New SF Series: Unicorn, The Sparkling
1 Apr
Charles Stross, the critically acclaimed science-fiction author of such books as Singularity Sky (great series) and Halting State, announced today in his blog that he will no longer be writing science-fiction.
We’ve been taking a hard look at the market realities; things have been particularly grim in SF/F publishing ever since November 2008, and it has become clear that in light of a downward spiral of diminishing sales things can’t go on as before. The poor market conditions (Tim Holman of Little, Brown says the British publishing industry as a whole shipped 1% fewer books in 2009) are resulting in downward pressure on new book advances: as an agent of my acquaintance put it, with respect to advances, “five grand is the new twenty grand”.
Obviously, science-fiction publishing isn’t what it used to be. Thirty years ago, if you put a rocket on the cover, then you were guaranteed an audience of tens of thousands as geeks rushed to buy it. These days, science-fiction’s biggest competitor isn’t other books or even movies: it’s video games. That leads to some unfortunate market realities. So as they say, adapt or die. It looks like Stross has chosen the former:
Late last year my agent and I conducted an exhaustive review of my skill-set and background, to the extent of commissioning a focus group to look into my work to date and suggest new directions.
Stross then goes on to describe his new novel:
Harlequin Romance will publish my first paranormal romance, “Unicorn Schoolâ„¢: The Sparkling”, in Q1/2012. US:TS is the first book of the projected series, and introduces Avril Poisson, who moves with her family from Phoenix, Arizona, to Forks, Washington with her divorced father, and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a Sparkly Unicornâ„¢ called Bob. Stalked by and in fear of a mysterious horse-mutilator, Avril must practice her dressage skills with Bob and qualify her steed for a scholarship to the elite Unicorn Schoolâ„¢, where he will be safe to grow (and sparkle) without fear of the vampires who infest the senior’s common room. In the second book, “Unicorn Schoolâ„¢: The Exsanguination” Bob and Avril must stalk a Vampire Unicornâ„¢ who is draining her fellow pupils of the will to live back to the rocky outcrop where he lives. In book three, “Unicorn Schoolâ„¢: The Deflowering”, Bob and Avril confront their most ghastly foe yet, a moustache-twirling villain who is intent on seducing all the pupils (as we all know, unicorn/human relationships are only possible if the human party is a virgin) in order to sell their heart-broken steeds to evil French multinational meat conglomerate Hachette. In book four, “Unicorn Schoolâ„¢: The Big Chill” the swindle that is global warming is exposed and, as glaciers pounce on the Louisiana Bayou, Avril and Bob are hunted by monstrous black-and-white swimming birds. And in book five, “Unicorn Schoolâ„¢ Forever”, our young lovers are going to get married — but not if the evil, bigoted anti-unicorn Sheriff Osama gets his anti-unicorn-marriage by-law passed first!
What do you think? Do you find it encouraging, as I do, that Stross will continue to tackle hard-breaking current events in literary form, or do you find this as a Stephanie Meyer led decline in literary obsolescence?
… please tell me that was an April Fool’s.
To say that she’s leading a decline would be untrue and probably unfair. Meyer wrote a book or four. Fine. They turned out to be massively amazing bestsellers. Who really knows why? But people tried to decipher her success, the last big thing, Harry Potter, was a little difficult to emulate. But Twilight- add a bit of forbidden love, a hot vampire/angel/other supernatural boy and voila, instant teenage girl attraction.
The science-fiction thing… maybe it’s just had its day. Obviously there are still fans of science-fiction, and I wouldn’t say anything against them, but there are less of them and you’re right- a lot of the business has been lost to video games, I’d reckon. There’s just not as big a market. Trends come and go.
It’s not Stephanie Meyer’s fault that people devoured her books. There are plenty of similar storylines or premises out there that didn’t receive the attention Twilight did, and no one is blaming -them- for a so-called literary slump.
One purpose of reading is for entertainment, and if people enjoy reading Twilgiht, they shouldn’t feel guilty about it. She’s successful. Good for her. I think people need to lay off attacking her and the books.
(
And I realize this is an April Fool’s thing, but I thought it must be said. I’m no Twilight fangirl, but the excessive mockery is getting out of hand, in my opinion.)
Zomigosh! *squee* Finally, someone decided to give unicorns the attention they deserve!
Darn it! He totally stole my idea.
They should just skip to the third book and the moustachio-twirling villain.