Wiki-stumbling:
Geoff Ryman has contrasted mundane science fiction with regular science fiction through the desire of teenagers to leave their parents’ homes. Ryman sees too much of regular science fiction being based on an “adolescent desire to run away from our world.” However, Ryman notes that humans are not truly considered grown-up until they “create a new home of their own,” which is what mundane science fiction aims to do.
This seems to me to be where “real” SF is still being written. Most cutting-edge SF gets ossified and tossed off into sub-genres like military SF, cyberpunk, etc. Some of these sub-genres still have some life in them — I’m currently reading John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series, which is quite good — but it seems mundane SF is where good work is still being done.
John Scalzi examines the failures of The Chronicles of Riddick. This reminds me — I need to add Pitch Black to my Amazon wish list.
John Scalzi encourages his readers to recommend books as gifts this holiday season. I couldn’t agree more. Not only are books awesome Christmas gifts, but the publishing industry as a whole is in dire straights right now and could use a little extra help. (He particularly recommends Nick Harkaway’s The Gone-Away World, which I’m going to have to add to my Amazon wish list.)
John Scalzi (via strutting)
