SF

[W Knight]

Okay, I have to ask. With the introduction of Lightspeed as a companion magazine to Fantasy, have you ever considered, one day, creating a science fiction magazine in conjunction with BCS? I'd support it, and I'm sure a lot of other people would to.

[Scott H. Andrews]

I have not really considered starting an SF mag in the foreseeable future, no. For several reasons. BCS takes up pretty much all my time, reading, making the podcasts, and managing everything. I also don't know SF as well as I know fantasy--I'm not sure I could do as good a job.

I do think there is a gap in the current SF magazines. There isn't anyone publishing lots of "adventure SF" or science fantasy, stuff like sword & planet or Dune and things like that. But I don't know how much of a readership there is for that sort of stuff these days--SF seems to have gone more serious, and the fans of adventure-type SF/F seem to have switched to fantasy.

John Joseph Adams of Lightspeed told me last fall that he viewed them as an SF analog of BCS. I took that to mean that he thinks they will publish some more traditional-leaning SF, like how BCS publishes more traditional-leaning fantasy. So maybe they will do sword & planet and things like that--we'll see!

As for what lies beyond the foreseeable future, who knows. :)

[W Knight]

As for what lies beyond the foreseeable future, who knows. :)


Nice to hear it's not out of the question!

And I agree, there is definitely a gulf in the Science Fiction field at the moment as far as adventure SF goes. Hopefully Lightspeed remedies this. Not to say that the current zines aren't publishing great stories, though. Futurismic publishes some great stuff, as do many others. Still, it would be nice to have a little more variety.

[Scott H. Andrews]

And I agree, there is definitely a gulf in the Science Fiction field at the moment as far as adventure SF goes.
I miss the old "science fantasy," stuff like Jack Vance's Dying Earth or Dune. But I guess part of the "hardening" of SF was moving away from those things toward the much more rigorous ly scientific SF.

People talk about why fantasy has boomed but SF readership is down. I think that's one big reason.

[Unregistered]

"People talk about why fantasy has boomed but SF readership is down. I think that's one big reason."

Very few people seem to appreciate, understand, or even respect real life science, so I'm not sure why I'm surprised that very few people enjoy reading hard SF. But I am surprised; I just don't know why. Who can I blame? Horrendous public education and the lack of funding for science programs? Or do people just naturally lean toward romantic things? Or maybe the arts and humanities just have a better way of articulating their passions?

Whatever. I'm not hating. Can't say I'm not put off though.

*shrugs* To each their own, I guess.

I think there's a better reason why SF readership is down. I don't know why or like how everyone blames it on the hard SF guys. I think Western societies have just outgrown the optimism of it. Classic SF seemed to believe in all the possibilities of science and technology. They were right to believe in it, but their perspective was limited, and there was no way they could have known how science would have changed the world, nor could they have known about the places it wouldn't be able to reach. In the new era, we know that technology can't fix everything, and while there are still a lot of angles to explore, many of us seem to be too comfortable with tech and science and nature, to the point of taking them all for granted. Volcano erupts in Iceland, and the news can only talk about how frustrated people are in airports. Their frustration is understandable, but did we all of a sudden forget that volcanoes existed? Did we forget that nature can still kick our asses? Yes, I think we did.

Also, hard SF appeals to people with science backgrounds. People with science backgrounds tend to be more interested in real science than SF. So. There's that too.

[Scott H. Andrews]

That's a great post. I'm a scientist, so it's an issue close to me. If I can find a minute at some point, I'll post a reply. :)