Why I don't buy much SF these days

[chipotle]

That's SF as in science fiction, not San Francisco. But you knew that, right? In his weblog today, Greg Costikyan writes about "Elfy-Welfies, War Bores, Decadent Vamps and Licensed Crap":

Categories ... exist for readers who do not want to be challenged. They like sinking in to the warm familiarity of something they know they like. The problem is that I do want to be challenged. I want to be challenged with interesting ideas, distinctive writing styles, unconventional ways of looking at things, and transportation to a world very different from our own.

Costikyan takes his typical pull-no-punches approach. As is also typical for him, his observations ring very true to me, and explain a lot of why I don't come home with much written in my supposedly chosen genre -- and why I almost never get involved with open-ended series.

Comments

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

I'd noticed the same stratification of SF years ago. Hell, it's the reason one of my favorite novels in SF/Fantasy of the past year was one that never made it to the shores of the US, except as an import. It's "Fey" by Paul Kidd, and it lampoons most of the publishing industry as it stands today.