Asimov's SF, March 2007
Page 2
Simply to plug away writing publishable fiction for sixty years would itself be an extraordinary record of persistence, even if the work were only mediocre. But when the Science Fiction Writers of America gave Jack Williamson its Grand Master trophy in 1975—the second such award to be given, Robert A. Heinlein having received the first—he was not being honored merely for endurance. Over the decades Williamson has created an astonishing body of classic science fiction. What reader has ever forgotten the rollicking Legion of Space, first published more than fifty years ago? The powerful, brooding werewolf story, Darker Than You Think, of 1940? The chilling masterpiece of the robot takeover, “With Folded Hands,” and its 1948 sequel, The Humanoids?
And so much more. The Seetee series, science fiction's first exploration of antimatter. The soaring, visionary Starchild books, written in collaboration with Frederik Pohl. The great adventure story Golden Blood. And then, too, The Reign of Wizardry, The Power of Blackness, Manseed, Lifeburst—on and on and on. All of it written with vigor, power, constantly renewed inventiveness, and insight. His writing has grown with the years. His work is always fresh, always new, always at the forefront of the field. No one could possibly guess that the stories he will publish this year are the work of an eighty-year-old. In the late 1970s, at a time when most SF writers half his age were still clinging to their typewriters, Jack Williamson had already switched over to a word processor. He is the youngest sixty-year veteran anyone could imagine.
He doesn't look young, this tall, shy, gangling man who has spent his life under the Southwestern sun. You can see his years in the stoop of his shoulders now, and in the folds and creases of his skin. But you need only spend ten minutes talking with Jack Williamson to feel the youthful openness of his restless, inquiring mind and the resilience of his indomitable spirit. And you need only read a few lines of any of his sixty years of science fiction to know that you are in the presence of one of the world's great storytellers. It's been a privilege to know him and a delight to read him. He honors us by his presence in our midst.
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I wrote the preceding paragraphs in 1988. They have to be put into past tense now, but except for the need for updating, everything still applies. Jack Williamson, a writer, critic, and teacher and a warm-hearted, loving, and beloved human being, who lived on with unending creativity and unimpaired intellect from the early years of the twentieth century to the early years of the twenty-first, seemingly as ageless as a sequoia, has turned out to be mortal after all. But the books and stories that he wrote will survive far into the future that he depicted with such splendid fertility of imagination.
Copyright (c) 2007 Robert Silverberg
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LETTERS
Dear Sheila,
Kristine Kathryn Rusch's essay, “Barbarian Confessions” (September 2006), was a breath of fresh air in the stale, mannered and claustrophobic halls of the SF world. In Britain, and probably in America, surrounded by critics disappearing up their own fundaments, self-proclaimed SF academics who think they rule the roost and deeply serious writers who are “political” and believe their opinions beyond fiction actually matter, we're still choking in rotting flotsam and jetsam cast up by a New Wave that retreated about forty years ago.
Like Kristine, I too abandon more new books than I read, rather confining my “work” reading to those written expressly for the purpose of conveying information. And I'm tired of the literati and the damage they do, the careers they wreck by convincing writers who have produced hated entertainment to now produce something serious, the self-important reviewers who put themselves above the books they review, the long turgid essays about the meaning of it all and the importance of obscure books of authorial masturbation, the older writers who think story and entertainment are beneath them, produce some worthy tome, then spend their declining careers whining to their publishers and agents about lack of sales, and the general sneering attitude towards anything that dares to be an easy enjoyable read.
Bring on the barbarians, I say. Let them kick over the crumbling statues, tear down the rotting curtains and smash all the windows to let in some light and air. Let them put to the sword and throw into a pit all the grubby weasel-worshippers of bankrupt ideas about literature. I'll look down at their bloody corpses and dance.
Neal Asher
Essex, United Kingdom
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Dear Sheila,
I'm not sure which bookstores Kristine Rusch shops in. I mostly shop in a large Borders and a moderate-size Barnes and Noble. The SF sections in both are pretty much the ones she says we should have. There is an awful lot of what's best categorized as SF and fantasy adventure. There's also a lot that would have fit in well with the classic SF of the 1940s, 1950s, or 1960s—good solid stories with memorable characters. We've had a major blossoming of space opera, from writers like Vernor Vinge, Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, and David Brin, and military adventure from the likes of David Weber and David Drake. All these seem to be exactly what Rusch says we need. They are all entertaining and provide “good reads” (both of which she asks for in her essay). For every very “literary” book by Gene Wolfe or Kelly Link, there are dozens of adventure books by other writers. (This is of course not to say that writers like Vinge and Reynolds are not literarily ambitious. Like many great books, their novels are both well written and very entertaining.)
If the percentage of the total books sold that are SF is dropping, I don't think it's because of the lack of adventure stories or there being too high a percentage of dystopias or “difficult-to-read” works.
I do agree with her on one point—the worries about tie-in books taking up shelf space—though I think for different reasons. When I was first starting to buy a lot of books, a lot of shelf space was taken up by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Perry Rhodan, and Conan. It's this niche that the tie-in novels seem to be filling. I don't think they are really taking much space away from non-tie-in books.
Jim Mann
McDonald, PA
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Dear Editor,
Hooray for Kristine Kathryn Rusch! I do not read SF in order to become depressed or bored. I look for action and some evidence of the strength and goodness of the human race.
There is both good and bad space opera. Adult readers know the difference. Let's see even more high-quality space-opera stories in your magazine.
John Acomb
Beloit, WI
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Dear Ms. Williams,
Although I started with science fiction at about the same time and age that Kristine Kathyrn Rusch did, and enjoy both written and media SF (I'm an engineer today in some part due to Scotty), I think Ms. Rusch's article, “Barbarian Confessions,” in September's issue is mistaken in the following ways.
First, the notion that hardcore fans and writers consider space opera and time travel to Hitler's Germany to be passé seems off the mark. Catherine Asaro writes unabashed space adventure stories and the SF writers elected her the president of SFWA; Allen Steele wrote a time-travel-to-Hitler's Germany story ("Where Angels Fear to Tread") in 1997—and the fans gave it a Hugo Award. And Jack McDevitt, whose Polaris Ms. Rusch correctly calls a good old-fashioned SF novel, was nominated for the Nebula by his fellow writers many times, including for Polaris.
Second, concern that SF/fantasy sales are a tiny pa
rt of the overall fiction market overlooks the fact that a lot of science fiction is sold as romance (The Time-Traveler's Wife and the popular category of time-travel romance), mystery (the works of J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts’ penname), or general fiction (The Handmaid's Tale, The Plot Against America, Never Let Me Go, etc.). The wide spread of science fictional ideas is to SF's credit; we don't hoard our tropes. That's why some movies that are clearly SF (Gattaca, The Truman Show, or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), but don't fit the mold of Star Wars, are not recognized as being SF.
Finally, I think Ms. Rusch's history of SF is incorrect. Dystopian SF did not arise as part of the New Wave of the 1960s but instead as part of the reaction to the Second World War, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was then, not later, when stories about infanticide, nuclear holocaust, and disturbing social trends run amuck became common. Strongly plotted non-dystopian SF remained available in the post New Wave, but pre-Star Wars 1970s (The Mote in God's Eye and Tau Zero are two examples from the awards lists) and remain easy to find today (in works by David Brin, Lois McMaster Bujold, Robert Sawyer, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch). When Star Wars, Star Trek, or some other dramatic presentation draws someone to the SF shelf, the sense of wonder will be there for him or her in the latest Stargate tie-in and in the latest book by Vernor Vinge, just as it was for me in Rendezvous with Rama.
Andrew Love
Columbia, MD
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ON THE NET: THE LIVING AND THE DEAD by James Patrick Kelly
the living dead
At the end of 2005, online short fiction publishing was dealt a double blow when SCIFI.COM [scifi.com] pulled the plug on Ellen Datlow [datlow.com] and Sci Fiction [scifi.com/ scifiction] while Eileen Gunn [eileengunn. com] decided that she could no longer continue to publish The Infinite Matrix [infinitematrix. net]. Of course, just because they are no longer being updated doesn't mean that you can't still visit them. For the time being, the content is still available to all, although eventually the ghosts of both of these sites will fade away. In one of Eileen Gunn's farewell editorials—there were many, since her site has a strong streak of zombie in it and twitches briefly to life from time to time—she predicts that the Infinite Matrix will persist for about a year. Which means it may have disappeared by the time you read this.
Or maybe not—allow me to digress. I have in the past mentioned the Internet Archive [archive. org] and its marvelous Wayback Machine. If you know the URL of any defunct site, there's a good chance you can use the Wayback Machine to summon it back from the dead. The Internet Archive offers some fifty-five billion pages dating back to 1996 for your browsing pleasure. Not everything is available, but, for example, longtime fans will recall that Ellen Datlow's previous two online editing gigs were the groundbreaking OMNI Online [www.omnimag. com] and Event Horizon [www. eventhorizon.com/sfzine/]. Typing either of their URLs into the Wayback Machine will get you ... well, something. The sites are by no means intact, but there is a trove of material there for the taking, enough to give the Kopyright Kops nightmares. So just because a ghost site finally moves into the Great Beyond doesn't mean it's lost forever.
For almost six years, Sci Fiction was not only the premier online showcase for original SF, but it was also one of our genre's highest paying markets. Most of the SF community reacted as Gardner Dozois did when he wrote in his yearly summation of the state of the field that Sci Fiction was “killed by short-sighted corporate bean counters.” The stories on Sci Fiction were often reprinted in Bests of the Year and several of them won awards. Sci Fiction itself took a Hugo for Best Website in 2005. Similarly, the Infinite Matrix's mix of cutting edge fiction with an eclectic stable of columnists made it a must-click site. No one could question the artistic excellence of these fine webzines. So why are they ghosts?
SF webzine publishing is still in an experimental stage and no one has yet come up with a robust formula for success. It seems to me that a truly successful webzine will have to stand on three legs. First, it will have to deliver content to readers at a price they will pay. The challenge here is that the price most readers are comfortable with is free. Second, it will have to pay its contributors. The challenge here is balancing the equation between income and outgo, since in general, the more the pay, the better the contributions, and the more readers. Third, it will have to pay or otherwise satisfy its staff and offer its owners some return on investment. The challenge here is to define otherwise satisfy and some. I have no inside information on the demise of the Infinite Matrix or Sci Fiction, other than to note that they gave content away and they paid professional rates. I have to believe it was the third leg that gave way.
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living well
Now that the Infinite Matrix and Sci Fiction are no longer updating, Strange Horizons [strange horizons.com] is clearly the alpha SF webzine. It updates weekly—daily for reviews—with a pleasing mix of fiction, poetry, interviews, opinion, and art. Stories from Strange Horizons now regularly appear on awards ballots and the tables of contents of Year's Bests. The zine has published a clutch of Rhysling Award [sfpoetry.com/ rhysling.html] winners,given every year by the Science Fiction Poetry Association [sfpoetry. com].I have been a fan of Strange Horizons since its debut in 2000. One of the secrets of its success, I think, is that it did not arrive on the scene fully formed, but rather grew into its current estimable state.
There is no charge to read Strange Horizons and they pay professional rates—not quite the lofty sums that we earn here at Asimov's, but none the less respectable. Thus it stands squarely on two of the three necessary legs. But the folks who bring you this particular webzine have constructed a unique third leg. For one thing, Strange Horizons has an all-volunteer staff. Nobody gets paid. I confess when this was first explained to me in the early days by Mary Anne Mohanraj [mamohanraj. com] and Jed Hartman [kith. org/logos] I was skeptical. Good luck with the burnout, is what I thought, but didn't say. I was wrong. According to the masthead, there are upward of thirty dedicated staffers working today to bring you Strange Horizons. There has been some turnover over the years, most notably in that Mary Anne has moved on and the dynamic Susan Marie Groppi [sugarspun.net] is now editor-in-chief, but there is continuity as well. The satisfaction of the SH crew must come from knowing that they've created one of the most indispensable SF sites anywhere—a showcase for new and emerging talent. Another key to its success is that it has received 501(c) (3) tax-exempt status from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. That means that readers and other supporters can make tax deductible donations to Strange Horizons during their fundraisers. And if you've ever been to the site, you've seen that these folks are savvyabout raising funds! So in a sense, the readers do pay for this webzine, even though they aren't charged for it. It's a system that has worked well for six years and here's hoping it continues to work for the next sixty.
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newborn
Meanwhile three new webzines have debuted.
Actually, Orson Scott Card'sIntergalactic Medicine Show [intergalacticmedicineshow.com] beganjust before the demise of the Infinite Matrix and Sci Fiction, with its first issue in October of 2005. Since then it has published just one more issue, but release of a third is imminent as I type this. Orson Scott Card [hatrack.com] serves as Publisher and Executive Editor and Edmund R. Schubert [edmundrschubert.com] is Editor. In order to read the fiction in the Intergalactic Medicine Show, you will have to register and pay $2.50 an issue—a fair price, sez me. Many of the contributors to the Intergalactic Medicine Show are newer writers like Brad Beaulieu [quillings.com] and Scott D. Danielson [scottddanielson. blogspot.com], although there are some old pros like my pal from our Clarion [theclarionfoundation. org] days together, Al Sarrantonio [alsarrantonio.com]. But clearly the big draw here is the promise of a new Ender's World story by Scott Card in every issue. Also, there is more to the Intergalactic Medicine Show than stories. All the lively non-fiction, reviews, columns, and the like are free to read any time.
Jim Baen's Universe [baens-universe.com] is a bold experiment from one of the boldest minds in publishing. The first issue had a stellar table of contents, featuring stars like Gregory Benford [gregorybenford.com], Charles Stross [antipope.org/Charlie], John Barnes [en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/JohnBarnes(author)], Elizabeth Bear [elizabethbear.com], and Gene Wolfe [mysite.verizon. net/~vze2tmhh/wolfe.html], to name but a few. And it's not surprising that top talent flocked to Jim Baen's Universe, since it's the highest paying market in the genre, with rates several times the lofty sum we make here at Asimov's. But in order to read these folks, you're going to have to fork over thirty dollars for six issues a year. Each is promised to have a huge dollop of over a hundred and fifty thousand downloadable words. Will readers pay for online fiction? Will the experiment succeed? It's clearly too soon to tell, and pros-pects have gotten slightly murky with the untimely death of Jim Baen shortly after the launch in June of 2006. (Another—briefer—digression: Jim Baen bought my first story. Our paths diverged thereafter, but if he hadn't fished me out of the slush, someone else would be writing this column today. I've thanked him several times over the years both in public and private, but here's a last one with feeling. Thanks, Jim!) But Jim Baen's Universe is in the capable hands of Eric Flint [ericflint.net], himself an old hand at digital publishing from his work as editor of The Baen Free Library [baen. com/library]. For my money, this is the site to watch in the coming year, both for the quality of the fiction and the success of the business model.
Helix [helixsf.com] bills itself as a speculative fiction quarterly. Just one issue has come out since its launch in July of 2006, but it clearly is well designed and well thought out. It is the brainchild of William Sanders [sff.net/people /sanders], who bills himself as Senior Editor and Mean Old Bastard Emeritus, and Lawrence Watt-Evans [watt-evans.com], self-styled Managing Editor and Freelance Pedant; they are supported by a good sized staff for a quarterly webzine. Editors Watt-Evans and Sanders are attempting to produce Helix as a “labor of love” and support it through donations. Their webzine pays professional rates and is free to read. One of their goals is to publish stories which are edgy and controversial. The first issue has good stories by Beth Bernobich [sff.net/people/beth-bernobich], Adam Troy-Castro [sff.net/people/adam-troy] and Richard Bowes [rickbowes.com], among others, along with columns on alternate history and Mars in science fiction.