[Editor’s note appended after publication: Seattle Worldcon publishes pieces in this Fantastic Fiction column in the spirit of fannish debate, to foster conversation, and to explore our convention theme. The opinions of the fan writers we publish under their bylines are their own and do not reflect the opinions of the Worldcon. Because we feel we missed the mark on this topic and the intent of the piece did not come through, causing a disservice to the community and to the writer, we have published a rebuttal by Farah Mendlesohn and invite further guest pieces on this topic. An explanation of our Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow blog and its current columns is available. -Ed.]
Rereading Earl Kemp’s Who Killed Science Fiction? (1960)—in which as seen in my earlier column luminaries were invited to write essays to explain or disaffirm Kemp’s melancholic thesis about the future of the genre—brings to mind an issue nearer to home. Specifically, where is today’s English-language young adult (or as they called it in my day, juvenile) prose science fiction [1]?
Why should a person who is, like me, slightly past his 20th birthday, worry about the state of fiction aimed at persons much younger than he is? Because without the young readers of today, there won’t be the old readers and writers of tomorrow. Examples of literary institutions that die off because the current cohort cannot be bothered to enlist younger readers and fans abound, from functionally-dead fiction genres like Westerns and South Sea adventures, to conventions now bereft of able-bodied, eager young voluntolds.
I can think of a few reasons why prose young adult SF might appear to be absent.
.I could just be overlooking it somehow, despite keeping an eye out for it. I’ve seen other people complain about the same absence of science fiction aimed at younger readers, so I don’t think that is the explanation. If it is, I’m not the only one using inefficient search patterns [2].
It might be that editors are simply not buying the stuff. Maybe the return on investment for books aimed at established readers is higher. Perhaps experience suggests there’s no market for YA SF as it is currently written. If so, that should alarm people my age, because it may mean SF is doomed.
Luckily, there is an obvious solution. All SF needs is new YA SF that attracts hordes of youthful readers to the field.
This cannot be some optimistic recapitulation of the popular YA SF of yesterday. Kids today are not the kids of 1940 or 1960 or 1980 or 2000 or 2010—the stuff that appealed to their parents, grandparents, or great-great-grandparents won’t appeal to kids of 2024. The Jupiter line offered “Heinlein but modern” and it did not thrive… and that was in the 1990s.
No, what’s needed is something novel, something unprecedented, some magnificent, popular, irresistible science fiction masterpiece [3] that enthralls young adults and revitalizes the entire field singlehanded. YA SF needs a work so remarkable it burns itself into young people’s brains as the exemplar of science fiction, something on which they will base their obsessions, that will shape the work they will one day foist on their own reluctant grandkids.
Like the fellow who poured components onto a table in Apollo 13, I’ve essentially solved the problem. It would be egotistical for me to hoard all the credit, so I will leave the minor task of turning this idea into words on paper to you folks.
Why am I hopeful that one or more authors can fill in the [a miracle occurs here] part of the equation? Because it has happened in the past. I don’t know what shape the next big thing will need to look like. If I did, I would write it myself. But I am sure it can be done.
1: SF in the narrow sense. I don’t have a concise pithy definition but, like U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in a different context, I know it when I see it. ⤴️
2: I can think of two places prose YA SF could be thriving out of my sight. The first is fanfiction, a field so large that indecision prevents me from sampling it. As well, there could be many YA SF books published in other languages. If they aren’t one of the lucky very few to be translated, I won’t see them and I probably won’t hear about them. Perhaps, like humanity in Joanna Russ’ We Who Are About To…, young adult science fiction is thriving… elsewhere.
Another obvious blind spot is my focus on print media to the exclusion of other media. This is a literal blind-spot that I will come back to in another essay. ⤴️
3: Alternatively, this ground-breaking YA work could be complete crap, as long as it’s the right crap at the right time. Who among us does not love some objectively dire work because the stuff it did well, it did well enough at just the right moment in our lives to make up for all ways in which it failed? ⤴️
James Davis Nicoll is a book reviewer and five-time Hugo finalist, four-time Aurora finalist, and CSFFA Hall of Fame nominee. His work can be found at James Nicoll Reviews.
But science fiction is about things like frightful alien entities and their incomprehensible goals and thought processes, whereas Young Adult fiction involves teenagers.
I’m often critical of authors who self publish on Amazon (or elsewhere) calling them “writers, but not really authors” while encouraging them to invest in workshops or community college classes, improve their skills, and then get an agent. I try not to be harsh but sometimes they get very angry (and boycotted for their rudeness!) although many respond more constructively, albeit with preposterous excuses (typically wanting a larger percentage of the haul — alas, on sales of a few hundred books, rather than a smaller percentage on several thousand, go figure…) Often I have appreciated both their sincerity and their struggles, enough so to buy some of their books, although after reading them my opinions rarely change — most of them really should take a few more writing classes — but often I find their work to be okay, even good, but juvenile (or YA as the kids now say) and perhaps if they would recognize this and trim out the sex scenes they’d have better luck with agents and publishers. In any case, this “Fantastic Fiction” post has got me wondering if the problem may actually be with the current state of the industry. If publishers would embrace more YA then the editors and the agents could work with fledgling writers to iron out the kinks, making the stories more acceptable for youth.
I still remember my first Science Fiction book, the one that really pulled me in, an Arrow Book Club edition of Robert Silverberg’s “Lost Race of Mars” which was ULTRA-juvenile, but what the heck? I was only 8 years old! I’ve thanked Bob for having written it on multiple occasions (he sheepishly rolls his eyes, smiles graciously, and compliments my memory). I recently acquired a hardcover first edition of that childish masterpiece which I hope he will autograph for me at next year’s Worldcon!
If a self-pub manages to sell a few hundred copies, they’re actually doing pretty well.
Of course, if a trad pub manages to sell a few hundred copies, they’re not doing unusually badly. The business has gotten very difficult as of late.
Oh for heavens’ sakes! Check out the Lodestar and the Andre Norton Awards.
Some names off the top of my head:
Charlie Jane Anders
K Tempest Bradford
Fran Wilde
Oisin McGann
Philip Reeve
Nnedi Okorafor (who was a Worldcon GoH this year so it took effort to miss her).
And oh so many more.
This is a terrible article.
I can’t quite tell if you were trying for clever and instead landed on racist sexist asshole, or if in fact you are ignorant of the field.
For those who would like to do their own research, you can start by googling “recent young adult science fiction”. (One of the lists I found had Tanith Lee on it, so we can discuss recent, but trust me, plenty of lists.)
For those who would like some recommendations, you could check out Nisi Shawl, or K Tempest Bradford. A little farther from Seattle in 2025, NK Jemisin, Xiran Jay Zhao, Charlie Jane Anders, Susanne Collins, Marissa Meyer, Marie Lu, and Nnedi Okorafor.
Well, this is certainly a take …
I kind of wonder if it was written to provoke traffic from a lot of angry people pointing out just how staggeringly wrong it is. I don’t even really read YA, but can immediately think of several names.
Adding Kate Dylan, Esmie Jikiemi Pearson and Temi Oh to the list of recommendations.
Well, I think one such that’s right under your nose is John E. Stith’s Tiny Time Machine Trilogy – https://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Time-Machine-Complete-Trilogy/dp/B0DJ5BDWHR/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3ARO2RYYODUY1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.SRG2tFZfRXnvCs2GznvOzgqivOB-BiYrNHCHBsy33gfHYGOgRib4UMGeWj67bUqTnZbv6awoIad5tjNOgOfaX-Rl6VMVWx5e94h6TkadzfH4pVLm6TOu1fy8PEHU8XOEbC6ixoNyMUKhZL6gW0dqHllmfhmM9CW84DEPWbm9mJ_Bsq5HT_HlL9jfcGnGG-x8SdCtUvMWjYGsa6NuHRiXQYAlVC83XQz-dzWJKhdQ760.x-fNCAfagA96cIr4MVJzH7ZGLnaRrq01Wv6m4JhHXsY&dib_tag=se&keywords=Tiny+time+machine+trilogy&qid=1728303198&sprefix=tiny+time+machine+trilogy%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1
An editor’s note has been added to this post.
If *only* you knew someone who wrote modern YA SF.
If only…