{"id":2835,"date":"2011-08-17T02:16:34","date_gmt":"2011-08-16T23:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tentaclii.wordpress.com\/?p=2835"},"modified":"2011-08-17T02:16:34","modified_gmt":"2011-08-16T23:16:34","slug":"current-trends-in-fantasysf-publishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2011\/08\/17\/current-trends-in-fantasysf-publishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Current trends in fantasy\/SF publishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bull-o-meter nudges the top end of the scale in some of the opening publisher quotes in The Library Journal<\/em>‘s new cover article on the fantasy\/SF renaissance<\/a>. But otherwise it’s an interesting survey of the ‘big publisher’ trends in the mad scramble from Sept to Xmas. The highlights… <\/p>\n

* Gritty ‘dark fantasy’ infiltrates the sort of over-padded fantasy epics that you can stop a door with. But who wants to slog through a 3,000 page trilogy full of ‘grim’, in the current climate? <\/p>\n

* A new trend for historical\/fantasy desert settings, Arabian Nights<\/em> style. Interesting. I could imagine a lot of Lovecraftian elements could creep in there, if done well. There’s certainly a lot<\/em> of public domain material to mine for authentic descriptions and background.<\/p>\n

* Growth “in the male urban fantasy market”. That sub-genre must have completely passed me by. Sounds like it’s a 20-something target market, for guys afraid their manhood will shrivel up and fall off if they read about faeries and elves?<\/p>\n

* Authors who write about zombies are moving them into political satire and comedy. Best place for them. They’re such dull<\/em> monsters, the only thing left to do is poke fun at them.<\/p>\n

* Steampunk continues to flounder about looking for fresh settings and twists, judging from the article. <\/p>\n

* New galactic-spanning space adventures have become very rare, as 50-something SF authors churn in a mire of near-future gloom and angst. Publishers will be republishing their old “upbeat” space epics, to compensate.<\/p>\n

* There’s a gap in the market for smart optimistic young-adult hard SF, which will increase as the economic recovery starts.<\/p>\n

The biggest news is probably that Neal Stephenson is back with a new novel, Reamde<\/em>, in September. It’s another 1000-page doorstopper. I don’t mind the size and I really enjoyed Anathem<\/em> — but it seems that Reamde<\/em> is more like Cryptonomicon<\/em> which while gripping was forgettable. No news of any new book from Stephen Baxter, sadly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bull-o-meter nudges the top end of the scale in some of the opening publisher quotes in The Library Journal‘s …<\/p>\n

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