“A book like this has no start and no end. These are things we’ve been thinking about and will go on thinking about, they’re part of a conversation older than we are and that will carry on longer than we will.” (p. 352)
Jo Walton and Ada Palmer, two Award winning writers, share their years of conversations about Science Fiction and Fantasy. As Jo Walton puts it, Trace Elements (2026) “will join nonfiction works like Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Language of the Night, Samuel R. Delany’s The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, and Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud on the short shelf of titles essential to all readers of our genre.” I agree.
I’m a fan of Jo Walton’s solo volume, What Makes This Book Great (2014) (you can read my review here). If you’re a fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy, this is a must-read!
“Our greatest hope, of course, is that this book will be the middle of a conversation, as you who read these pieces chew on them, share them, debate them, harvest the terms and observations useful to your own ongoing thoughts about the interwoven world of stories we all love, and say new things.” (p. 553)
What more can you ask from a wonderful, nonfiction book on Science Fiction and Fantasy? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Section 1: Genre; or, The Modern Proteus — 1
Integral to the Plot: The Author-Reader Contract –3
The Science Fiction Conversation: Imprint SF — 22
Genre Pacing and Protocols, or What is Genre? — 35
Poem: By Their Spaceship Ye Shall Know Them — 54
History of Science Fiction Publishing — 55
Sheep’s Clothing Why SF and F might Be Disguised as Each Other — 93
Where Does Dystopia Fit as a Genre? — 114
Not Saving the World? How Does That Even Work? — 121
Mitfreude: The Joy of Sharing Friends Joy — 132
A Mitfreude of Manga and Anime (and Their Relationship with SF) — 134
A Mitfeude of Genre Romance — 167
History and Robots — 192
The Ghost Did What?! Translation Exposing Providentialist Thinking — 209
Section 2: Anyone Who Says Differently is Selling Something — 219
Chrome Pain Chronicle, in Prose and Verse — 221
Writing Realizing Disability + Power — 237
Not Deluded How I Sold My First Novel While on Vacation — 259
The Key to the Kingdom, or How I Sold Too Like the Lightning — 266
Author’s Note and Acknowledgements from Too Like the Lightning — 275
Section 3: Craft — 279
Spear Point Theory — 281
The Protagonist Problem — 284
What’s Reading For — 293
Expanding our Empathy Sphere Using SF & F, a History — 306
Poem: Translated from the Original — 316
Censorship and Genre Fiction–Let’s Broaden Our Broader Reality — 317
How to Encourage Space Exploration? — 325
Poem: On Praising Tech — 328
Poem: Old Question — 329
Meta, Irony, Narrative, Frames, and The Princess Bride — 330
Hopepunk, Optimism, Purity, and Futures at Hard Work — 337
Poem: Somebody Will — 347
Acknowledgements — 351
About the Author — 355
I love What Makes This Book So Great and An Informal History of the Hugos, and have read several other of Walton’s books.
Jeff, I need to read more Jo Walton books!
OK. Surprisingly, the Cloud Library had it available and I was able to download a copy. Brooklyn Public Library doesn’t have it.
Jeff, TRACE ELEMENTS just came out this week so the Cloud Library is really doing a great job!
That’s why I always check there, because quite often they have books available way earlier than the BPL, with a much shorter wait.
Jeff, very convenient!
Thanks for the tips on this book and the Cloud Library, folks. I haven’t read too much Walton, after some of her just-OK early work, and I don’t necessarily trust Hugo voters these decades, and nothing so far (I believe) by Palmer, so I might need to take a flier on their fiction, as well.
Is the one in the hat male or female?
Bob, female.
I thought so, but when people turn a certain age, it isn’t always easy to tell!
Bob, true. Check your mailbox today for QUICK DRAW and goodies.