1. Even sadder is most of the above is written for and aimed at teens. It’s almost impossible to find good speculative novels that are written for a more mature audience — not so much in terms of content advisory but in terms of the issues the stories explore and deal with.

    • robertmullin says:

      Well, a number of authors have attempted it, only to find that their books don’t have publishers willing to take a risk. So you have to delve into the indie titles to find what you are looking for.

  2. Young adult author Krista McGee has a new sci-fi/speculative book coming out next month. A copy arrived in my mailbox today for review, and I’m excited to read it soon! It’s called “Anomaly” and looks fantastic. Published by Thomas Nelson.

  3. That’s disturbing, Christopher, to be sure. Especially with the previous years’ upward movement. This can’t really be the top of the pendulum’s swing. We’re just getting rolling!

    I hope next year shows improvement, but let’s not leave it to chance. Let’s continue blogging about Christian speculative fiction and promoting the good titles we find — and not just here. Everywhere we can. Twitter, Facebook, our personal blogs, our guest blogging, etc.

    Anybody who knows agents, editors or high-profile authors friendly to our genre: When we find trends that indicate the growing appeal of spec fic or the numbers it reaches, let’s talk it up. Raise awareness. Promote the genre. Get the word out that there’s a small, but thriving, community of both writers and readers.

    And keep writing. And reading. And reviewing.

    And raising children who enjoy the genre. 😉

    And for the sake of the number-crunchers — keep buying! The Christian retail world is a for-profit business. It’s possible we’ll never have the numbers in this niche genre to gain their attention. But hey, we can try.

    *grin*

  4. Galadriel says:

    I love Stengl’s work and am anticipating Shadowhand with joy.

  5. Clint Hall says:

    Great blog.

    I have to wonder if this might be attributed to the buying behaviors of speculative fiction’s target demographic. For example, I download most of my books and read them on a kindle. I wonder if there’s any data to suggest that most readers of this genre do the same.

    Obviously I’m not suggesting that these books shouldn’t be in bookstores. Christians who would enjoy this genre are a dramatically underserved demographic in terms of literature, music, and film. I’m just wondering if that’s why this is happening (or rather, not happening).

What do you think?