Analysis of science fiction published in January 2014 in the US.



I was prompted to write this week’s post after I made a comment that a lot of the books published by one of the major science fiction publishers in the US seemed to be awful pulp fiction: full of mad scientists and buff alpha males saving damsels in distress. I was further prompted by an article where John Marsden, Australia’s biggest selling young adult novelist, said that publishers were sick of dystopian novels. So I decided to analyse the 16 science fiction books listed in a Tor blog post that were to be published in January.  

Of the 16 books listed, one is definitely fantasy, and two others are non-fiction books about science fiction, so I have removed them from my analysis.   

Fugitive X, Gregg Rosenblum (Harper Teen)

Concept: A war against robots who control the world.
Sub-genre: Dystopian
Series: Yes, it is the second book in a series.
Market: Young adult.
Debut Novel: No, the author had been published before.
Nationality of Author: American.
Game Slaves, Gard Skinner (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Concept: Self-aware AIs try to escape from a virutal world/game.
Sub-genre: Cyberpunk
Series: No
Market: Young Adult
Debut Novel: Yes
Nationality of Author: American.

Independent Study, Joelle Charbonneau  (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Concept: After a devastating war, the government tries to erase brutal memories from the mind of one of its chosen young leaders.
Sub-genre: Dystopian
Series: Second in a series
Market: Young adult
Debut novel: No.
Nationality of Author: American.

Journey Into the Flame, T.R. Williams (Atira)

Concept: After a solar storm sends the world dark, the teachings of an ancient book turn the world around, but the book falls into the wrong hands.
Sub-genre: Soft science fiction, could be dystopian
Series: First in a series
Market: Adult
Debut novel: This appears to be his debut novel
Nationality of Author: American.

C-Monkeys and Gamification Keith Hollihan (ChiZine)

Two novellas in the one book.
Concept:  A science fiction pulp fiction magazine leads a researcher to an island where scientists genetically engineer salamanders who plan to take over the world.
Sub-genre: Pulp fiction
Series: Two novellas make this a series
Market: Adult?
Debut novel: No, he appears to have written at least one other novel.
Nationality: Born in Canada, lives/lived in the US.

Star Road: A Novel, Matthew J. Costello and Rick Hautala (Thomas Dunne)

Concept: An ex-rebel leader is on a secret mission to the furthest reaches of the galaxy.
Sub-genre: Space opera/military
Series: Not yet
Market: Adult
Debut novel: Both authors have had other novels published.
Rick Hautala was a big selling author before he died in March 2013.
Mathew J Costello appears to be American.

Vitro, Jessica Khoury (Razorbill)

Concept: Scientists create superhuman embryos on a secret island. (Not the same one with the ancient salamanders on it.) Sophie and a hunky pilot investigate.
Sub-genre: Pulp fiction
Series: Not yet
Market: Young Adult
Debut novel: No, she has written two other novels
Nationality: American.

The Echo,  James Smythe (Harper Voyager)

Concept: Twin scientists investigate a vast blackness of space where a spaceship disappeared.
Sub-genre: Space Opera
Series: Yes, this is a sequel
Market: Adult
Debut novel: No, he has written at least three other novels
Nationality: British – could be Welsh.

Halo: Mortal Dictata, Karen Traviss (Tor)

Concept: A black ops team tries to stop the father of a comrade attacking Earth with plasma bombs from an orbiting spacecraft. 
Sub-genre: Military
Series: Yes, it’s the third novel in a subseries within a series of twelve novels.
Market: Adult
Debut novel: No, the author has written many novels that are parts of series including Star Wars.
Nationality: English.

A Darkling Sea, James Cambias(Tor)

Concept: A war breaks out between humans and aliens after human scientists investigate a planet inhabited by a second alien race.
Sub-genre:  First Contact
Series: No
Market: Adult
Debut novel: Yes
Nationality: American.

Lines of Departure, Marko Kloos (47North)

Concept: During an interstellar conflict, an officer is reassigned to a ship bound for a distant colony and crewed by malcontents and troublemakers.
Sub-genre: Military
Series: Yes, this is the second novel with the same main character
Market: Adult
Debut novel: No
Nationality: German, but now lives in the US.

Red Rising, Pierce Brown (Del Rey)

Concept: A worker in a mine on a planet discovers he has been deceived by those living above ground and he rebels.
Sub-genre: Dystopian.
Series: Yes, this is the first book in a trilogy
Market: Adult
Debut novel: Yes
Nationality: American.

Sub-genre


Three of the books sound dystopian, and another one could be. Three are military, I would classify two as pulp fiction, two as space operas, one is cyberpunk and one is first contact. So perhaps there isn’t as much pulp fiction being released as I feared. I prefer science fiction that explores ideas or puts characters in harsh situations and we follow their attempts to survive. So I am glad to see that around a third of the books are dystopian.

Series


Eight of the 13 books are part of or the start of a series. Wow.

Market


Four of the novels are aimed at young adults, that’s about 30%, a rather high proportion. Take note John Marsden, two of those four young adult novels appear to be dystopian.

Debut novel


The fact that many of the books were part of a series meant that there were only four debut novelists. Considering a new writer’s manuscript has to compete against further novels from already published authors, I reckon four out of 13 authors debuting is very good.

Nationality


Nine of the authors were American. Two others moved to the US. Two were British.

What About Me?


As an Australian, my best chance of being published in the US appears to involve moving there and writing a dystopian or military trilogy.

In my next blog post I will check out what science fiction people are actually enjoying reading to see if it matches what the publishers are publishing.

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