A poll for science fiction masses

[kinzel]

As someone who went to Clarion West thirty five years ago I'm participating in this years Clarion West Write-a-Thon ... see my page at: http://www.clarionwest.org/events/writeathon/SteveMiller

alas, my stated goal is to write a new near-future science fiction story and now it turns out that the phrase "near future" creates different expectations for different people. So, I need help figuring out what's near future. I also hear that all near future sf "should be mundane" but ... I dunno.

What's your take:

[Poll #1209566]

Comments

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what one would mean by "near future" SF. Either it's SF or it's not. Stuff that was set in the 1990s is now "alternate history" or plain old "classic SF"... So I'm not sure that the term actually *means* anything in particular. I forget which book it was that first introduced me to this problem, and ever since I've had a bit of an allergy to dates in SF. I *do* remember being very young, probably under 12... but that leaves an awful lot of classics.

There is no correct topic for SF. Either the book has an interesting subject, theme and characters, or it doesn't. And if the author isn't interested, odds are the reader isn't either. I do tend to prefer space opera or other optimistic topics, but that's *my* taste. You can't have my taste, it's ALL MINE! Some people prefer other styles and topics, and that is fine. They can buy them.

I still have not forgiven Kim Stanley Robinson for the hyperacids tho. That was incorrect, and I'll probably never read another book of his as a result. (if you're going to make up technobabble, make it believable...)