Why we need more Sci Fi in YA
At roughly the 5 to 6-year mark, I saw Star Wars: Episode IV for the first time. It changed my perception of reality and how greater things awaited me beyond Peter and Jane, and my dear collection of Ladybird books.
All of a sudden, my mind expanded and the odd chair next to the table became a world filled with weird characters and danger looming from all corners. It was great. Soon came the weekly visit to the news agents to spend what little pence I had on comics or whatever I could get my hands on to feel engrossed.
Joy.
By the age of 9, I read novellas, and then the influx of new experiences dwindled a little. There wasn’t much Science Fiction, or Fantasy novels to fill my appetite. Sure – there were stuff, but nothing that broke away from set formulas or opened up new paths. At the library I’d find many adult Sci-Fi books with adult characters doing adult things. A lot of YA novels in the 1990’s were gimmicky and made me wonder if the joy from when I was young remained there.
Many would say to me: Why do you read those sort of books for? It’s all make-believe. It’ll never happen.
Why? Why?
Well . . . why do you watch serials? Why do you listen to music? Why do you go on a holiday? To escape. To leave behind the doldrums of life and to step into a window of opportunity where every page turn is unexpected . . . and even when it is expected, you’re glad it happened.
Thankfully, in the last 10 years, there has been a steady increase in the number of Sci-Fi YA novels. Slowly they are changing the old-age concept that all Sci-Fi was space opera, or princesses being rescued by smugglers and walking rugs.
I’m blinking glad.
And although my first novel: The Last Strider was fantasy, I altered it in 2011 to be more techno-fantasy, thus adding sci-fi elements. After that, my next batch of novels are sci-fi. I’ve gone back to what I adored as a child.
And what’s greater is how sci-fi writers are mixing the genres. Romance is filtering in. Political espionage. Segregation. I have to give credit to Maria V Snyder with Inside Out, and Beth Revis for Across the Universe. They have certainly provided me with vision of how to take a sci-fi story and not make it totally sci-fi. They’ve opened up emotions to a new generation. The young of today are seeing technology expand around them at lightning speed, and the ‘it’ll never happen’ is happening. So taking the now and thrusting it into a warped diversion is possible.
Of course – with my novels, there will be androids, force fields, and other techy buttons, but the root of the plot and the arc of the characters is deeper personality that if you stripped out the sci-fi bits, could still work.
Science fiction in YA can take several exciting paths.
I’m here for the ride.
I’m young again.
I was a little older when I watched Star Wars for the first time, 9 maybe 10, but I became totally addicted and even read all the Star Wars books. My first adventure in writing was sic-fi and I’ve now tackled chick-lit and currently testing my skills with a medical thriller.
Regardless of the genre it’s always great to mix it up a bit.
Enjoy the ride!
Nat
I can see cross-genre happening more with sic-fi.
Soon we’ll have chick-lit in space, and maybe a futuristic Pride and Prejudice where Mr Darcy is a cloned combination of two men who actually hate one another…. (okay, even I’m confused by that now)
I can recommend an excellent Pride and Prejudice sci-fi sequel – Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens by Jonathan Pinnock – it’s awesome and utterly hilarious!
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Life long sci-fi fan here! Hell, I saw Episode One three times back to back on the day it opened – even after I realised it was a pile of shit…
But I LOVE sci-fi, and can’t get enough of it – if ever there is a genre with limitless potential, where your imagination can run riot – it’s this. So I fully intend to dabble a bit myself, just as soon as I get the real world stuff out of the way!
Three times!
Were you stuck to your seat?
Areas of sci fi that still need to be expanded are time travel and parallel universes…. and that’s what I hope to exploit with my 4th novel.
Sci-fi seems ge.nerally to be a rather side-lined genre and treated with suspicion by a lot of readers. It’s a mystery why this is so because there are many fabulous sci-fi writers out there. I’ve discovered some wonderful indie authors in the genre. And you’re right, there should be more sci-fi for kids. it would open their minds up and inspire their creativity.
Sometimes Sci-Fi readers get labelled as Geeks (which isn’t always a bad term) – but the reality of now, is that sci fi of yore is coming true. Who’d have thought that we’d have mobile phones and communication portals like Twitter?
Thankfully, modern directors are spinning sci fi to be more appealing to cinema goers (take the reboot of Star Trek), and I hope that will pull readers to this genre.
I was a bit older when I saw my first SW film….I’ve never forgotten that feeling of being taken away somewhere completely new.