Like all controversial statements when we say “all of SF is crap”, there is an element of truth. The fact is that all really shit fiction is genre fiction, because genres can have a formula, and anything written to a formula is shit. Literary fiction, by definition, cannot follow a formula therefore cannot be absolute barrel-scraping shit. And if something original is written in literary fiction that everyone else then follows, creating a formula, it becomes a genre of its own (see misery lit for a recent example). But so much genre fiction does not follow a formula. SF and Fantasy (to my mind, they're the same thing, just the explanations for things are different), when done right (think Christopher Ruocchio, David Mitchell, Iain M. Banks) are masterpieces, giving spectacular insight into how humans think and respond to situations outside our real life experience. I read literary fiction set in real environments unfamiliar to me (e.g. Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Jane Austen) to understand something of how people respond to unusual circumstances. I see no difference in reading things where the circumstance is real or imaginary, so long as the characterisation is real.

The best Space Operas like “Howling Dark” and “Demon in White” are frequently classed as SF but I'm not so sure; the boundary between both seems to be a bit of grey area. There are aspects of the characters' daily lives in Yevgeny Zamyatin's 'We' which were physically impossible then as they still are now, but the focus is the themes which drive the narrative. To me, that means the 'impossibility' to the reader of a fantastical future life isn't really that important, whereas the humanity of the story is absolutely central. I hope that I'm neither dismissing SF nor being a snob, but setting, in this sense, is more of a 'prop'. And “Demon in White” has got plenty of Humanity.

SF and heavy metal music are two genres where the people who create it and the people who consume it are just having a bloody good time, and largely don't care a stuff about what the critics think. And the critics really hate that...



SF = Speculative Fiction. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2020/10/review-of-demon-in-white-by-christopher... ( )

I couldn’t get interested in this melding of Roman military terms and tactics with space battles. It may be of interest of those interested in sci-fi wars and ancient Roman tactics, but I am more interested in people than warfare and I gave up. ( )