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The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
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The State of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Urban Steam
November 6th, 2010
When I was a kid (yeah, I’m feeling like an old fart today), science fiction was Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, and Frederick Pohl’s Gateway. Asimov still had his robots running around, even if Heinlein’s efforts seemed less about space travel and more about making it with his mother. On the fantasy side, which I also read a lot of, Lord of the Rings was lord and king, while derivative but more accessible versions like The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks were prominently displayed everywhere. It was space on one side, and medieval style quest fantasies on the other.
When I go to cons or bookstores these days, it’s quite a different story. There weren’t a lot of book sellers at the most recent con I attended, but the ones that were there had limited selections both on the science fiction side and on the fantasy side.
This will come as news to few out there, but on the science fiction side steampunk has started it’s engines and seems to be dominant. I’ve read very few books I’d consider steampunk, although a few have steampunk elements (e.g. the excellent Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson). There are plenty of lists out there to get started. Here’s one. Here’s another. Yet another.
I DON’T LIKE VICTORIAN STYLE AND SETTING! I’ll endure it once in a while, but I never go, “Oh boy, Victorians!” I will recognize and enjoy a good story IN SPITE of these elements. I will not seek them out for it. Maybe I had to read one too many books like Pride and Prejudice or something, but I got turned off to a culture that has such artificial social constructs. And old technology? OLD. I want NEW. The Diamond Age may have had Victorian elements, but they got consumed by the changing world in that book just like they did in ours.
OK, this is threatening to become a rant. Maybe I’ll do some more reading of some of the “best of” steampunk and come back to this topic again, either with a title like “Why I Hate Steampunk” or “Learning to Love Steampunk.”
The dominant fantasy trend of urban fantasy has been obvious more longer, and it seems to slay immediately most competition. I’ve probably read more urban fantasy than steampunk. I view it as easy, escapist reading, similar to how I viewed more traditional fantasy reading. With a few notable exceptions like Glimpses by Lew Shiner, Replay by Ken Grimwood, or A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin, I haven’t regularly found in fantasy life-changing works. I have found great entertainment and hours of excitement, plenty to be worth the price of admission. Like steampunk, there are plenty of lists of must-reads in urban fantasy. Here’s one. Here’s another. A third. Be warned: these come not in novels, but in series of novels. Twilight is probably the most currently obvious one.
I like both, but love neither. I hate to let myself fall prey to age and failing to move to the next great thing when the thing is obviously great, but…are these obviously great?
I think steampunk is a fad, and will resume niche status at some point.
I think urban fantasy is here to stay, although it may evolve somewhat. I’ve always been shocked that people haven’t tired of vampires. Werewolves and zombies, and hunters of all three, also seem to be proof against time.
OK, sure, you can still find science fiction set in the future, in space, with robots that don’t run on steam. It’s just a little harder. And you can still find plenty of quest fantasies, usually with dragons on the cover (nearly as proof against time as vampires), but they’re harder to find, too.
Well, if ballroom dancing can come back to be hugely popular, I suppose anything can. I just hope that when spaceships are again shooting into hyperspace more regularly, disco isn’t the theme music.
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Disco? Where were you in the 70s, dude? Bowie was the soundtrack of my life back then (probably always will be, *sigh*.)
Like you, I worry that it is a function of age that convinces me that nothing truly exciting is happening in sci-fi any more (or in pop music!) There are still some excellent sci-fi writers (Kim Stanley Robinson, Alastair Reynolds, etc.) but where are the new ideas? The last big innovation in the genre was probably cyberpunk (and it’s 30 yeas since that term was coined!) All the x-punk senres since then have been boring – especially steampunk (which is usually just fantasy with a few cogs and pipes anyway.)
One concern is that all the great stuff is happening in media outside literature (games, movies, TV) and I’m just missing it. Another is that the best sci-fi is being written in other genres (techno-thrillers, literary fiction, or whatever) that I don’t read much.
Then there are the possibilities that science is now ‘too hard’ for most readers (and writers), that science now is so much like magic to ordinary people that you might as well just read fantasy, that scientism has had its day and science no longer gives people hope for the future, that the reality of the staggering costs of getting into space and beyond the solar system has finally dawned on everyone and that kind of future no longer looks viable, or that the problems we have right here and right now make future speculation seem somehow academic.
Whatever it is, I’m seeing a big decline in the genre as evidenced by the number of agents and publishers willing to handle it.
Yeah, back in the 70s Bowie was the Changes I could believe in, too!
There was this sort of short-lived “New Space Opera” movement recently, if you could call it that. Still some breath in it, but not as much as I’d like. Sometimes some science, too, but not as much as I’d like. Of the stuff that can fall into this category, I guess Scalzi’s Old Man’s War books are probably the biggest sellers. I like those well enough. Some game tie-ins like the HALO novelizations sell pretty well, too.
Still, this was not what I saw at the last con.
Well, here’s to getting old and fighting a war in space with Scalzi someday…
I also don’t like this new wave of Steampunk. I used to like a few works, like the Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, now you see it everywhere! It seems that the younger people think Steampunk is googles.
[…] The State of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Urban Steam […]
I stay far away from steampunk and urban fantasy. Especially, urban fantasy. Unfortunately, this eliminates about 80% of the “SF/F” book section. It’s pain to even look for SF in the SF section.
Well, technically Pride and Prejudice is not victorian…
Aside from this, I agree with you. I don’t find NEW in urban fantasy or steampunk. They don’t give me the sense of wonder SF or fantasy can offer. At best, 2 or 3 writers manage to make me interested in their characters but the setting let me cold.
Victorian or not, I’ve no fascination with 19th century England as a setting or cultural backdrop for my reading pleasure these days. Been there, done that, want something NEW, just like you, too.
I have been a huge fan of SFF all my life but for the past few years have mostly read urban fantasy because I want the escapism. You don’t even need to look to agents/publishers to see the decline. It’s apparent from the scarcity of new titles each month and the reprinting of old “classic” titles. You mention the link to Charlie Stross rant about steampunk but an excellent summary has been done at Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf where he has collected various retorts to the issue from Cherie Priest and Catherynn Valente and more. It’s worth a look.
Thanks for the head’s up about that summary, Doug. Worth the read.