last large names that deal with science fiction out there.

My biggest worry would be that I can only name a few younger science fiction authors, and none that have the renown of the ones above. Sure, everyone started out young and unknown though. For instance John C. Wright has a very good trilogy with The Golden Age and has written a fair amount of books so far. If not for a fellow poster on a different site, I'ld never have heard of him.

Ofcourse, problem partially would be the media and publishers, definitely in local areas. As a different poster here can confirm, not always easy to find fantasy or science fiction books translated here, always the problem with being a fairly small language market. And without a decent publishing company finding good new material, it's not always easy to roam for instance amazon for new authors. The current focus here would be fantasy, only logical given the huge attention around Lord of the Rings, Narnia and Harry Potter, when the target market is small aim on what will sell and take little chances.

I'm to blame as well though, I've always been lazy and have stuck with the known writers. Ofcourse, now that supply has run dry, I'll have to look elsewhere.

So, anyone out there know good new writers? Is the genre gone, or has it changed into something I can't really compare anymore with what used to be released? Am I exaggerating?

Kate Elliott has some good series. Her new one is pretty good and the second book to the series just came out.

Crossroads
Spirit Gate
Shadow Gate

Thanks for the links! Looks good, I'll have to keep it in mind when I finally finish that Faery Wars book! That is fantasy though, I'm looking for the more traditional science fiction.

It does sound pretty good, going to have to start a long list.

No equivalent unfortunately, there are a couple of sites out there but either outdated (for instance I've seen a local magazine presenting three year old books or older as brand new) or just not as the books aren't getting translated.


There's a big booksale later this month, I'll be sure to look for all the authors mentioned here, there should be a decent English section too.

And I'll definitely check for Hamilton then!

I've read a large portion of the SW books, but I've lost interest with the Legacy of the Force series.

The Thrawn trilogy was very good, I'm a bit divided still on the whole New Jedi series. Sure, it wasn't all bad and even main characters can't live forever, but it lasted too long.


Thanks for the other tips! I've got several Crichton books, but none that I like to be honest; I prefer his movies (although Timeline was bad imo book and movie)

Mike Sheppard - Kris Longknife series. I'm really enjoying the story line and just finally bought the very first one so now I get to go back and read the whole thing from the beginning.

I also enjoy Elizabeth Moon. I just finished Trading In Danger and it was pretty good but the ending sucked.

All of those people are awesome(especially S.M. Sterling) but, you left out the master...Harry Turtledove. If you haven't heard of him, I suggest you read Guns Of The South, How Few Remain, and In The Presence Of Mine Enemies. I also suggest you check out the 1632 series by Eric Flint.

I personally don't think that Sci-fi is dying, I just think that's it's starting to shift more towards alternate history and time travel related books.

Could be, I'ld have to track down the writers mentioned on this thread first to know it.

Neither topic were unknown to older generations though, Wells used time travel, my personal favourite Asimov book is about time travel as well (End of Eternity).

Is anyone writing spaceship travel epic galactic empire novels anymore?

My guess is that as space travel seems less and less realistic authors are moving to the more plausible: the extensions of biotech.

Could be this century will be the great biotech revolution as earlier ones were more based in traditional physics. If so, we seem well armed with literature to inspire and warn us.

Perhaps a better topic for my thread here would have been how science fiction has altered. Seems like I just miss out on a lot of good writers, still alive even, in part by lack of translation and also in part by my own layziness.

To answer the first part of the thread I think looking at the life of one of the big hardcore scifi writers like Arthur C. Clarke shows a great barometer of the whole genre. He is dead now but even as late as Jan of this year he published prequel to the 2001 book. I think science fiction reading is not dead but is over shadowed by our general society wanting "quick" entertainment with movies and big epics like Star Wars instead of in the written word. The authors are still out there but books just dont get advertising like that did.

Now since it was talked later about newier writers. I am waiting for Nancy Kress new book to come out "Dogs". She is part of Science Fiction class of 1990 and has lot of fresh novels and short stories in her library. Not totally new but part of the group to raplace the likes of Asimov and Clarke now that they are gone.

(Great thread btw)

Peter F Hamilton, Alistair Reynolds. epic stuff.


This. I read the Nights Dawn Triology. Freakn awesome. talk about epic space drama, pretty much over shadowed star wars for me.
He also wrote something about terraforming and corporate tyranny in the future. 'Dragonfall' i think.


True, couldnt read it at first. Came back a year later in the mindset for it and loved it. bit dry though compared to Peter Hamiltons Books..but the scientific detail is awesome.



Wow I want to read this. sounds great. Reminds me of a quintet of books that follow a group of people through a new kind of cyberspace. written by the same guy who made Imagika...clive barker?

Edited, Jun 5th 2008 9:31pm by airtonix