McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Readers--what would you like to see?

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Dom:
I was thinking about genres and stuff again, and I was wondering what everyone...readers, writers, etc...would like to see in the next wave of SFF?

What I would like to see:

- Cyberpunk (and SFF in general) updated for the 2000s.  Technology has advanced, but many books are still retreading the old ideas, when logically you need to update them.  We *have* our techno-jargon now, and we'll probably be using the terms well into the future.  After all, a wagon 100 years ago was still called a wagon.  And it's called a wagon now.  And it'll probably be called a wagon in the future, unless some dramatic shift in the language occurs.  We have ipods, a world-wide internet, online libraries, and more, but no flying cars.  How would a cyberpunk story work in *our* near future, as opposed to the 70's or 80's near future?

- Magepunk .  Maybe there's some of this out there that I'm missing, but I really enjoyed the book The Iron Dragon's Daughter.  And things similar to that.  I consider The Golden Compass and the rest to be pretty magepunky.

- The Next American Hero (tm).  Stuff has gotten so gritty and flawed lately that there is a scarcity of Superman-type (ethically, that is) heros in stories.  People who do good just because they are good people.  Harry Dresden is actually the closest I've seen lately, and he has a fallen angel in his head.  Michael is pretty dead on, but we're not following his story...he's not the main focus.

So there's some of what I want to see.  I'm sure there's other stuff I want to see too, but that's a start.

WonderandAwe:
I think we need good Sci-Fi.  Fantasy seems to be the in thing right now.  Right now the market is flooded with urban and high fantasy.  I would like a good space adventure that doesn't get too caught up in the details.  I don't want to real a physics textbook.  I want to read a story. :)

We also need a new superhero.  Someone with a good strong moral background.  Most of the modern superheros are given an edge/are antiheros.  As much as I enjoy a good antihero, it would be good to have something different out there.  Though you have to be careful not to fall in the Drizzt trap of having a strong moral background and not dealing with the consquences of having one (example, Drizzt fights his way out of dealing with the consquences of most of decisions or having to make the decision in the first place). 

fjeastman:
I think we're entering an era where the Doc Savage is going to make a bit of a comeback.  Things are getting dark in reality and have been there long enough that something brighter might be popular.

I don't know if cyberpunk will ever make a come-back.  It was birthed in a different era where different ideas about technology were able to flourish.   It's hard to decide what's going to be called what in the future... the best of sci-fi and cyberpunk DROVE technology ... it looked forward and groped for terms for things we didn't have and those things became real through that. 

EDIT:  As for fantasy, I, myself, would be moving away from the angsty political melodrama and into the action/adventure serial, again.  But that's me.  That's what I like to read, that's what I do read ... and that's what I don't see on the shelves anymore.  Everybody seems to be doing these multicharacter political epics focused on loss and unrequited desires.

Too often I'm saying:  "There he is, you've got him ... he killed your grandfather, he pillaged your home town, he kicked your puppy.  Now we get to the stabbing!" and instead we get:  "Oh, but my shock at seeing him here, at my mercy, overwhelmed me ... and he slipped away during my moment of agonized indecision and killed my girlfriend and ate one of her pet kittens!  Let me contemplate my agony at that for another chapter."

If/when I write a fantasy novel ... there'll be righteous vengeance and some swinging from ropes over chasms and probably an evil god or three that needs to be taught a lesson.  Some explosions, probably a girl that the hero eventually gets, and some stalwart companions.

Where'd all the stalwart companions get off to anymore, eh?

--fje

Tersa:
I just want to see a strong female main character that is strong with out being, pardon the language, a bitch.  It feels like everything I read that has a female lead character, if written recently, she's just a snarky bitch saying, "Yeah, I can do everything boys do and do it in heels, so HA!  And why am I doing it, you ask? Well, aside from the fact you don't need to know, it's just to show the boys up and show I can, wooohooooo!!"

...Okay, so that last part is a bit of a stretch, but it still drives me nuts.  I don't want female characters to be on the damsel in distress part of the spectrum either, but I would like to see a woman that actually has some sort of grace.  She can still smackdown-foo the bad guys, but it would be cool to see her also be able to do stuff through clever negotiation and manipulation a la Queen Elizabeth I of England, too. 

Mickey Finn:
Well, you'll be happy with a novel I'm working on, then. ;) The protagonist happens to be female, because that's how the character came to me (partially inspired by Amy Acker, who is not the epitome of bitchidom), but I'm not out to prove anything with her.

Some of the side characters are bitchy, but they're counterbalanced by one hell of an ass in the form of a lead male. (Think cross between Denis Leary & Craig Bierko.)

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