Squidsquatch. A new interview (almost) every day. A single question. The subject one day becomes interviewer the next.

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Sean Williams: For years now, people have been predicting that biotech will sweep over SF as the hottest fad. Seems to me, though, that the New Space Opera just keeps on keeping on, with biotech tagging along for the ride in the form of increased lifespans and other items on the post-human wishlist. What’s your take on the future of science fiction (and/or fantasy)? What trends have you seen that might be lurking ahead? Most importantly: are we space opera writers going to be out of a job any time soon?

Jonathan Strahan: Space opera writers are never going to be out of job. The audience for science fiction has grown to the extent that there are enough readers who self-identify with a kind of fiction that they can support the writers who create it.

What has changed is the idea that science fiction is truly in dialogue with itself. What I think is happening is that the centre failed to hold, science itself became too complicated and much less amenable to the simple engineering solutions of Golden Age SF, and there is so much new science fiction being published today that writers can’t read even the major works. That means that a writer today can publish a major cutting edge work and it could have almost no influence on the field because no *writers* read it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is a new thing. The days of someone writing a book, everyone reading it, and a bunch of people writing work in response to it are essentially gone.

As to what the trends are: well, the new space opera (the old space opera with a nifty new paint job) will continue to be the traditional heart of science fiction - there’s simply no escaping that adventures with rocketships are the pure quill. However, I think Geoff Ryman’s mundane SF will gain a little more notoriety, while singularity-based SF may be on the wane. Surprisingly maybe, I think the whole steampunk/zeppelin thing may be the next major trend after all. It’s fun, it’s full of cool engineering stuff that guys like. It’s sort of like the fun of Golden Age SF without having to deal with all that annoying real science. I think over the next couple years we might see quite a few steampunk books and stories. As to biotech - didn’t we already do that? <g>

Jonathan Strahan is one of the most respected editors in the genre. He co-founded and co-edited Eidolon, arguably the most impressive small press magazine in sf history. He worked as assistant editor at Locus: The Newspaper of the Science Fiction Field, for which he still acts as Reviews Editor from the other side of the world. In recent years Jonathan has edited and published a string of acclaimed anthologies and collections and has another ten in the pipeline to 2009. Everything Jonathan publishes is of outstanding quality, from single-author collections to massive anthologies and annual Best-Of wranglings. His blog is Notes from Coode Street.