There aren't that many works of fanfic out there that I feel have some sort of conscious, independent relationship with the SF genre as a whole, outside of their relationship with their source text.
Hm. I hadn't thought about it, but now that you put it in those terms, you're right - I can't come up with any fics that fit the bill. Not off the top of my head, anyway.
Honestly, I think Your Cowboy Days Are Over comes closer to that than just about any other work of fanfic I can think of; that may be a side effect of you taking the core elements of the SGA universe in such a different direction than the original creators did -- a direction involving the kind of rigorous world-building that is characteristic of good sci-fi. (And not characteristic of the show. Ahem.)
There may be other such works out there, but that's typically not what I'm searching for when I sit down to read fanfic, so it probably shouldn't be surprising that I rarely find it.
involving the kind of rigorous world-building that is characteristic of good sci-fi
I can't think of a wildly popular fandom whose source text fits that bill, either, so it's perhaps no surprise that the fanfic doesn't. (Is Star Trek considered rigorous world-building? Can't imagine it is.) Perhaps SF book-based fandoms are different? I've never read SF or fantasy (I've skimmed through a couple of things, like Dune, but that's about it); all my exposure to SF has been visual, so I can't speak to that hypothesis.
There's gotta be more out there, though; especially in canons like SG, where the whole point is that each new adventure takes you to a whole new world.
Comments 3
Hm. I hadn't thought about it, but now that you put it in those terms, you're right - I can't come up with any fics that fit the bill. Not off the top of my head, anyway.
Reply
There may be other such works out there, but that's typically not what I'm searching for when I sit down to read fanfic, so it probably shouldn't be surprising that I rarely find it.
Reply
I can't think of a wildly popular fandom whose source text fits that bill, either, so it's perhaps no surprise that the fanfic doesn't. (Is Star Trek considered rigorous world-building? Can't imagine it is.) Perhaps SF book-based fandoms are different? I've never read SF or fantasy (I've skimmed through a couple of things, like Dune, but that's about it); all my exposure to SF has been visual, so I can't speak to that hypothesis.
There's gotta be more out there, though; especially in canons like SG, where the whole point is that each new adventure takes you to a whole new world.
Reply
Leave a comment