SF has becoem popular with movies, but not books. People would rather watch it than read it, which is shame personally as I love a good SF as much as I love a good Fanatsy book.
Ray said years ago he had an idea for an SF book or series, but because the market has moved towards Fantasy, his publisher will buy it/publish it. Yes, I know there's other publishers, but it wouldn't be good for Ray's business relationship with his publisher if he did that. Anestis. On 12 December 2013 08:16, Alexis Duprey <[email protected]> wrote: > Dang, I meant "who wouldn't love Amos Trask: The Space Pirate" Never using > my tablet again. :) Anyway, I'd love to read a SF book written by Ray, but > mostly because I'd like him to do something new and exciting. New > characters in a new world with new enemies and burdens to face. That's why > I'm so excited about War of Five Crowns. Maybe one day when SF is popular > again we can see him write an awesome space epic. Time will tell. > > > On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 4:03 PM, Christopher Grouse < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> I've noticed that the genre has leant toward the fantasy side rather than >> SF (I'm not going to demean it by calling if 'sci fi'), over the last few >> years I've enjoyed SF by Jack Campbell and David Feintuch, both of which I >> discovered by accident. Also the Asimov, Julian May and Arthur C Clarke >> stuff is awesome! >> It IS a shame, as SF still has so much to offer the reader, and it does >> make a change from the fantasy stuff too. For me, I don't care that science >> has proved some of the older works of SF wrong or made some things sound >> silly or even made SF less interesting through technological progress, if >> the book is well written and has deep and interesting characters, then I'll >> read any of it, even HG Wells or Jules Verne. >> >> Ray, speaking of licensed stuff, have you come across any of the >> Warhammer 40k SF books in the USA? My friend got me into these, I started >> with a series of books called 'The Horus Heresy', which is an ongoing >> series by various authors, all based around the history of the 40k >> universe, very action packed and quite dark and violent, but thoroughly >> good books with great characters and an epic plot. I didn't even know that >> the books were based on the Warhammer Role playing games until another >> friend told me... >> >> >> Chris G >> >> >> Sent from my iPad >> >> > On 11 Dec 2013, at 18:50, "Raymond Feist/New ATT" < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> > >> > >> >> On Dec 11, 2013, at 10:13 AM, Barry Ruck <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> >> >> It is strange as I love SF, and still see some amateur writers putting >> it >> >> out. So just when did the market change ? Any ideas ? >> > >> > It's started in the 1980s. Phil Farmer's Gods of Riverworld didn't >> rise to the numbers of the early titles. The Dayworld series didn't rise >> to that level. Frank Herbert died in '86. Robert Heinlein died in '88. >> Asimov in '92. So the real heavy hitters in terms of bestsellers left >> us. Kim Stanley Robinson and William Gibson wrote very successful works >> and hit lists, but they didn't have the longevity. More over, licensed >> works (Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.) were pushing midlist authors out of the >> big houses into Baen, Ace, DAW, etc. >> > >> > At the same time fantasy was rising quickly. Terry Brooks and Stephen >> Donaldson were already rising when I joined in and for a while the three of >> us were ripping up the best seller lists. Jim Rigney (Robert Jordan) was >> doing Conan novels and in 1990 published the first Wheel of Time and he >> joined in. By the time George R. R. Martin left TV after 9 years and >> returned to prose writing with A Game of Thrones, Robert Salvatori, Tracy >> Hickman, Margaret Weis, and a dozen others had become very popular. >> > >> > So, the growth in fantasy arrived in sync with the decline in science >> fiction in the marketplace. >> > >> > Part of the problem is that real life science made a lot of science >> fiction less "wow." You read E.E. "Doc" Smith's Skylark or Lensmen stuff >> and it's "quaint" because most of the science in it is just wrong based on >> what we know how. It's fun, like reading old H. Ridder Hagarrd stuff about >> "darkest Africa," but it's just wrong. When someone wrote about 2013 back >> in the 1960s you start giggling when they have a character looking for a >> "telephone booth," or reference any dozen other things that were >> extrapolations from their contemporaneous world. More, a lot of the SF >> space is still Star Trek, Star Wars, and other licenses. >> > >> > Lastly, the midlist is a memory. My backlist is the midlist. So is >> the backlist of every other really successful author, leaving little room. >> Sure, Baen, DAW, TOR, Ace, etc. still publish, but the number of titles >> compared to the "golden age" is slim, and few receive much notice. Fantasy >> on the other hand, is where SF was in the 1960s/70s, when Farmer, Herbert, >> Heinline, Asimove, etc. regularly put titles on the bestseller lists. >> > >> > Will it come back? I have no idea. >> > >> > Best, R.E.F. >> > >> >> >> > -- Anestis Kozakis | [email protected] - "In Numenera, players are not rewarded for slaying foes in combat, so using a smart idea to avoid combat and still succeed is just good play. Likewise, coming up with an idea to defeat a foe without hammering on it with weapons is encouraged - creativity is not cheating!" - Numenera Core RuleBook - Page 102
