tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4290475723451787293.post949097832721852055..comments2023-06-18T04:17:59.375-04:00Comments on Dogslandia: Book recommendation...J m mcdermotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16433637277106963701noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4290475723451787293.post-11199146678703877292008-12-10T18:07:00.000-05:002008-12-10T18:07:00.000-05:00I'm not even sure you can separate "New Weird" fro...I'm not even sure you can separate "New Weird" from non-mainstream fantasy anymore. I don't think Goodkind, Brooks, and Martin have much in the way of New Weirdness. <BR/><BR/>However, reading Clarkesworld, for instance, you discover lots of New Weird writers, and pieces that could seemlessly integrate into New Weird.<BR/><BR/>If I knew what the next step was, I certainly wouldn't blog about it. I'd be too busy trying to write it first. As it stands, I think political and social realism is happening, and has been for some time. I may blog about what I think is going to happen in genre some time later.<BR/><BR/>However, I think that even New Weird is "Interstitial" blurring fantasy and horror. Interstitial arts, like paranormal romance and urban fantasy and clockpunk and whatnot, are the future. The backlash of this will be, in some cases, a return to old influences. The other effect will be an explosion across a bookstore that places "our" books in so many sections that the term SF/F will become a meaningless label when the books that our audience follow are *everywhere*.<BR/><BR/>Honestly, when you say "social realism" you are also saying "non-polemic, political realism". The second term is just a subsection of the first, no?J m mcdermotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16433637277106963701noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4290475723451787293.post-32194920807527989592008-12-09T21:46:00.000-05:002008-12-09T21:46:00.000-05:00You could arguably say that Steven Erikson's spraw...You could arguably say that Steven Erikson's sprawling (in a good way) Malazan series is a prototype of Weird-meets-Epic. Then again, the same could be said of Glen Cook's Black Company (which Stevenson cites as a major influence).<BR/><BR/>If not, then Malazan has still got to be one of the most uncharacteristically intelligent epic fantasies ever created. It's partly responsible for the melange tossing around in my head that I've been trying to hammer into a formal thesis: since SF and Fantasy have already made leaps forward in the realms of technological, then social realism, the next step is to integrate a mature, non-polemic political realism.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4290475723451787293.post-47303671716085589462008-12-09T14:55:00.000-05:002008-12-09T14:55:00.000-05:00Hey I got to hear Holly read from that at WFC! It ...Hey I got to hear Holly read from that at WFC! It was intriguing stuff. <BR/><BR/>(Joe, if your to-read pile is anything like mine, it has already taken on a life of its own, and we are but its minions.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4290475723451787293.post-31914950618933662882008-12-09T09:26:00.000-05:002008-12-09T09:26:00.000-05:00Added to goodreads "to-read" list. Thanks.Added to goodreads "to-read" list. Thanks.Sparrowhawkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16520765821903563677noreply@blogger.com