Who doesn't like science fiction. and why?

[termitewriter]

I write SF. I write about giant termites (ooh, nasty bugs!) and one of my novels includes a love story (oh, ****, says the 25-year-old male fan of violent action plots). I would just like to know: Are there any of you who never read SF? If so, why? And those of you who do - what kind attracts you? Would you be put off by big intelligent termites or by an SF novel with a love story in it? Or one that has both?

[ottabelle]

I write scifi :3 I like scifi :3 I use inappropriate form scifi because I think both are fine :3

Anyway, your story sounds interesting. And many novels are starting to have major genre crossovers. So go ahead and have your romantic space battle and have fun with it.

I can't explain what I like. Time travel is a favorite, though. (Of course I'm not biased considering my novel contains lots of it )

[exiledstar]

I like science fiction, but it seems to me most of the basic plots/ideas have been done to death. Though, giant termites: that's something I haven't heard before.

[dennismlane]

I love science fiction and would guess that about 50% of my physical books are from that genre (about 65% on my Kindle thanks to the brilliant free library at Baen Books and the fact that I won every book published by Angry Robot!).

As to what kind of science fiction attracts me; pretty much everything. I have a range of books from back in the genre's history (e.g. Edwin A. Abbott's "Flatland" or H G Wells's "War of the Worlds, or Mary Shelley's science fiction novels, or "pulp" such as a range of Edgar Rice Burroughs's work) through to social commentary such as "Brave New World" or "1984". I read Peter F. Hamilton's space opera and pretty much everything by Michael Moorcock (incidentally, I was really fanboy proud when one of my poems was podcast in the same episode of StarShipSofa as an Elric story!). I read the 'anthropological' science fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin (everyone go out and read "The Left Hand of Darkness" now!) and the military science fiction of authors such as David Weber.

As for romance (and, shudder the thought, alien sex!) science fiction has a proud tradition of raising issues of this world through addressing relationships on other worlds, this goes back at least to Philip José Farmer's "The Lovers" the novel which was based on his novella which won the Hugo for "most promising new writer" in 1953.

So to keep it short (yeah right!) I read pretty much everything, getting different things from different sub-genre. As for romance or intelligent termites "bring 'em on!"

exiledstar "it seems to me most of the basic plots/ideas have been done to death." The point, at least for me, of science fiction, is to look at 'what if'; whether that be 'what if we change a turning point in history' to 'what if we could make a drug to give us telepathy' to 'what if religious fundamentalists took over' to 'what if aliens arrived'? I would suggest that we will never run out of 'what ifs'. What you may be experiencing is the ennui that arises from being exposed to too much derivative, paint-by-numbers, science fiction. But, trust me, there are still plenty of authors coming up with new ideas out there for you to enjoy.

[exiledstar]

Interesting points Dennis.

[termitewriter]

This is the first forum I ever joined and I need some explanation. How do I put a reply just to one particular post? Please enlighten me!

Anyway, for Ottabelle: SF, scifi, sci-fi, even SyFy like the channel has adopted ... it makes no difference to me, either! SF works best in Tweets!
And I just want to mention - I never write about space battles or anything that could be called space opera. I write stories about humans (or intelligent aliens) that are laid in a scifi setting, that is, future Earth, on space ships, and on alien planets. And this is a very sophisticated romance - no bodice ripping - a story about the love between a strong-willed woman and a man with a dark secret, and the consequences thereof. I enjoy time travel stories a lot, but I never write them.

For Exiled Star: I think there are as many types of SF as there are writers of it! Of course, some do write cliched subjects over and over. I got the idea for intelligent giant termites from the documentary "Mysterious Castles of Clay" that used microphotography to get inside a termite mound. At the time, I thought, "Wow! A race of ILFs evolved from termites would work great!" And then also I got tired of the nasty, evil, apocalyptic giant insects that are the norm (think "Starship Troopers.") I wanted to endow insects with intelligence and moral imperatives comparable to those of humans.

For DennisMLane: I've visited your blog and I could tell that you loved SF! I kind of got into it through the back door of fantasy, so I actually haven't read a lot of the classic stuff. I just bought "The Stars My Destination" because it's supposed to be such a classic, but I find myself disappointed and rather bored. Of course, part of the problem may be that it's a badly formatted ebook - every time there is a sequence of short dialogue, the left margin moves over to the paragraph line, so the paragraphing disappears. Distracting!
Ursula K. Le Guin is my absolute favorite SF & F author. Of some of the classic authors, I like Ray Bradbury, but my favorite book by him is "Dandelion Wine," which isn't really SF, although it has strong hints of fantasy. And I'm glad you're open to both romance and giant termites! I guess my "what-if" is "what if an off-world team brought back a specimen of giant bug that seemed to be intelligent, but nobody could figure out how to communicate with it?"

[dennismlane]

"The Stars My Destination" is definitely a seminal book, particularly when one considers that it was written in the mid-50s. However, it is also experimental in places (and so, probably not the best route into that area of the genre). As for the e-book formatting; the book uses differing fonts as a way of depicting synaesthesia, I can only imagine what a mess a poor conversion into e-book may have done!

[termitewriter]

Yes, I'm going to have a problem with my strange conlang characters, I'm sure, when I try to put my books into ebook format!
I have a question for DennisMLane and also for Exiled Star. One of you lives in South Africa and the other in Eastern Europe. Does Amazon market its print books to those locations? I'm pretty sure they don't market to the UK (at least a few months back they didn't). What about Kindle? I know Kindle books are available at Amazon with the suffixes .uk, .de, .fr, .es. and .it. Do those reach either of you? And the CreateSpace eStore is supposed to market globally, but I suspect their postage is pretty high. So if a print book is published through CreateSpace, how much chance is there that people in your locations will be able to obtain it easily? Does Kindle work best for you (and for people in the UK) just on a practical basis?

[dennismlane]

I haven't tried selling my print book in South Africa through Createspace. When I produced it in November 2010 one could sell print books for free, but only specific sizes (the US sizes) I can't see why. In future I will ensure that the book is the right size! I printed off a batch via Lulu and shipped them at once (to save on the per capita shipping costs) and sell direct on my website. The Kindle version is available on the the US, UK and, strangely, the German site.

Kindles are on sale here, so I imagine there would be no problem buying my book on a South African registered Kindle. I bought mine on a trip to the UK and so I buy through Amazon UK.

I have bought DVDs and books via Amazon before and they come through to South Africa with no problem.

[termitewriter]

Thanks, Dennis, for the information! I'm more hopeful that, should you decide to buy one of my books in paperback, it will be available in your part of the world! As for the Kindle or Smashwords publication, that's very much up in the air. First, I have to find out if those formats will take my odd characters, and second, I will have to obtain one more permission to quote. Unfortunately, the ebook rights for Robert Graves are held by a different publisher than the print rights.

[limebirdwriters]

Feb 2, 2012 17:13:37 GMT termitewriter said:

This is the first forum I ever joined and I need some explanation. How do I put a reply just to one particular post? Please enlighten me!
"

Hi Termite Writer,

The best way to do this, is to click the 'quote' button at the top of the post you want to reply to and it will come up like above. Hope this helps!

B

[limebirdmike]

Ah Dennis you sound like a man after my own heart. I absolutely adore SF, and, like you, have read the absolutely mahooooosive works of Peter F. Hamilton. The only place I disagree with you I fear is in regard to 'The Stars My Destination'. I actually read it only a few months ago as part of my goal to read many of the most important works in SF/Fantasy, and have to say I was thoroughly disappointed! I much prefer the likes of Flowers for Algernon, Slaughterhouse 5, Hyperion, Emphyrio, Dune, The Dancers at the End of Time etc.

[termitewriter]

Feb 10, 2012 16:00:55 GMT limebirdwriters said:

Feb 2, 2012 17:13:37 GMT termitewriter said:

This is the first forum I ever joined and I need some explanation. How do I put a reply just to one particular post? Please enlighten me!
"

Hi Termite Writer,

The best way to do this, is to click the 'quote' button at the top of the post you want to reply to and it will come up like above. Hope this helps!

B

OK, now I got it! Thanks for the help!

Lorinda

[limebirdwriters]

Woo hoo!