2010-2019: A Decade of Change in SF and Fantasy: A Long But Great Read via Tor.com

Yesterday, Tor.com published this long discussion between four members of their team all about the large issues, trends, tropes, and books of the last decade in all of speculative fiction.

In fact, that is important to point out ASAP. They don't list Horror in the title of the piece [because Horror always gets put in the corner] but they 100% discus the horror genre and some of the key titles along with SF and Fantasy.

I am posting this on a Friday because it is long, but totally worth your time. Take a break over the weekend if you can to read this, or bookmark it for later.

You can use the piece for collection development, to help yourself get up to speed in the speculative genres, and to make a display.

Below is the intro and here is the direct link to the entire discussion.

2010-2019: A Decade of Change in Science Fiction & Fantasy

Leah Schnelbach, Christina Orlando, Natalie Zutter and Renata Sweeney

This December brings us to the close of a truly extraordinary and transformative decade for SFF. Epic series like The Wheel of Time finally concluded as A Song of Ice and Fire rose to mainstream prominence on television (with Wheel of Time to follow suit?). Newer stars like N.K. Jemisin rose, while familiar faces like Neil Gaiman published some of their most innovative work yet. We saw the rise of fiction that dealt directly with the ongoing Climate Crisis, works that wrestled with the tumultuous political shifts, cozy space opera, gritty space opera, and literal space opera, with like, actual singing. Zombies faded from favor while orcs and goblins and fishmen found their time to shine. Readers went from celebrating Strong Female Characters to asking for Complicated Female Characters, and the literary landscape became much more inclusive for writers who had previously been marginalized. And, as in every decade, the villains threatened to steal the show entirely.

Four members of the Tor.com fam, Publicity Coordinator Christina Orlando, Tor.com writers Leah Schnelbach and Natalie Zutter, and Tor Books’ Senior Marketing Manager Renata Sweeney sat down for a rollicking, five-hour-long conversation about the decade in genre, discussing trends, favorite books, the heroes and villains who have stuck with them, and even a look forward to some titles that will help define the next decade.

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