I remember the first science fiction story I read in high school, a short story, termed a novella, by Philip Jose Farmer. Mr. Farmer turned 90 years old on January 26th of this year. Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, Mr. Farmer spent most of his life in Peoria, Illinois, about eighty some miles from where I live.
The story I read was Riders of the Purple Wage. The title obviously a play on Zane Grey’s western-themed story title, published in 1912, The Riders of the Purple Sage. Mr. Farmer’s story was published in 1967 but I first read it circa 1972 in a compendium, either the Hugo Award winners or Nebula Award winners, can’t remember which, in paperback.
This is the sort of science fiction I like and I miss it. Going through the sci-fi section at Barnes & Noble, I find most of the sci-fi books are about vampires, vampire-related stories, fairy kings and queens, military sci-fi, alt sci-fi which is sci-fi or fantasy occurring in the past, say 1689, for example. I have a book by Simon Greene that I am a third of the way through and I’ve stopped reading it. I don’t much like the Mysterie and Veritie story line, where Mysterie is the magical, hidden realm, and Veritie is real life. The character passes back and forth between the two. Where is the science in that?
I just bought a new book by Jack McDevitt, Odyssey. I am on page twenty-eight and believe I will like this book. Mr. McDevitt is 72. I saw some books at Barnes & Noble I might try next by Ben Bova, apparently heavily plotted towards space exploration. There is science in that. Mr. Bova is 75. I guess I am just out of touch with modern sci-fi. Alas, I must be getting old too!
I guess the fantasy genre has taken over for the most part in science fiction. Perhaps I should write my own sci-fi stories, which is a reason I began this blog, to practice my exposition as well as learn a thing or two. Of course, if everyone is purchasing vampire stories, then it’s probably a waste of time.
In looking around the web, I see that Mr. Farmer’s story did win the Hugo in 1968. His website is very interesting with many rich links for sci-fi aficionado’s here http://www.pjfarmer.com/.
Scotty, beam me aboard. I have some books to read.
March 24, 2008 at 8:48 am
While I agree with you that it does seem like fantasy has taken over the genre, there are some books still being written in the old sf vein. John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series (of which the last book, The Last Colony, just made the nomination list for this years Hugos), while technically a member of the ‘military sf’ group, reads more like some of the best of ’50s sf. Charles Stross has had several books that look at where the computing world and humanity in general is going (see Halting State, Glasshouse). Peter Watt’s Blindsight is very strong entry into the hard, hard sf realm, with a very odd set of viewpoints. So there is some hope for us old fogeys.
March 24, 2008 at 9:29 am
Thanks, I’ll check into some of those you mentioned. They sound interesting.