Comments on: Are We at the End of Science Fiction?

By: jordan

jordan — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:32:30 +0000

My favourite is God rejecting Nietzche, but they were all very good!

By: jordan

jordan — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:29:15 +0000

Hi Don, thanks for dropping by the blog. I’ve gotta say, I admire your segue

By: Don

Don — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:24:40 +0000

Speaking of rejections (argh!), you may enjoy our collection of “Classic Rejection Notices.” Go to Bewildering Stories and click on “Readers’ Guide.” A random selection appears toward the bottom of the page, between our Unofficial and Official Mottoes. There are 23 of them; to see them all, you’ll have to refresh the page a bunch of times. And we’re always on the lookout for more.

The one from the Chinese economics journal is by far the funniest, even more than the one for Marcel Proust, but the one for Anne Frank is so sad I may… reject it.

Don Webb
Managing Editor
Bewildering Stories

By: jordan

jordan — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:07:11 +0000

Thanks, Gay!

This blog is mainly focused on the sci-fi and fantasy markets, since that’s what I focus on, but it’s also home to more than my share of rants. Turns out I’m an ornery curmudgeon. At 33! I’m aging before my time…

By: gay degani

gay degani — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:51:07 +0000

Jordan! I just discovered your very cool site. Have to admit I haven’t read everything yet, but wanted to let you know how very cool it is!

By: Jordan Lapp

Jordan Lapp — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Really? I quite enjoyed “Rainbow’s End by Verner Vinge”. As usual, with his stuff you have to get past the “hump” of character building, then you can’t put the book down.

By: Ty

Ty — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:02:28 +0000

I’d like to see an epic heroic fantasy that’s Hugo quality.

That being said, the last few Hugo and/or Nebula (and even Pulitzer) winners I’ve read didn’t do much for me.

By: Jordan

Jordan — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:10:14 +0000

Idea driven SF will be with us for a long time, but not in the short fiction market. It’s gotta be character driven to succeed these days. Asimov’s submission guidelines specifically asks for that, despite the fact that Asimov himself wrote idea-driven fiction. He even admitted that in a choice between character and idea, character has to go.

The fact that those publishers rejected Booker Prize winners just goes to show you that you need to research your publishers. I mean, don’t send your epic heroic fantasy novel to Baen’s, even if it’s Hugo quality–they just won’t publish it.

By: Ty

Ty — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:41:37 +0000

Even Moby Dick didn’t sell well during Melville’s lifetime. It was only a few decades after his death that it became the classic it is today, and then mostly due to far-too-late interests by critics and literary writers.

I think idea-driven SF will be around for a long time, but I think it’s definitely harder to write now than even 20 or 30 years ago. I believe science and technology in ideas and fact have come so far that’s it’s extremely difficult to come up with new ideas for these type of stories.

Anymore I just “pshaw” when I hear about the death of speculative fiction or of short story markets. Yes, yes, they’re dying, dying, dying. They’re always dying. I’ve been hearing this for 20 years or more. I’m sure it was heard by Poe and Howard and Welles and probably even Homer.

By: Silviamg

Silviamg — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 07:06:51 +0000

Yep. Things change. Somebody sent a Jane Austen novel to publishers and it was also rejected. I’m sure a ton of books would be rejected nowadays. I’m also sure books that did very well years ago will sell very poorly today.