Starting on September 28th, our short story reading group will read The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 8, edited by Neil Clarke. We’ll discuss a story every Monday and Friday. I haven’t been participating in the group for about a year because I got burned out on reading SF short stories. But I’m hoping to participate again. I miss reading science fiction.

I’ve read the first three stories to get back into the swing of things. My reaction was the same to all three. I felt these science fiction stories were written for young people. Have I gotten too old to read science fiction? I’m 74.

I’m not saying the stories are childish, but they do have a childlike quality. This is partly because of a “make-believe” feel, but also because of a kind of optimism. I can’t tell if it’s optimism for the future or optimism for science fiction. Unfortunately, I’ve lost all hope for humanity and concluded that science fiction’s hopes and fears for the future are wild speculations.

Such pessimism makes it hard to enjoy science fiction. I’m reminded of biographies I’ve read about Mark Twain and how gloomy his thoughts got in old age. Do we wear rose colored glasses in youth that we take off in old age, or do we put on dark glasses when we get old?

But I do have other theories. Every new science fiction story I read competes with the best science fiction stories I remember. And with over sixty years of discovering great science fiction stories, it’s very hard for any new story to measure up. Have I reached an age where the odds are against me finding new science fiction short stories that I love?

Another theory, based on years of reading, has suggested that only a handful of stories published each year are exceptional. If you look at The Classics of Short Science Fiction v. 2 sorted by year, the number of stories ranges from 0 (1957) to 5 (1966). A story needed at least 8 recommendations to get on that list. Some had as many as 18. That statistical system implies that, of the 31 stories in The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 8, I’ll find five or fewer stories that I really admire.

Of course, different stories appeal to different readers, so if Neil Clarke collects 31 stories from 2022, the odds are most readers will find a handful they would recommend. I won’t know how many I’ll love until I finish the group read. If I do find a few, I’ll consider myself not too old to read science fiction. If I don’t, maybe I am too jaded for the genre. I do think being in my seventies has made me less tolerant of the average story.

Readers who are well-read in science fiction might look at my list of favorite short stories and notice some common elements. Many of the stories are dark and edgy. Many of them are innovative. Most of them are unique in some way. Young writers in the 21st century probably have a hard time coming up with any new science fiction concepts, themes, or plots.

One reason I think modern science fiction feels childlike is that it comes across as what Disney, Pixar, HBO, DC, or Marvel would produce. Have movies and comics completely reshaped how people think about science fiction? I grew up reading science fiction written by pulp writers, or inspired by pulp fiction.

I just don’t see edgy stories like “Fondly Fahrenheit” by Alfred Bester or “Coming Attraction” by Fritz Leiber today, much less innovative stories like “The Light of Other Days” by Bob Shaw, “Appearance of Life” by Brian W. Aldiss, or “The Star Pit” by Samuel R. Delany. Of course, even back in the 1960s and 1970s, science fiction writers struggled to come up with anything original in the genre.

But then I remember Ted Chiang and Sarah Pinsker.

The odds are that if I pick any random issue from my collection of science fiction magazines, I won’t find an outstanding story. Just read reviews of several magazine issues at Galactic Journey. Two- and three-star reviews are painfully common; five-star reviews are especially rare.

When I was young, a three-star story could still delight me. A Robert F. Young or Raymond Jones story could make an issue a satisfying purchase.

Hopefully, I’ve psyched myself up to finish The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume 8. I don’t want to give up on science fiction. But it’s getting hard to find anything I like. Let’s hope it’s not aging, but a matter of statistics.

James Wallace Harris, 9/13/26