Science Fiction vs Fantasy

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Space Angel.
Adam Strange.
Brick Bradford.
Rip Hunter.

Space Ghost.
The Herculoids.
Johnny Quest.
Doc Savage.
Perry Rhodan.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Space Ghost.
The Herculoids.
Johnny Quest.
Doc Savage.
Perry Rhodan.

Not Perry Rhodan.
The numbers on the covers scared me. I figured the series was too far gone to catch up.
Hanna Barbera did some fun adventure shows back in the day.

On the other hand, when it comes to pulps, I was around for the early Mack Bolan. (Passed on the Destroyer, though the movie was fun.)

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Not Perry Rhodan.
The numbers on the covers scared me. I figured the series was too far gone to catch up.
Hanna Barbera did some fun adventure shows back in the day.

On the other hand, when it comes to pulps, I was around for the early Mack Bolan. (Passed on the Destroyer, though the movie was fun.)

Good choice to skip it, especially if you're at all politically Left or Center. First 50 or so books were great, but once the ghost writers came in after Richard Sapir's death, it just got worse and worse politically - to the point where it seems almost like the second-last ghost writer, Jim Mullaney, was outright worshipping Bush in one of his final books, and anything even vaguely Left was a target for his hate. Tim Somheil, the final ghost writer, was far more balanced politically - but Warren Murphy, who created The Destroyer with Richard Sapir, didn't like it. He took back the license from Gold Eagle [a Harlequin imprint, aren't they?] and managed to go two volumes on his reboot before it disappeared completely since, unlike Gold Eagle books, bookstores weren't carrying it (but are still carrying Mack Bolan, The Executioner, Stony Man, Deathlands and Outlanders).

[Freeshadow]

Originally Posted by theducks

Science has caught up with the Fiction , That leaves only Magik

Alchemy was half chemistry half crappy rituals.
Magic is half psi half crappy rituals.
Quantum physics is on its way to prove that.

Originally Posted by Catlady

Romance IS the genre.

Nah, romance is a subyet of contemporary fantasy

Originally Posted by AndrewH

My guess is it has something to do with a return to childhod, a revisiting of the fairy tales we grew up.

I'm an exception then. Read contemporary historical and travel adventure YA and classics as a kid.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Agreed: SF has always been the chihuahua of literature, which occasionally grows to the size of a Jack Russell before shrinking back to chihuahua size (which is where we are right now).

It's possible, though, that the shakeup being caused by tightening budgets and the impact the Internet is having on access and marketing may change the dynamic enough to allow SF to grow more than it ever has before. If SF figures out how to crack the marketing code, we may see it grow to... oh, maybe terrier-size in the future.

Which time period do you think about? Locus statistics does not seem to support this. E.g:

From the 1980s until 2000, by the Locus figures, the numbers of new fantasy and SF titles were about the same. Then the number of fantasy titles published began to steadily increase, while the SF titles stayed the same. I suspect the success of the Harry Potter and similar series are partly responsible for this.

[caleb72]

I started as a young child on classic adventures - Twain, Stevenson, Verne. These were abridged versions for younger readers. Then I moved heavily into fantasy territory and enjoyed my stay there immensely during the teenage/early adult years.

However, although I still have an active interest in fantasy, it's much more specific than it used to be and several pretty well known authors won't even get a blink from me. At the same time, I've developed a stronger interest in Sci-Fi in general. In fact, I think what happened was that I started getting tired of the more "traditional" or "epic" fantasy trilogies and started casting around for something new. I found Steampunk and New Weird and started experimenting with Sci-Fi starting with Cyberpunk and spreading out into Space Opera.

Now I enjoy Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Sci-Fi in general and more...

I too feel that Fantasy and Horror have become diluted somewhat by Paranormal Romance, but them's the breaks I guess. It just means I have to search a bit harder to find what I want. Others complain about the rise of Dystopian fiction, but I love me some grim. Swings and roundabouts.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I started as a young child on classic adventures - Twain, Stevenson, Verne.

So did I. Twain not so much, though; but Verne, oh yes. And the Tom Swift books. Somewhat later John Christopher (the 'Tripods'-trilogy) and Doc Savage.

Ah, to be that young again

[DrNefario]

I believe I'd been mainly a fantasy reader for many years before I started my current task of reading all the Hugo winners, which got me back into SF a bit more, but I'm having real trouble remembering what it was that I was actually reading. I guess I must have started and abandoned a lot of bad trilogies.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Not Perry Rhodan.
The numbers on the covers scared me. I figured the series was too far gone to catch up.

I always did feel like I was missing a lot with that series... especially since I never caught consecutive books at my local bookstores. After awhile, I stopped seeing them on the shelves, and stopped looking.

[GreenMonkey]

I was historically a sci-fi fan - but I haven't been into it much in years.

Classically I'm mostly a fan of Asimov with a little Arthur C Clarke and Heinlein scattered in...without Asimov I haven't been big on the genre lately.

Clarke's co-written books haven't been as good as his older stuff to me.

Minus Orson Scott Card (and I hate to give him money) I don't think there's even a modern sci-fi writer I keep an eye out for books from.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

I don't think there's even a modern sci-fi writer I keep an eye out for books from.

Have you sampled James P. Hogan?
Forward?
Cherryh?
Or, Bujold?
Niven+Pournelle?

The Asimovian school is still going strong.

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Have you sampled James P. Hogan?
Forward?
Cherryh?
Or, Bujold?
Niven+Pournelle?

The Asimovian school is still going strong.

Avoid anything by James P. Hogan that isn't "Inherit the Stars", "The Gentle Giants of Ganymede", and "Giants' Star". Turns out that he wasn't all that great after that.

[starrigger]

Originally Posted by AndrewH

My guess is it has something to do with a return to childhood, a revisiting of the fairy tales we grew up.

You may be right about that.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I just hate that I have to go to four separate sections to find all the Terry Pratchett at my library. There's one in PBSF, one in Fantasy, some in Fiction and some in the Children's section. Good grief, it's all Discworld. In my library everything would be Fiction by author or Non-Fiction by author. Don't get me started that alphabetically some sections are left to right and in other's it is right to left. It's a wonder I can find anything in the library some days.

Overall there's good stuff and crap in every splinter genre we want to come up with.

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Have you sampled James P. Hogan?
Forward?
Cherryh?
Or, Bujold?
Niven+Pournelle?

The Asimovian school is still going strong.

I'll try a couple, thanks for the recommendations. I've got a Cherryh book on my wish list (don't think I've read any in a decade or so), I'm familiar with Larry Niven (can't remember if I've read any of his or not). I'll check out the others.