New Year, Few Prospects: The Science Fiction Blues

On many occasions over the past five-six years I've had the feeling: Speculiction is winding down. This blog, which clearly does not exist for the Benjamins, is purely a hobby. On the About page, I describe it as a means of exercising a language I rarely have the opportunity to use to its fullest. That is 100% true. But I also must have a topic to exercise with, and for the past sixteen years, that topic was speculative fiction, then video games, then board games, then... Nothing. Nothing new. A person only has so much time, and so many hobbies.

Another thing that is finite (although it doesn't feel that way the past decade) is speculative fiction titles.

Over the past sixteen years, I have explored a vast-vast amount of what we might call senior speculative fiction—books and writers published before 2000. I've read 1,155 books published prior to the millennium, the overwhelming majority being science fiction and fantasy. It's a lot. What's more, every year the feeling gets stronger the amount is approaching comprehensive. Which is where the seed for this blog post takes root.

Up until 2018, I kept a spreadsheet mapping every book nominated for and winning major and minor speculative fiction awards—Locus to Philip K. Dick, Hugo to Sidewise, etc., etc. (The gods know speculative fiction has a victim mentality made up for by... more awards.) There were 20+ awards I tracked. After reading a book, I would check if it was nominated/awarded, mark my score, and move on. Vice versa, I would sometimes use the lists for inspiration—the next book purchase for a recognized title. More often than not I discovered mediocrity exploring titles in this fashion, but often enough a true gem would emerge. The number of gems is dwindling.

I recount the spreadsheet as, by 2018 I had read somewhere around two-thirds of the titles in the awards lists, and of the remaining third, most were uninteresting. Read one Lois McMaster Bujold and you've read them all. ___Enter Author Name Here___ and repeat. There is no need to beat your head against a wall when you're 100% sure Robert J. Sawyer is not going to suddenly produce the Great Canadian Novel. And I did not confine myself strictly to awards. I was reading a lot beyond, as well. There are innumerable resources for discovering sf of yesteryear. Probably only half of what I read was associated with awards.

This is all a long way of saying, I've read most of the speculative fiction published before 2000 that is of interest, and hundreds and hundreds of titles published in the decades, since. There are still several authors, dead and alive, whose oeuvre I'm interested in finishing, but by and large, if there is a notable sf book from the 20th century, I've probably read it. Couple that with the firehose of politicized fiction being published today, and my reading interest is waning. (If you're wondering why I stopped tracking awards in 2018, that is why.)

To go back to the beginning of the post, my speculative fiction journey is evolving. I don't think the journey will ever end. There will always be a new book to read. But the outlook is significantly diminished compared to the sixteen+ years ago when the blog kicked off. Most of the interesting material is now sitting on the 'finished' shelf, and the current cultural climate, while likewise diminishing, is not likely to give way to non-partisan fiction in the near future. I'm forced to take a hard look at the situation—the speculative fiction blues. Keep reading and writing? Do a re-read project? Strap on a helmet and dive head-first into the fuzzy world of contemporary speculative fiction—romantasy, cozy fantasy, workshopped fantasy, litrpg, and all? Do something different? <drum roll> Produce a top-ten list or two? I've withheld such opinion due to the fact I hate Youtubers who read ten books and make a top ten list—GREATEST FANTASY OF ALL TIME!!! I hadn't consumed enough contenders to feel my lists would approach comprehension, but such is not the case anymore... Maybe?

Looking ahead, there will likely not be any major change in Speculiction content in 2026 and beyond. I keep reading and tapping away. But going forward, the curmudgeon in me will likely rear its ugly head more often—like this post. The world weary tone of I've seen all that shit kids. If you look at 1963... will increasingly show its face. But who knows, maybe I'll strike upon an interesting way of re-contextualizing the 2,108 posts—2,108 posts—blogger tells me are on Speculiction. Top 10s are the low road; maybe there is a high road? A middle road? Another road?