(no subject)

[gategrrl]

I've just canceled my Science Fiction Book Club membership. Yeah, I wasn't buying anything from them for the past year, and the writers I *was* reading are either slowing up on their releases or have "lost it" with their writing (King, lookin' at you, dear), and frankly...well...there's not a whole hell of a lot in the genres of SF/F that I'm interested in reading these days. I haven't come across a writer that I'm excited about. I haven't come across a *character* I'm excited about, nor the stories that I'd like to sink myself into.  I walk through the bookstores and wonder, where the hell have all the good, noncliche stories gone? And where are the stories about women who are NOT kick-butt awesome ball-kickers who are dominated by guys who just want a good pussy-cat to slip their fingers into? Seriously?

I suppose there are some out there, and I'm not looking hard enough, but baby, the magic's just about gone. The publishers are like double-dippers and have soured up their publishing pool. At least the big ones. Same covers by the same artists. Same writers writing the same shit. Other writers writing what the earlier writers have already written.

Ah well. Maybe 2010 will be different. In the meantime, I may start reading biographies and nonfiction and stuff that doesn't stick into a 12 inch deep rut.

Comments

[deej1957.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Good Luck. I think the last scifi/fantasy type book I bought was .... um... oh-- Rob Thurman's Deathwish.

There really isn't much out that I like, especially since I'm into male heros rather than female.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Also, except for three or four authors now, I've dropped 'watching' them on LJ. They might be nice people, but if their thoughts don't go beyond, "Buy my new book! It's being release this past week!" and so forth, ugh. I don't mind some self-pumping, but...writers in the pro-world really do need to be careful about their blogging.

Part of my problem is an over-all dissatisfaction about male and female protagonists. Even MORE so is my disenchantedment from cookie-cutter plots. I know there are only so many plots in the world. I realize that--but there's so little out there that's fresh that there's little to get excited about!

That's why I like the zombie genre right now (to a degree). It's full of its own cliches and tropes and so forth, but it's varied enough that a lot of it seems *new*. And I love the inventiveness of the newer writers in it, and the takes experienced writers have on zombies (who are really metaphors, just like the *classic* monsters used to be).

[deej1957.livejournal.com]

Zombies? ZOMBIES????

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Sure. World War Z is one of my favorites right now.

Considering what Rob Thurman has in HER books, they're tame stuff.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Posts like this sometimes make me scared about my own writing XD

I've only just gotten back into reading more fiction than non-fiction. The thing about fiction is that it's so easily devoured. Makes me wish I had an eReader like NOW so I could save on space.

[khek.livejournal.com]

Makes me glad I have kids books to fall back on. :)

I'm so tired of all the kick-ass vampire/witch/succubus/fae/demonic/psychic chicks with a sarcastic mouth/wounded spirit/betrayed trust and a hot boyfriend/sidekick/enemy-turned-lover out there taking over both the science fiction and horror genres. For the most part, they're disguised romances. And boring.

The market is super-saturated with them, and I hope the publishers realize that soon.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

*nods*

THAT is what I'm talking about. I can't walk through Borders without being assailed by dozens of covers by two or three artists, and ALL the covers looking roughly the same (with some exceptions).

Outside that subgenre...oh man. Going by the blurbs on the backs of the books, I've already READ those books. Twenty years ago or so, or ten years ago.

I'm jaded, cynical and read way too much when I was younger.

Hmm. I haven't read Neuromancer or Snow Crash. Maybe I should read those. Except-oh yes, I *did* read Neuromancer when it came out and was like, Huh? Maybe I could get through the denseness of it now. Hated Dhalgren with a passion. Damned circular novel, completely lost on me and frustrated the hell out of me.