ASFFQ : 2000
The
year when fantasy and horror is eclipsed! Looks are often deceiving.
Many observers worried last year about the drastic decrease in
SF short stories and how new authors were attracted by fantasy
and horror. The year 2000's output is correcting everybody's
perceptions. Fantasy and horror have undergone a spectacular
decline, while science fiction has seen a significant resurgence
to which two anthologies contributed, Transes lucides,
edited par René Beaulieu and Guy Sirois, and Futurs
sur mesure, edited by Suzanne Julien, of the Association
des écrivains québécois pour la jeunesse,
(AEQ) [Children's and YA Quebec writers' association].
For the first time since the mid-80s, the number of SF stories is higher than that of fantasy and horror stories in the final tally (38 versus 36). In 1999, the fantasy and horror crop was 93 stories, a normal output compared to previous years. That's quite a drop! One might think it is the result of the disappearance or rarity of specialized fanzines, but those numbers haven't changed much compared with the previous year. In 2000, the specialized magazines published 11 SF stories and 12 fantasy and horror stories. The decrease is being felt rather in collections and anthologies, in which fantasy and horror only totals 19 texts, while that was traditionally its stronghold. It means that the mainstream publishers who were putting out large numbers of fantasy and horror short stories have become more selective.
We can deduce that the number of short stories published in 2000 (74) is the lowest it has been in some time, but these statistics must be qualified by two other indicators: the number of published novels and the number of authors. The novel output has been constantly growing over the last two decades. Professional or established authors have abandoned the short story for the novel because that is where the market is. The year 2000 produced 52 novels or novellas: 20 science fiction and 32 fantasy and horror (including 5 fantasy novels). The number of authors who published at least one original work in 2000 is 88, including 34 who made their first foray into the genres we're interested in. This high number - despite the substantial decrease in the number of texts - and the ratio of new writers (38.6%), help balance out the raw statistics (the short story output), which could have been alarming if evaluated on their own.
We have to accept the obvious: the visibility of science fiction, fantasy and horror in Quebec is more and more dependent on long fiction. To take their place on the bookstore shelves, they must be supported by an abundant output. But is it necessary to publish, on average, one book a week? Of course, there are a good number of novels for children and young adults, but the general, lasting impression is that quality is being lost in a flood of trite, mediocre works. It is the dilemma of this year's production and nothing leads us to believe that the situation will change in the short term. This headlong rush can only be harmful in the long term. Should we go to the extremes of the famous publisher Jean-Jacques Pauvert, who used to say: "The year you only receive manuscripts of bad novels, you'd better publish a good collection of crossword puzzles"?
As I write this annual report, I always have a deep feeling of helplessness when faced with this mass of texts (52 novels, 74 short stories in 2000, I remind you), but above all by its overall eclectic aspect, especially this year. You can find everything but the kitchen sink in there: all flavours of SF: parody (Lima Destroy & Robinette Spa by Mélika Abdelmoumen), feminist (La Salle des conférences by Louky Bersianik), ecological (Le Suicide de la Déesse by Simon Labelle), metaphorical (Rouge Malsain by Luc Lecompte), metaphysical (Marjorie Stonehenge by Patricia Posadas). Ditto for fantasy and horror: historical (the three YA novels by André Noël), poetic (La Voix by Pierre Chatillon), humorous (Diane la foudre by Ghislain Taschereau), existentialist (L'Atlas, l'au-delà by Richard Purdy), psychological (Gare Belle-Étoile by Sylvie Grégoire), epic (L'Arbre-Roi by Gaëtan Picard) and saucy (Les contes érotiques by Renée Robitaille).
Fans of SF, fantasy and horror barely know those names, if
they know them at all. That is normal: 34 authors are newcomers
here. Most of the important authors are there too: Élisabeth
Vonarburg, Yves Meynard, Esther Rochon, Jean-Louis Trudel, Francine
Pelletier, Patrick Senécal... In short, everyone can find
his or her heart's desire in this extremely diverse production,
which has its share of nice surprises, like the erudite and playful
collection by Nicolas Dickner, L'Encyclopédie du petit
cercle. Certainly my discovery of the year.
Claude Janelle
| Original Production | Science Fiction | Fantasy & Horror | Total |
| Novels | 20 | 32 | 52 |
| Short stories in... | 38 | 36 | 74 |
|
21 | 20 | 41 |
| b) specialized magazines | 11 | 12 | 23 |
| c) non-specialized magazines | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| Reissues and/or translations | Science Fiction | Fantasy & Horror | Total |
| Novels | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| Short stories in... | 20 | 20 | 40 |
|
19 | 17 | 36 |
| b) specialized magazines | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| c) non-specialized magazines | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Combined production | Science Fiction | Fantasy & Horror | Total |
| Novels | 20 | 37 | 57 |
| Short stories in... | 58 | 56 | 114 |
|
40 | 37 | 77 |
| b) specialized magazines | 12 | 14 | 26 |
| c) non-specialized magazines | 6 | 5 | 11 |
