{"id":1459,"date":"2010-01-24T12:16:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-24T12:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=1459"},"modified":"2018-11-20T05:32:26","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:32:26","slug":"what-i-meant-when-i-said-that-abou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=1459","title":{"rendered":"What I Meant When I Said That About Science Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Greetings to Charlie Jane &#038; any io9 Peeps, who may have wandered thisward from the recent <a href=\"http:\/\/io9.com\/5454990\/is-the-golden-age-of-ya-science-fiction-already-over\" target= _blank><i>Is the Golden Age of YA Science Fiction Already Over?<\/i><\/a> conversation at <a href=\"http:\/\/io9.com\/\" target= _blank>io9<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_nIccA6r7lXY\/S1w_p4XuPoI\/AAAAAAAABv8\/oyePjeJDPdE\/s1600-h\/sff_ya.png\" target=_blank title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" hspace=\"10\" src=\"https:\/\/writingya.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/sff_ya.png\" align=\"left\" \/><\/a>Gail @ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gailgauthier.com\/2010\/01\/my-family-thinks-ive-made-it.htm\" target= _blank>Original Content<\/a> gave me a heads-up about the conversation at io9 where we were both quoted.<\/p>\n<p>To clarify the comments about YA Science Fiction I made here the other day: we saw vampires and zombies on the nomination list <a href=\"http:\/\/dadtalk.typepad.com\/cybils\/2009-nominations-fantasyscience-fiction.html\" target= _blank>on the Cybils F&#038;SF list<\/a> this year. Of 134 books nominated in the young adult fantasy and science fiction category, we had few of what we can consider to be \u201creal\u201d science fiction \u2013 the kind that relies on actual science. (I can\u2019t speak to what the middle grade science fiction and fantasy team faced, since I wasn\u2019t on that committee, but their nomination list is also online <a href=\"http:\/\/dadtalk.typepad.com\/cybils\/2009-nominations-fantasyscience-fiction.html\" target= _blank>right here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>This year, we read:<\/p>\n<ul><\/p>\n<li>Patrick Ness\u2019 <i>The Ask and the Answer<\/i>, which some might argue is fantasy<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><i>Candor<\/i> by Pam Bachorz,<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><i>The Carbon Diaries 2015<\/i>, by Saci Lloyd, <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>and of course the Suzanne Collins sequel, <i>Catching Fire<\/i>. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><i>The Tomorrow Code<\/i>, by Brian Falkner<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><i>Falling Bakward<\/i> by Henry Melton<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>We enjoyed the excellent short story anthology in <i>Firebirds Soaring<\/i>,<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>the intriguing cyberpunk <i>Levithan<\/i> by Scott Westerfeld<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><i>Fire<\/i>, by Kristin Cashore, which may or may not count, depending on your point of view, and your definition of &#8220;monsters,&#8221;<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><i>The Walls Have Eyes<\/i>, by Clare B. Dunkle<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>and <i>Zenith<\/i> by Julie Bertanga<\/li>\n<p><b>EDITED TO ADD<\/b><\/p>\n<li><i>The Maze Runner<\/i>, by James Dashner,<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><i>Academy 7<\/i>, by Anne Osterlund<\/li>\n<p><\/ul>\n<p>(Fellow FSF Cybs peeps, please tap me if I missed any.) Of 134 books, eleven science fiction books just didn\u2019t seem to be a good balance for a category that is Fantasy AND Science Fiction. <\/p>\n<p><b>Please note<\/b>, this was not to say that there have been no YA science fiction books written &#8212; I repeat my plea, we <i>want<\/i> to hear about them at Finding Wonderland, especially those with multicultural characters. My complaint, as Charlie Jane reported, was that they weren\u2019t nominated for the Cybils, and that they\u2019re not being talked up as much in the general blogosphere.<\/p>\n<p>This post is also not to down fantasy. You know we love our fantasy &#8211; including fairytale retellings and the occasional superhero. I\u2019m just finding that my interest in vampires and zombies, werewolves, and faeries, even, has thinned down remarkably. <i>Twilight\u2019s<\/i> massive success and editors seeking a piece of it have supersaturated the market with the undead and the everliving. I&#8217;d love to see people just as excited about books which underscore discovery, identity, exploration. Surely they can be as awesome as the undead, the immortals, and other revenants. <\/p>\n<p>The thing is, I still believe we&#8217;ve got to dream the future before we can see it, and science fiction is all about the dream. The younger we start dreaming of a better world, the stronger the hope that we can have it. With science fiction, we can rewrite the future. <b>We need it.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Greetings to Charlie Jane &#038; any io9 Peeps, who may have wandered thisward from the recent Is the Golden Age of YA Science Fiction&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-1459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fantasy-sci-fi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5972,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions\/5972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}