Strange Horizons - aug-2002

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Strange Horizons, August 2002

by Strange Horizons, Inc.

Strange Horizons, Inc.

www.strangehorizons.com

individual author copyrights at end of articles

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Strange Horizons, August 2002

by Strange Horizons, Inc.

CONTENTS

Article: Rare Bird in Parts: The State of the SF Serial, by

Rich Horton

Article: Interview: Jon Courtenay Grimwood, by Cheryl

Morgan

Article: Perpetual Nonsense, by Charles Mirho

Article: Figure-Eight in the Sky, by Brian Tung

Fiction: Mr. Muerte and the Eyeball Kid, by Sean Klein,

illustration by Alain Valet

Fiction: Feel of Heaven, Texture of Hell, by Kennneth

Brady

Fiction: Talisman, by Tracina Jackson-Adams

Fiction: Other Cities #12 of 12: Stin, by Benjamin

Rosenbaum

Fiction: Looking Back, by Corie Ralston

Poetry: Howling with Ginsberg, by Phil Wright

Poetry: My Infatuation with Chaos, by Jonathan Price

Poetry: It Wears You, by Ann K. Schwader

Poetry: chaos, by Jessica Langer

Review: Ian Watson's The Great Escape, reviewed by Paul

Shumacher

Review: Steve Aylett's Shamanspace, reviewed by Nick

Brownlow

Review: Alexander Irvine's A Scattering of Jades, reviewed

by Theodora Goss

Review: Kate Bernheimer's The Complete Tales of Ketzia

Gold, reviewed by Christopher Barzak

Strange Horizons, August 2002

by Strange Horizons, Inc.

Editorial: WorldCon 2002: A Pre-Con Report

Strange Horizons, August 2002

by Strange Horizons, Inc.

Rare Bird in Parts: The State of the SF Serial

By Rich Horton

8/5/02

Once upon a time, almost all new SF novels, at least those

published within the genre, were published in magazines.

Usually this meant serialization: the novel would appear in

several parts (usually two to four) over a period of some

months. (On occasion, a shortish novel might be published

complete in one issue of certain of the thicker pulps.) Only

later, sometimes years later, sometimes never, would a novel

be published in book form.

After World War II, when specialty SF publishers appeared,

and paperback books became a major market category, many

more SF books began to appear. The market was soon big

enough for more novels than could be accommodated in the

genre magazines, and many SF novels began to appear first

as books. This process accelerated over time, and by the

1980s there were hundreds of SF books published per year,

only a few of which were reprints of serializations. Still, when

I was first reading SF magazines, in the 1970s, most

magazines ran serials fairly often, even if they represented

only a small fraction of the total novels published.

Nowadays, though, just after the turn of the millennium,

serials have become quite rare birds. Unusual enough that

the publication of a serial in Asimov's was worthy of special

comment. Unusual enough that one way for the new Scottish

magazine Spectrum SF to distinguish itself is to publish

Strange Horizons, August 2002

by Strange Horizons, Inc.

serials. Unusual enough that I doubt many people notice very

much that they are almost gone.

Why the Decline?

Why the decline of serials? There are a number of fairly

sensible reasons. Readers evidently are resistant to waiting

too long to assemble all the parts of a complete serial: even

monthly magazines don't like to make the readers wait more

than three months (four issues) from the first installment to

the last. For publications that publish less frequently, as for

example Absolute Magnitude, the reader must wait even

longer.

The increased length of contemporary SF novels is another

important factor. A three-part serial is typically 60,000 or

70,000 words, and at most a little over 90,000. A four-part

serial might range up to 110,000 words. Thirty years ago,

most SF novels were only 70,000 words long or so—these

days it is rare to see a novel of less than 100,000 words, and

novels of 150,000 to 200,000 words or more are quite

common. Thus, most recent Analog serials have been four-

parters, and even at that length, they are often expanded

when published in book form. (For example, last year's

Analog serial, Ben Bova's “The Precipice,” was about 105,000

words. The book was some 130,000 words. To be sure, it was

not uncommon in the past for the book version of a story to

be expanded from the serial version, but not usually so

drastically.)

Which is to say that when a magazine is offering a serial,

they are often offering the reader a shorter version of the

Strange Horizons, August 2002

by Strange Horizons, Inc.

novel. They are also often asking the reader to wait up to

three months or more to assemble the complete novel. They

risk turning off the casual newsstand buyer, who might

encounter Part 2 without having seen Part 1 or expecting to

see Part 3. They risk turning off subscribers who plan to buy

certain books anyway, and who may feel that the serial is

taking up space that would better have been dedicated to

additional stories. In contrast to the early days of the genre,

SF novels are routinely published as books, so readers are

used to getting their long stories from outside the magazines.

And, finally, the magazines are in the position of having no

chance to publish many significant novels, those which would

be impractical to cut to a serializable length. It's no wonder

that serials are becoming uncommon.

F&SF editor Gordon van Gelder, asked about his position

on serials, confirmed that he has no plans to publish any,

though he doesn't call that a hard and fast rule. But he

argues that a good serial will likely see book publication

anyway: why take up space that could be used to publish

more good short fiction? Asimov's editor Gardner Dozois

expressed the same idea, mentioning in particular his

fondness for novellas, and noting that the space taken up by

serial parts is exactly that space most readily occupied by

novellas. Novellas have a hard enough time finding homes—

should we cut their slots even further? And Paul Fraser, editor

of the serial-friendly new magazine Spectrum SF, cautions

that book publishers often control serial rights, instead of

authors, which can make it more difficult for magazines to

acquire serials.

Strange Horizons, August 2002

by Strange Horizons, Inc.

Why Have Them at All, Then?

But of course there are positives to serials. Readers like

novels, after all—evidence suggests that they like them more

than they like short stories. (After all, novels generally sell

much better than short story collections.) So why not offer

them the occasional novel? Even for a reader who buys plenty

of novels, a serial can be an inexpensive way to get a novel

they wouldn't otherwise buy—and sometimes well in advance

of book publication. (One reader even told me that he

sometimes reads the first parts of serials to evaluate the

entire novel. If he likes it, he will either look for the next

issues of the magazine, or just buy the book. If he doesn't

like it, he is happy to have only wasted the time and money

for one part.)

In particular, a serial might represent a good way to try

out an unfamiliar writer. This may be especially important for

those writers whose forte is novels—many writers simply

aren't as effective at shorter lengths, and trying to evaluate

them based on short stories might be unfair to them, and

might not accurately reflect the strengths of their novels. And

from the magazine publishers’ financial viewpoint, the word

rate for serials is often less than that for shorter fiction, so

they can fill the same number of pages of fiction at a lower

cost.

And the writers? Indeed, writers can benefit quite

powerfully from serialization in a popular magazine. Look at

the dramatic results for a number of recent Analog serials.

Going back to 1988, Lois McMaster Bujold's Falling Free was a

Strange Horizons, August 2002

by Strange Horizons, Inc.

surprise winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel. Surely

the exposure, and the many extra readers, gained from the

Analog publication, were a major factor in the novel's favor.

Asked about this, Bujold said “It's unlikely that more than a

fraction of the same 60,000 SF readers ... would have picked

up my little original paperback in the bookstores.” Note that

even though sales of original paperbacks at that time were

probably roughly comparable to Analog's circulation, the

magazine's readers represented a largely different swath of

the overall SF readership—hopefully gaining the author a new

set of readers who would look for her books in the bookstore

in the future. (I myself was one of those Analog readers who

didn't try Bujold until she appeared in the magazine.)

Bujold went on to win a Hugo for another Analog serial,

Barrayar. She doesn't rule out placing further novels with

Analog, though she confirms some of the difficulties with

doing this. She points out that many of her later novels have

been too long for serialization, and that it can be hard to

coordinate magazine publishing schedules with book

publishing schedules. She also points out an interesting new

wrinkle: her publisher, Baen Books, releases new novels in

online versions called “webscriptions.” Often this involves sort

of a partial serialization, whereby the first several chapters

will be posted piecemeal over some months prior to

publication. This too might complicate the scheduling of a

magazine serial.

Another somewhat unexpected Nebula winner was Robert

J. Sawyer's The Terminal Experiment, serialized in Analog in

1994/1995 as “Hobson's Choice.” And very recently,

Strange Horizons, August 2002

by Strange Horizons, Inc.

Catherine Asaro received her first major SF award, the

Nebula, for The Quantum Rose, about half of which was

serialized in Analog in 1999. For a writer, having a novel

serialized pretty much guarantees exposure to quite a few

new readers, likely including readers who would otherwise

have skipped the book. It may also be true that the

readership of the magazines is more closely aligned with the

subset of SF readers (and, in the case of the Nebula, writers)

who vote for the major awards.

There is one other useful aspect of serialization: it provides

a niche for publishing stories in the awkward range of 30,000

to 60,000 words. Stories of this length, these days, are

mostly considered too short for books, but too long to fit in

single issues of magazines. An answer is the serial,

particularly the two-part serial. Interzone, which only has

room for about 40,000 words of fiction per issue, often uses

this format for longer novellas. Analog also often features

short novels of about 40,000 words as two-part serials—likely

a novel such as P. J. Plauger's “Wergild” (1994), or Edward M.

Lerner's forthcoming Analog serial “Survival Instinct,” would

never have seen print in any other form. (Although Lerner

notes that his serial was originally two novellas, which worked

better combined into one story. One wonders if writers aiming

at publishable lengths tend to avoid the 45,000 word slot—

even when it's the right length for a given piece.)

On the other hand, Gardner Dozois believes that novellas

are best read as a unit, and he doesn't feel they are well

served by publication in parts. Novels, on the other hand,

generally a bit more episodic and more leisurely paced, may

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