Interesting industry musings of the morning: Jason Sanford observes a recent trend in SF, “SciFi Strange.”
I’ve noted for a while that there’s been a decided upsurge in the popularity of “literary” fantasy, the New Weird, if you will, and wondered when/if it would hit SF. Seems I wasn’t the only one.
Also, I like the term “SciFi Strange.” Going to try to use it as many times in conversation today as I can.
Thanks for linking to this, Eugie! I’ve been thinking about it ever since you put this up. All this is quite interesting. If the term catches on, you’ve been designated as one of its early practitioners. 😀
You edit legislation. You deal with SciFi Strange daily!
Though, I dare you to stick it into a bill … 😀
What’s the new “literary” fantasy that you are talking about? Any particular authors or particular works by certain authors?
Read Eugie’s story linked in Jason’s article. It’s a pretty good example of SciFi Strange.
Well, it’s less “new” and more “recent,” but some of the writers whose works have fallen under this label include China Miéville, Ian R. MacLeod, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, and Jeffrey Ford. And there’s an anthology, The New Weird, edited by the VanderMeers, which is a good sampling of such works.