Stupid Mundane Manifesto. It's like cancer within most trad publishing sources.
Things that are supposed to be fun and adventurous are as dull as dirt. Read something modern? When it describes its own blurb like this:
Can they evade space fascists, kick-start a rebellion, and save the galaxy all while they each try to find their own way home?
Fuckin hell. Nope, nope with a giant pole that will send that book into the sun. Those that love to read, sci fi and fantasy included, we have to reject this stuff. Those subgenres aren't made for looking at the dirt in our lives, its for uplifting people, taking them to new horizons. Not political claptrap.
Even though I enjoyed a fair amount of the Expanse, I was mostly keen on the outer colony, mars aspects, the ships, the enviros, the PM/Blue Goo Extra Solar Mystery. I could give two shits about the belter vs earther stuff or even mars vs everyone because it was grounded in political crap I wanted to forget about. The review I left for the first book was a test of sorts, sure I did like it but at the time I was seeing how long it would take Amazon to post that review vs some reviews I was doing of Indie Space Opera at the moment. It didn't take amazon long to post my Expanse stuff vs others. I do think there are review gatekeepers in amazon itself. Cause again, some stuff gets posted within a few mins vs 3-4 days.
I think its mostly cause I am burnt out on stuff that beats you down with "too much realism" and too much "one kind of politics." As if that's supposed to be the standard with reading. Its not.
Things that turn me off from books nowadays are much more prevalent and popular. (At least from the outside looking in at some genres/outlets.) It makes me feel like a relic sometimes. What's wrong with wanting:
- Simple strait forward adventures
- Clear Good and Evil
- The Fantastic
- FTL
- Idealism
- Utopia Underpinnings
- Hope/Optimism
- Futuristic Laser Swords and Guns
- The hero or heroine saves the day or both team up to do so. (Some People say Babylon 5 is akin to our current issues but JMS made it so much more then that, he fused the space opera pulp to procedural with a dash of realism with no direct ties to current events or people. Sure he made allegories but it didnt make you think: OH Thats X current year polices!) What was that one article that tried to shit over B5.....lets see: https://www.tor.com/2019/06/13/babylon-5-is-the-greatest-most-terrible-sf-series/comment-page-4/
- Oh yea, frackin Tor. Yep pay no mind to their take on my favorite series. Its filled with Mundane Manifesto mindset. “I hope the future will be like Star Trek, but I’m afraid it’s going to be like Babylon 5.” *laughing*, B5 had a more optimistic future then most current year sci fi novels infused with shallow politics whine fests. In light of ST: Picard show that statement is even more hilarious.
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/may/02/thereallyexcitingsciencefi
But the Mundane manifesto succeeds by being anything but mundane. The
seven stories in Interzone #216 celebrate the real core value of SF -
the sense of wonder that it can inspire in readers. From its early days
in pulp magazines like Amazing Stories, SF has evolved to serve readers'
desire for wonder. From rocketships and rayguns to cyborgs, virtual
reality and the technological singularity, the history of SF has been a
history of finding new ideas to spark the sense of wonder in readers.
Mundane SF succeeds by understanding that the most amazing and
wondrous possibilities now lie not in the depths of space or the far
future, but right here on planet Earth in our very near future. A wave
of technology promises (or perhaps threatens) to effect such enormous
change that the next 20 years will make the last 100 look positively
sedate in comparison. Mundane SF is the literature exploring how those
changes will change our lives, and for all of us living through them it
should be essential reading.
That is not exciting in the least for me. Frack off with that. So many books are left in the dirt with that mindset that its really annoying to search through it all to find something worth while.
These are worth your time:
Most of the protags in these "modern" books are snippy pissed lonely characters and just plain nasty to be around. Me, me, me navel gazing from paper tiger female icon protags that are just Capt. No Boob 111022357 in nature. Like a copy/paste program of "Strong Female Empowahment Character" that this reader is sick to death of.
- I dont need no man, not even a dad or a brother or a male friend. Esp not a genuine Husband. How else do you think other humans got here? Sure in sci fi you can make that different with tech but it doesn't mean throw away either men or women.
- I can do things better then any man can
- All the mens are teh evils
- Only wahmen goodest bois.
- The Female Man
- What feminine qualities? We give you what you want! NO MORE MEN ROLES!
- Sexy? Whats that?
- The Gor series in Reverse Mode. Why? Seriously why? Strong doesnt mean denying a female character feminine agency to keep up with a man.
- In YA land: FRACK OFF WITH THE LOVE TRIANGLES! Esp if the men in question are cardboard cutouts for uplifting the wahmen from her atrocious behavior.
Men and women still need each other. As friends, confidants, family ect.
Regress Harder as PulpRev says. Only then will this relic find what she is looking for: Fun.
The Mundane wants to be the fart sniffer of sci fi and fantasy. A higher calling or literary "college" reading book. That is the pathway to killing off reader enthusiasm. At any level. For most books they wanted me to read in school, all the way to college, cliff notes saved me from reading through boring, trite, fart huffing failures.
So raise a glass, pour it on the Mundane Manifesto and light the match. No one will miss it.
