When I was a kid, I devoured just about anything even remotely booklike that was put in front of me. Sci fi, fantasy, comedy, classic – I read anything and everything. In fact, it wasn’t until I was older that I could even comprehend that people could outright prefer one genre over another. As it is, I still have trouble understanding why people get into arguements over superhero comics being superior to manga or whatever. It just doesn’t compute in my head. That doesn’t make it any less real, however, and apparently the sci fi community has been feeling the crunch since the literary birth of a certain young wizard.
Harry Potter has yet to vanquish his nemesis, Lord Voldemort, and it’s unlikely he will do so in his sixth adventure, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” That would leave very little drama for him in the seventh and ultimate book in the most popular series in publishing history.
But with barely a wave of his wand, the teen wizard has helped shift the playing field in the literary genres of fantasy and science fiction. Where once the two were more or less equal in popularity, now fantasy is dominant, both for young readers and adults. Science fiction, meanwhile, matters less these days as a literary form and more as a visual form – movie screens foremost, as well as video games, and occasionally television.
Good. There’s way too much crap in the sci-fi genre (fantasy, too, for that matter). Sci-fi writers (and, more importantly, publishers) are going to have to bring their A-game to beat back Harry Potter, which will be good for both readers and the genre as a whole.
And one of those responses will force fantasy to improve their overall quality as well.
Honestly, most of the stuff on the fantasy/sci-fi rack of major bookstores is vastly below the quality of anything else in the store — yes, romance novels included. Publishers know they have a captive audience that will gobble up whatever drek they vomit down upon them.
Anything that derails the gravy train is a good thing. Evolve or die.