Some of you ask: "Are you ever gonna do science fiction again, Brin?" Well, in fact, my 90% completed book on Artificial Intelligence (AI), while intense and deeply informative on that vital topic, certainly treads along boundaries of the fantastic! (And sometimes crosses over.)
And yes, I've also been trying to shake some tactical sense into the good side of America's current culture war.
But sure, I'm also putting out sci fi!
My two biggest SF projects have been a pair of series for Young Adult (YA) novels that are stirring, innovative and great diversions for you grownups, too! They also enable me to do a little pay-it-forward, by nurturing bright new authors in the Out of time series...
...and the entirely separate High Horizon series of novels that I'm writing myself with top young collaborators.
So, let's start with...
== Only teens from across history can save the future and win humanity the stars! ==
The Out of Time series appeals to the most basic wish fantasy. – shared by teens and adults alike – to be taken seriously. To have a shot at doing something epic and great… or at least something having real importance.
So what's different about this series of science fiction adventures, across both space and time? What lifts it above the normal fare that’s being offered today in YA fiction?
Nowadays, sci-fi for young adults and teens will typically feature some post-apocalypse premise, or tyrannical dystopia, replete with cartoonishly illogical villains for the heroine or hero to fight, accompanied by a requisite suite of doughty pals. It’s a lazy trope that almost writes itself… and one that has likely contributed to a whole generation’s deep pessimism about the future.
The Out of Time series pulls a switcheroo on this dismal pattern. The 24th Century is great! In fact, things were highly optimistic for humanity… until our descendants suddenly face a set of big challenges.
Abruptly they need help! And so, via a very narrow kind of time travel, a youth from our own era gets pulled-forward and recruited to help save that bright tomorrow.
Which leads to the inevitable question: “Why me?”
“Because history shows you will later on be one of the heroes who make things so much better,” comes the answer. “Only we can’t ask that adult version of you for help. It has to be a younger version. It has to be you!”
== THE PREMISE ==
All our best efforts in the difficult 21st century bore fruit, and in the 24th century, people live amid the very opposite of a dystopia. Only now their near-utopia is in desperate peril.
... but only teenagers can survive the journey from our present to the future!
And likewise, only teens can voyage to the stars.
Hence, the heroes they bring forward must be from eras teeming with troubled hope — from today and from even deeper in the past. Youths who are "yanked" to an uncertain tomorrow, where only their courage and savvy innovation can save the day.
While there’s always a teen character (or two) from our early 21st Century, you also get to meet young team members from the 24th… along with (in various novels)…
…an Icelandic Viking girl…
…a cabin boy on Sir Francis Drake's ship…
…an escaped Brazilian slave…
…a severely autistic girl from 2035…
…an Olympic athlete from the time of Alexander the Great…
…a London street urchin who knows Will Shakespeare…
…a Javanese pearl diver destined to confront Krakatoa…
...Joan of Arc's page...
...The someday-future president of South Korea...
…a Choctaw field hockey player who understands worms…
…and other brave kids from across time, some of them remembered and some of them simply lights that shone briefly across the darkness that eventually led to…
…hope.
The Out of Time series had an earlier incarnation with novels by sci fi legends Nancy Kress, Sheila Finch and others – each author bringing a unique voice and perspective to this imaginative series that captivates readers of all ages. See the brief premises of each of them here.
Those first five have recently been re-published in e-versions by Open Road and in print by Amazing Selects.
And now Amazing Selects is proud to champion five exciting new adventures in the Out of Time series, bringing these exceptional stories to a wider audience.
The new series debuted with Boondoggle, penned by Tom Easton and Torion Oey. And then Raising the Roof, by Richard Doyle. Or start at David Brin’s main page for the series.
== And now… the latest! ==
Amazing Stories Announces the Release of Snowdance: A Thrilling New Adventure in David Brin’s Out of Time Universe.
When 15-year-old Lee Jarrett from 1978, Patience Whately, a farm girl from 1676 Rhode Island, and Sondre Auverson, a snow-savvy 19th-century Norwegian, are recruited by Operation Hourglass, they expect adventure. What they find on the alien planet New Horizon is far more dangerous—and wondrous—than they could ever imagine. With a colony under siege and mysterious beings emerging from the snow, these time-yanked teens must learn to trust one another, bridge centuries of difference, and discover whether humanity’s future lies in conflict… or in connection.
See the 1 minute video trailer!
An exciting tale of time and space travel that calls for courage, grit, insight and ultimately… love.
ADDENDA:
While Boondoggle and other new Out of Time novels will appear via Amazing Stories, the five older, original novels in the same series -- by Nancy Kress, Sheila Finch, Roger Allen and others -- are coming out via Open Road Press. (With print only versions available from Amazon Selects.)
A veritable feast of great science fiction adventures across space and time for teen readers! Or those who fondly recall the morale boost (don’t we all need one?) that we got from those Andre Norton and Robert Heinlein tales of adventure and optimism!
And also for teen readers - a third publisher… HISTRIA PRESS… is publishing David Brin’s other YA series. Written by him in collaboration with fine new talents!
The High Horizon series: aliens kidnap a California high school – and come to regret it! The first installment won the Hal Clement Award for best SF novel for teen readers! Here's one happy reader's review. And his followup review of book #2 of the series.
A feast awaits...
I love the premise for Out of Time, optimistic go-getting teens saving the world. We need more positive futures portrayed in the books our kids read.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading the Hunger Games books with my son now, they're good, emotional, and a useful primer on the dangers of autocracy - but wow are they downers. I want my son to read about a brighter future, one that he can contribute to creating, and one I'm convinced we will build once we get over this current aberration. Look beyond the headlines and most of the rest of the world is getting on with improving the futures for their families.
My son has read a several of the Out of Time books already and loves them. Just in time for Christmas.
I'm reading the Hunger Games books with my son now, they're good, emotional, and a useful primer on the dangers of autocracy - but wow are they downers.
DeleteI've seen the movies, though never read the books. The scene in the second movie when the troops invade Katniss's home district ("Welcome to District 12") is currently playing out here in Chicago.
Though hardly uplifting scenes, I find inspiration in the two "If we burn...you burn with us!" scenes in the third movie. Because that's what will happen if they push us hard enough. "A man without hope is a man without fear."
The last book my wife and I read (aloud) together was the first Hunger Games book. We didn't do the second one, so I caught up with the story through the movies.
DeleteDystopias like that just make me want to hurt people. Seriously. I get pissed off. I'm sure my wife picked up on that.
Thanks David. And happy to send some over if you write me. Larry Hart here and Julia did some of the pre-reading and critiquing. And so did you!
ReplyDeleteA Dodgers - Blue Jays World Series is a win either way. If Dodgers win, credit for thwarting the Northern Invasion goes to LA, cementing CA as the main defender of the Republic. If the Jays win, Canada may get a seat on the UNSC.
ReplyDelete;-)
DeleteWhen they are playing well, the Dodger$ are worth every penny.
DeleteThey make it SO easy for me to root for them I almost feel bad for San Diego. Almost. 8)
Wait 'till next year!! (AFR from San Diego) ;)
DeleteThat Padres deserve a lot of credit for fielding a team that can challenge anyone. The NL West wasn't a runaway win for the Dodgers this year.
DeleteAlfred Differ said . . .
ReplyDelete"Dystopias like that just make me want to hurt people. Seriously. I get pissed off."
I hear you. They don't piss me off, but I have long since had my fill of dystopian novels and movies. When looking for something new to read, as soon as I recognize that it's dystopian I pass it by.
It's like IPAs. For twenties years now, if you are at a store, restaurant or bar that has a large selection of craft beers, the majority will be IPAs. A well crafted IPA is a good beer, but fuck me, I am so tired of IPAs.
I'm a stout fan. Hard to get tired of them before I get loopy, so I have to seriously manage my nights out to avoid joining my relatives on the alcoholics branch of the family tree. 8)
DeleteToo many dystopia stories does damage to my brain too. The world is better off if my amygdala doesn't get two votes in every decision I make.
I read and critiqued one or two of the Out of Time stories. I liked them. Sort of a Heinlein's Juveniles vibe.
ReplyDeleteDavid Ivory,
I had some good times reading some of my favorite stories to my kids as soon as they were even remotely capable of getting something out of them. Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat stories were a big hit. Not the one or two serious and dreary ones, but the funny ones.
Probably the biggest hit from when they were young was The Belgariad. We had a lot of fun with those books.
Alfred Differ:
ReplyDeleteDystopias like that just make me want to hurt people.
In a positive version of your community reading, when my daughter was just getting old enough to go from Dr Seuss to something more substantial, she let me introduce her to Around the World in Eighty Days as bedtime reading (obviously over several days if not weeks). I was so proud that she stayed interested and even followed the progress on her globe. And she got the surprise ending having to do with the International Dateline, which proves beyond doubt that she's my genetic offspring.
* * *
Darrell E:
They don't piss me off, but I have long since had my fill of dystopian novels and movies.
I was ok with Hunger Games and Game of Thrones (through season 6), but you are right that dystopian fiction is becoming banal and overused. Besides, we can see it all on the evening news these days. We don't need to imagine it, let alone have it for entertainment. I recently re-read 1984 which I have read several times including for my high school junior thesis. But never before this time have I felt "This could be my future" while reading it.
I should also note that Stephanie Miller long ago refused to watch the tv version of The Handmaid's Tale for exactly that reason. "I'm supposed to be entertained by what's actually happening?"
DeleteI guess I can't recommend 'John Dies at the End,' then...
ReplyDeletePappenheimer
Having been reading some of the books my daughter enjoys (YA fantasy, preferably with dragons) I have to say there are a *lot* of angry authors out there writing some very dour dystopias. (Returns to 'Ministry For the Future'*, which is also dour, but at least trying for a better future)
ReplyDelete*Amusing aside: I picked up 'Letters to our Robot Son' for some reading when we went up to visit daughter and spend a couple of days in the Blue Mountains. Lo and behold, it was set... in the Blue Mountains!
I like dystopias (literature, movies and games) only in so far that there is an optimistic (The Postman, the "Good" endings of the Fallout series) or at least a bittersweet one (Temperance and, maybe, The Sun in Cyberpunk 2077).
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like the gonzo-ness of settings like Gamma World by TSR, wherein the protagonists (player characters) can be anything from humans who just left their bunker to Robots, mutated humans and animals, and sentient plants.
The Morrow Project had the interesting premise that all player characters are soldiers, Scientist and engineers who have been frozen in shortly before the nuclear war, to be released some years after the event to rebuild America.
Role playing dystopias is different for me. I have an outlet for my anger, though that usually makes my characters one dimensional. Kill the Oppressors! Not sure who is? Kill them all!
DeleteFor what it's worth, I didn't RPG dystopias often. I set up one for others to play, but it was short-lived and resolved quickly with "most everyone dead".
I also see Dune as a dystopia. Much richer in structure than most, but everyone should have been killed off.
Well, I don't think dystopias coming any grimmer than the predicament that faces the characters in 'Clair Obscur: Expedition 33'. The player engagement comes with how the various characters and residents of New Lumiere face it. It's pretty deep.
DeleteFantasy settings don't bother me the same way.
DeleteI don't expect human behaviors from everyone I suspect.
I also see Dune as a dystopia. Much richer in structure than most, but everyone should have been killed off.
DeleteI see Dune differently from you, although your interpretation is probably more in line with the author's than mine is.
To me, a dystopian novel or story has the badness of the setting as its overarching theme*. To me, Dune (the first book only) is primarily a boys' adventure story, no matter the setting. That's why I don't care nearly as much about the sequels.
One could make the same argument you do about the extended Star Wars saga. Our host correctly points out that the Jedi (in the prequels) are just as bad as the Sith. As a whole, the setting certainly seems dystopian. Which doesn't alter my enjoyment of the original film**.
* I may have a case of arrested development here, having been introduced to the concept of dystopia with 1984 and Brave New World in high school.
** The prequels suck, and the best I can say about the Disney sequels is that they don't suck as much.