Edinburgh-based author Charlie Stross tells SciFi Wire his forthcoming book Halting State is mundane. No, not boring or everyday (it would be hard to imagine Charlie’s fiction ever being that), but mundane as in mundane SF, one of these sub-genres that gets writers, reviewers and readers excitedly arguing in the bar of conventions – is it a real sub-genre? A split from the Slipstream fiction everyone in SF was talking about a couple of years ago? A movement in SF? Just a fancy new label? Does it even exist? And if it does, can authors with big beards be a part of it or are they only allowed to belong to the Fantasy side of SF&F? As a bookseller I have to use labels to a certain extent because we need to categorise things or we’d never be able to find them, but even so I’m always wary of sub-genre labelling. None of which makes me want to read the book any less, of course, I’ll be after that when it comes out regardless of what badge it wears.
Thu, Nov 30, 2006
Books, General