Why I am going off a lot of recent SF.

[clifford wright]

Now I've been reading SF since the 1950's, just lately though I have
noticed that many of my favoutite authors, like David Weber, Eric Flint
and even Larry Niven have been less appealing. So much so that I have
even failed to finish some of their recent works.

Well, after giving up on Nivens last "Ringworld" novel I think I know
what's wrong!
Everyone (or almost everyone) has become obsessed with dialogue!

Somewhere along the line descriptive writing has gone out of the window
and far too many writers are (in a way) writing a script instead.

The very worst expression of this is some of David Weber's "fill ins"
for the "Honorverse" series. I tried 3 of them, after enjoying all the
originals, but was unable to finish 1 completely.

Just think back to A.C.Clarke or even further back to H.G Wells.
Sure they used dialogue, but there were many memorable and
classic descriptive passages.
"The nine billion names of God" doesn't end with dialogue just
"overhead and without any fuss the stars were going out!"
An image which probably made that short story such a classic.

Now, am I just old and tired? Or have others noticed the same tendency?

[Your Name]

Post by clifford wright
Now I've been reading SF since the 1950's, just lately though I have
noticed that many of my favoutite authors, like David Weber, Eric Flint
and even Larry Niven have been less appealing. So much so that I have
even failed to finish some of their recent works.
Well, after giving up on Nivens last "Ringworld" novel I think I know
what's wrong! Everyone (or almost everyone) has become obsessed with
dialogue!
Somewhere along the line descriptive writing has gone out of the window
and far too many writers are (in a way) writing a script instead.
The very worst expression of this is some of David Weber's "fill ins"
for the "Honorverse" series. I tried 3 of them, after enjoying all the
originals, but was unable to finish 1 completely.
Just think back to A.C.Clarke or even further back to H.G Wells.
Sure they used dialogue, but there were many memorable and
classic descriptive passages.
"The nine billion names of God" doesn't end with dialogue just
"overhead and without any fuss the stars were going out!"
An image which probably made that short story such a classic.
Now, am I just old and tired? Or have others noticed the same tendency?

Personally it was Herbert's seemingly never ending descriptions of desert
sand (pages and pages of it!) that put me right off reading Dune and not
even bothering to look at the sequels ... we get it already, the desert
planet has LOTS of sand, it's now page 54, get on with the story! (Yes,
I'm exaggerating, but only little.)

Reading continual dialogue can also be a bit silly (you may was well read
the movie / play script). There needs to be some sort of balance between
the two. In some cases lots of dialogue could well be done on purpose to
make it easier for potential movie / TV rights and of course does happen a
lot when coming the other way (from movies / TV shows / comic books to
book versions).

[clifford wright]

Post by Your Name

Post by clifford wright
Now I've been reading SF since the 1950's, just lately though I have
noticed that many of my favoutite authors, like David Weber, Eric
Flint and even Larry Niven have been less appealing. So much so that
I have even failed to finish some of their recent works.
Well, after giving up on Nivens last "Ringworld" novel I think I know
what's wrong! Everyone (or almost everyone) has become obsessed with
dialogue!
Somewhere along the line descriptive writing has gone out of the
window and far too many writers are (in a way) writing a script
instead.
The very worst expression of this is some of David Weber's "fill ins"
for the "Honorverse" series. I tried 3 of them, after enjoying all
the originals, but was unable to finish 1 completely.
Just think back to A.C.Clarke or even further back to H.G Wells.
Sure they used dialogue, but there were many memorable and
classic descriptive passages.
"The nine billion names of God" doesn't end with dialogue just
"overhead and without any fuss the stars were going out!"
An image which probably made that short story such a classic.
Now, am I just old and tired? Or have others noticed the same
tendency?

Personally it was Herbert's seemingly never ending descriptions of
desert sand (pages and pages of it!) that put me right off reading
Dune and not even bothering to look at the sequels ... we get it
already, the desert planet has LOTS of sand, it's now page 54, get on
with the story! (Yes, I'm exaggerating, but only little.)
Reading continual dialogue can also be a bit silly (you may was well
read the movie / play script). There needs to be some sort of balance
between the two. In some cases lots of dialogue could well be done on
purpose to make it easier for potential movie / TV rights and of
course does happen a lot when coming the other way (from movies / TV
shows / comic books to book versions).

Yes exactly so. A balance should be the aim in novel writing of any genre.
However I find it very hard to believe that everyone expects a movie
or TV series to be made from their book.
Of course my wife (a retired English teacher) pointed out to me that
these books were indeed like a script when I discussed it with her.

I understand your feelings about "Dune" it does take a while to get going,
but after all it is just an SF paraphrase of the tales of the companions of
Mohammed, I've always understood. The problem with many recent books is
that they NEVER get past the dialogue.

An interesting author is L.E Modesitt Jnr it took me several goes to get
into his novels. Finally I had to stick with them for about 50 pages, once
I got that far they all seemed to "lock on" and became enjoyable.

David Weber for example can and does write many VERY readable and enjoyable
books, I guess that's why I was so stunned by some of his recent work.

But can we come up with any special reason why this current fashion has
come about to such an extent, other than movie and TV?

[Your Name]

Post by clifford wright
Yes exactly so. A balance should be the aim in novel writing of any genre.
However I find it very hard to believe that everyone expects a movie
or TV series to be made from their book.
Of course my wife (a retired English teacher) pointed out to me that
these books were indeed like a script when I discussed it with her.
I understand your feelings about "Dune" it does take a while to get going,
but after all it is just an SF paraphrase of the tales of the companions of
Mohammed, I've always understood. The problem with many recent books is
that they NEVER get past the dialogue.
An interesting author is L.E Modesitt Jnr it took me several goes to get
into his novels. Finally I had to stick with them for about 50 pages, once
I got that far they all seemed to "lock on" and became enjoyable.
David Weber for example can and does write many VERY readable and enjoyable
books, I guess that's why I was so stunned by some of his recent work.
But can we come up with any special reason why this current fashion has
come about to such an extent, other than movie and TV?

Probably just the same general "dumbing down of the human race" cause as
applies to the vast quantity of garbage "reality" TV these days. :-(