Are you tired of the same old grey goo you’ve been getting in your SF for years? Are you hankering for some red meat, served fresh and hot? Do you want stories you can sink your teeth into, that leave you satisfied when you’re finished instead of wondering why you even bothered consuming them? Then brother, then sister, you want to try some Human Wave Fiction.
Human Wave Fiction comes in both SF and Fantasy as well as other genres and combinations. It is guaranteed to satisfy, with a rich flavourful taste and real substance in every bite. Eschew boiled oatmeal plots, spit out cardboard characters, Human Wave Fiction gives you main characters who just won’t quit and are good to the last bite. When Human Wave characters whines about how rough their life is, that’s when they’re getting ready to take on the world and deliver a mouthful of kick.
Friends, you won’t find yourself looking around for the Tobasco when you put Human Wave on your menu, it needs no special sauces to let you know there’s something on your plate. Human Wave takes the cooking secrets of old masters, guys and gals who really knew how to cook up a tale, and serves it up with modern style and contemporary flavours.
Human Wave gives you plenty of zest and plenty of substance, leaving you fit to take on the world. Human Wave takes techniques from Asimov to Zelazny, takes the best of Heinlein, Sturgeon, Tolkein, Simak, , Bradbury, Piper and Laumer, among others, and serves them up with a side of Campbell and a shot of undiluted Boucher, Human Wave Fiction will put hair on your chest (except for the ladies, who are guaranteed to look like they’ve added a full cup size) and fire in your belly.
Human Wave combines the best of the old ingredients with the latest cooking techniques, giving you the best, most satisfying, most nutritious stories you could want. They have the satisfyingly full flavours you’ve been missing and the substance you need. Human Wave will remind you of the comfort food you read as a kid, the kind of stories that left you feeling satisfied at story’s end yet still hungry for more. You get undiluted plots and characters who know what they want and why they want it. Human Wave is the good old stuff reborn for modern tastes, with all the goodness still intact. Human Wave contains no filler, no pablum, no political correctness, nor any grey goo.
* * *
It has been months since the discussion of Human Wave SF began, and it seems a good time to revisit some of the ideas underlying that movement.
For quite some time a persisting theme in SF has been “Humans/Men/European Culture is harmful.” Almost as soon as you open a book you can tell who will be the “hero”, who the “villain” and what sins will be perpetrated, and just about as easily as watching an old movie Western and noting whose hats are black, whose are white.
Such tales are predictable, therefore boring. Even when they don’t bore, the reader has to make an effort to overlook his brain being run through the rinse cycle by such manipulation.
Of course, in that bad old world a reader’s choices were limited to what publishers thought was good for him. A few writers seemed to think that technological man wasn’t entirely bad, but that was mostly because he accepted the burden of the sins committed against the planet, against the universe, against “others” by his species.
Any publisher who didn’t advance these enlightened views was sneered at by other publishers, no matter (in fact, inversely proportional) to the popularity of their wares. Authors who failed to toe the line were routinely tasked to rewrite their work, eliminating offensive elements in order to produce a publishable tale or, if they slipped through the filters and became best sellers they were disdained as populist, as pandering to the masses. Their books could count on being slammed on Amazon as racist, sexist, reactionary and an affront to the noble trees whose lives had been sacrificed in order to publish such hate-mongery. Sometimes there even existed the possibility that the reviewer had actually read the book before damning it.
Readers who craved good books, tales of humans surmounting barriers and overcoming challenges through grit, determination, pluck and seizing opportunities found themselves mostly reading (and rereading) older books, “Golden Age” SF. Often they found themselves simply not reading SF at all.
A lot of readers (and authors, too – and even a few editors) longed for books where the race/gender/sexual orientation of a character was not relevant to the actions they took, the role they played in the drama. Most of us know people of all races/genders/sexual orientation who not only encompass the full range of human behaviour but whose “identity” did not seem to predetermine their integrity, their nobility, their bravery nor the challenges they faced as they traversed this Earthly vale.
A lot of readers (and authors, too – and even a few editors) longed for books where the heroes were heroic, too. We longed for books whose characters we identified with, in a positive way. We longed for books whose characters we identified with because they emulated character traits we admired and desired to emulate in our own lives.
We also longed for books where “good guys” would win, or at the very least would go down fighting. We desired books with characters who would inspire us to dream impossible dreams, not books which lampooned their characters dreams, pegged the dreamers as suckers. We tired of books which portraying success as a matter of luck or connections rather than effort and skill and determination.
We longed for books in which even flawed people pursuing a flawed dream could achieve something great, books which inspire us rather than leaving us depressed.
We longed for books which said that the individual counted for something, that a person is more than a component of a group identity, more than the “hat” they wear. We don’t care what identity group a main character belongs to, we see complexity in all individuals whatever their race, creed, sex or who they long to kiss. We are indifferent to those aspects of the characters, that is not why we read, that is not why we buy a book. That is not why we thrust a book into the hands of friends, relatives, strangers in line at the grocery store.
What we want are tales about people, people who act to improve their worlds, who assert human dignity as an individual quality, who defend their beliefs and who are unashamed to be human. We don’t need our heroes to be perfect, but we want them to strive to be better, to improve themselves and their lot in life. We aren’t interested in them bending the knee, accepting their limitations and knowing their place in the world.
We want tales that challenge our ways of thinking, our ways of doing things, not by shaming us, by telling us we have been bad, greedy, wasteful intolerant. We want tales that inspire us, encourage us, show us there are different ways of thinking about the Universe and what we can achieve in it. We want books that, once we put them down we are eager to pick them up again and read more. And when we have finished them we want to be full of energy, ready to address our own lives reinvigorated.
We are entering a world wherein publishers and booksellers no longer dictate what our book choices are. Writers no longer need to sublimate their ideas, their craft, their art to what some editor is willing to buy. Gatekeepers may still man the gates of the publishing industry, but their walls are a tumbling down, and more choices are available in the marketplace of ideas. Readers are free to exercise their low, plebian, uneducated tastes – we can read what we like and like what we read.
Tell us stories about adventures, great and small. Tell us stories about dreams and what people will do to achieve them. Write about wishes come true – and the regrets they cause. Give us heroes willing to stand upon principle, no matter the cost – and be honest about those costs. Examine the costs of being human and show us the nobility of accepting those costs.
Write about the great complexity of human existence without submitting to the vision of existential meaninglessness. Give us a vision of the world as it is, warts and all, but give us a true vision. Above all, give us tales about those who can see a world better than the one they are in, about people who force change upon their world, even about those who force their worlds to crush them but who, in being crushed, remain defiant.
Readers need to support stories of grandeur, of inspiration. We need to express our appreciation, enthusiasm and support for these types of tales in the only manners which matter: our buying and recommending habits. We must not accept stories which depress us, which bury us in the grey goo of existential ennui. Do not accept boredom as a badge of literary merit; do not accept clever phrase making in exchange for plots that make sense.
Above all, pick tales that stand for something admirable, that espouse virtues rather than values. Our heroes can be flawed because we know humans are, but we want heroes who rise above their flaws to spit in the eye of Fate. In time we are all doomed, so why go gentle into that good night? More importantly: why write about, why read about heroes going quietly rather than gesturing their defiance until the last moment and even after?
The Human Wave is a gesture made with one hand or two (or even four, if that’s the type human you are) it is defiance personified, a refusal to bow the knee. In Britain it requires two fingers per hand, in America it needs but one; but throughout the universe it stands for the same thing, always: You’re not the boss of me!
According To Hoyt 
BTW, I’d like to thank you for alerting me to this change in SF publishing; I was a voracious reader of it through the ’70s, but realized not too long ago that I’d increasely stopped buying SF over the following decades; you’ve told me why, and of course why Baen is an exception. Good luck on getting your rights back from those other publishers!
LikeLike
Nice manifesto!
> For quite some time a persisting theme in SF has been “Humans/Men/European Culture is harmful.”
In my novel (finished draft 3 just 48 hrs ago!) I’ve got a minor character who’s a Jesuit. And, it turns out, he’s not really upset that the libertarians are revolting (and – honestly – we libertarians are usually revolting. !). He does two things in the book: serve a minor plot point re: the Geneva convention and the concept of open cities, AND, number two: lecture the protagonist on the western conception of human rights – specifically from a Judeo-Christian perspective.
I’m sure that a decent percent of the folks who read my first book will come to that scene and ask “why the hell did the author feel the need to push his crazy fundamentalist Western morals on me?” and vow to never read one of my books again.
Eh.
I’m interested in telling a tale about Western Civilization. I’m not going to edit the Western Civilization out of it.
LikeLike
> are usually revolting.
There was SUPPOSED to be a “cymbal crash!” right after that, but the HTML got munged. Sigh. And thus my “revolting” / “revolting” joke disappears into the markup…
LikeLike
I saw it. I saw it.
LikeLike
Bah. Not all libertarians are revolting. I WASH at least once a year, whether I need– Oh, you mean the other way. Yeah. We have a wee bit problem with authority. Allegedly. They say. Probably. Almost certainly. Maybe.
Look, I’m having a heck of a time finishing a book because it’s under contract. It doesn’t serve anything it’s just “you and whose army” and then “Oh, yeah, I owe you.” ARGH.
LikeLike
When your life has been regimented, and your opinions are no-account and then you meet libertarian principles, then you will have authority problems too. Apparently I had authority problems from birth.
LikeLike
Tired of watching
Culture slip?
We’ve got a way
To right the ship . . .
Human Wave!
LikeLike
Space amoebas
Are annoying
Set your laser
Guns to “boiling”
HUMAN WAVE
LikeLike
LOL! You guys could start a poetry movement. I actually remember the old Burma Shave signs.
LikeLike
They’re very silly aren’t they? But very talented, too.
Frank — you didn’t link your wife’s book, or else WordPress ate it…
LikeLike
Sarah, Actually the link is if you click on my name. Her human wave book is China Harbor: Out of Time at http://www.amazon.com/China-Harbor-Out-Time-ebook/dp/B003UBTOYO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317749195&sr=8-1. And her collection of short stories is Facets at http://www.amazon.com/Facets-ebook/dp/B00ADCYJ8Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1353958723&sr=1-1&keywords=facets. That collection is more Twilight Zone style, some horror, some SF, some humor, and most just really strange.
LikeLike
I sympathize. Most of my short stories are really strange.
LikeLike
Wishlisted both of them. They look interesting, and I’ll probably get around to them some time after I read the 44 books I have in my phone right now, in addition to the Kindle book (Down to Earth by Mackey Chandler), and the Kobo books that are also in my phone.
LikeLike
I agree that readers are hungry for heroes who are allowed to be heroic. One of the reasons I’ve heard it argued that Harry potter was such a success was that here was a boy who was allowed to be an old fashioned hero.
It’s incumbent on both sides to create this. Writers have to write it, and readers need to buy it. Otherwise, we’ll continue to end up with mushy characters who can’t be deemed heroic, villainous, or anything we want to see.
LikeLike
Harry Potter also resonated with the people who were picked on in school, simply because he was able to BE the hero. Let’s face it, most “old fashioned heroes” were not the oddballs who grew up being treated like there was something wrong with them.
LikeLike
Is it lese majeste to observe that — at least in the beginning books — Potter & Co. are terrible screw-ups who exacerbate circumstances? That essentially Snape is right in his evaluation of the Potter boy?
Look at the first book: if Potter had stayed in his dorm room, like he should have, there was no way for [SPOILER ALERT] for Quirrel/Voldemort to attain the Philosopher’s Stone? Dumbledore’s final barrier would not have fallen absent Harry’s intervention, leaving the culprit trapped in that dungeon.
In the second book Harry’s malicious suspicion of Malfoy has him [SPOILER ALERT] spending most of the book in a wild goose chase.
I will give Rowling kudos for her conservative messages of distrust of government bureaucracy and the MSM.
LikeLike
I wouldn’t agree that Snapes evaluation was correct. His evaluation and hatefulness prompted Harry to suspect him, and this fed back, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
I will agree, however, that Dumbledore’s final protection should have been sufficient, without Harry’s interference. On the other hand, Voldemort was brilliant – he might have been able to figure it out, given his knowledge of Dumbledore. And if so, he may have been able to (spoiler alert) convince the mirror that his intentions were the correct ones.
In the second book, his suspicion of Malfoy set the stage for getting the clues to solve the puzzle.
LikeLike
One of the advantages Baen readers have had for some time is the ability to read eARCs, electronic advance reader copies, which typically are the unedited final draft directly from the author and compare them to the finished product after Toni and company do their magic.
The new paradigm of independent publishing should give us similar visibility into exactly how much or how little other publishing houses editorial work has affected the genre.
My but we do live in interesting times, do we not.
LikeLike
One of the things I mean to write about is how many of my colleagues, some insanely successful have told me “what I really want to write is X” — something usually wildly different from what they do and often very, very fun. If Indie gets big enough, we’ll get to see it, won’t we?
LikeLike
Funny, I hadn’t really put together why I stopped reading SciFi either – but I think you nailed it. I’d never heard the expression Human Wave SciFi before. Seems I’ve begun reading some of it before I even knew what to call it. The SteamPunk writers are pretty good at it as well.
LikeLike
Human Wave SF was coined by Sarah something like nine months ago: https://accordingtohoyt.com/2012/03/21/what-is-human-wave-science-fiction-3/
I thought, and she obviously agreed, that it was worth revisiting — especially on a slow holiday weekend. Many of us cut our SF teeth on it back when SF was Human Wave.
LikeLike
Thanks RES and Sarah for the manifestos. I quit reading SF in the late 70s when I first noticed the syndrome hitting. I didn’t get Alice Sheldon’s stuff, and the age of wimpy “heroes” left me cold.
Of course finding the human wave books is not as simple as it sounds. Normal searching on Amazon doesn’t seem to do it. You have to wander down to the tags search box and search there for human wave. Unless anybody has a better idea.
P.S. you can use the link on this comment to see my wife’s book and find other books with the human wave tag by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking on the human wave tag.
LikeLike
Fie upon the search function. I specifically listed “human wave” on the tags and search stuff for “A Cat Among Dragons” and it does not turn up. Mutter, murble, grarf, thppppth.
LikeLike
OK, if you search “human wave” and “Kindle,” you get Sabrina Chase, yours truly, and others, but not necessarily the books officially tagged “human wave.” Curiouser and curiouser.
LikeLike
I have some background in full text search from back in the early 90s, and I can say without reservation that Amazon doesn’t really get search. Their main search engine is the worst of any I regularly use today and worse than the state of the art you could buy way back then, a couple of decades ago.
(Yes, I know they have issues of scale, but search is particularly fruitful for scaling out to many systems, building indexes in batches, etc. etc. Look at Google.)
So I’m not surprised by the contortions you have to go through to get your books found in tag searches … which compared to full text is like shooting fish in a barrel for the implementors.
LikeLike
I noticed that too– with Sarah’s books– ugh
LikeLike
I finished A Cat Among Dragons. It was a bit choppy, but I liked it. It wasn’t long enough! How far along is the sequel?
LikeLike
Thank you, Naleta! The semi-sequel (a set of bridge stories) should go up in March or April, with a longer full sequel in October or November. I’m going to try and convert and post the Senators and Dinosaurs story this week.
LikeLike
I enjoyed that one, TX. You might add a sequel — Dinosaur in the White House. Of course, that title can have several meanings… 8^)
LikeLike
Um.. go to pjmedia and search “Jurassic President” ;)
LikeLike
I *think* the tags at the very bottom of a listing can only be set by customers. Then there are other tags that are set by the author when they upload a book. I know I set “human wave” for mine, but apparently none of my readers tag my books as human wave.
LikeLike
So we should tag EACH OTHER’S books as Human Wave? Can do.
LikeLike
We might have to. I tagged some of mine on the product page as “human wave” but they don’t show up in a general search under that tag. Very frustrating.
LikeLike
Good idea– Who wants a human wave tag?– I will do it today–
LikeLike
Hand up — And I’ll try to take an our and tag some of ya’ll’s too.
LikeLike
I’ll tag Sarah, Sabrina, and a few others this afternoon.
LikeLike
I tagged Sarah– Some of them wouldn’t tag– I don’t know why off to Sabrina
LikeLike
I think only eBooks tag. I could tag the Kindle versions of Sarah, RAH’s, Dave F’s, and Sabrina’s stuff, but not the hard copy versions.
LikeLike
Makes sense– need to do Dave F too
LikeLike
Please so tag my To Carry the Horn book (Karen Myers). Thanks!
LikeLike
It won’t let me add another tag– says failed to save– I will have to try later maybe
LikeLike
Would you be so kind as to tag my anthology of time travel stories, Finding Time as “human wave?” http://bit.ly/chooseft
LikeLike
That is the way to do it, Steve. I was able to click the link and add my tag to your book, just like that!
LikeLike
I did it–steve– for some reason my first post didn’t post
LikeLike
Feel free to tag my wife’s novel China Harbor: Out of Time at http://www.amazon.com/China-Harbor-Out-Time-ebook/dp/B003UBTOYO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356324814&sr=8-1&keywords=china+harbor. I’ll make sure to tag Cyn’s and Sarah’s. Amazon doesn’t like authors promoting each other’s work by reviews, but tagging makes sense, so people can find like-minded books.
LikeLike
Well – Frank… I think Amazon just caught on to me– it won’t let me save the tags. It started yesterday after I got a lot of tags done– I am sorry–
LikeLike
Heh, heh, heh, I got invited to tag other people’s property, heh, heh. *heads off in search of virtual spraypaint*
LikeLike
TX, I’d appreciate a tag. All my novels except HUKATA are Human Wave.
LikeLike
I’ve tagged Steve and Mike.
LikeLike
I tried to tag you Mike– I just don’t know why I am having probs with Amazon– will try again
LikeLike
If I hit the agree with all tags link, I can do it. It won’t let me add human wave tag (or human wave only)– urp
LikeLike
I would consider Hukata as both Human Wave and First Contact and I so tagged it.
LikeLike
I had a few minutes between running today and was able to get Sarah’s and Sabrina’s books. I’m a bit confused on who else was needing any. As for me, I’m found under the author name of “J.A. Marlow.” :)
LikeLike
You mean now I have to go back into Amazon and figure out how to tag a book, instead of just reading and enjoying it? You authors are real slavedrivers :(
LikeLike
I expect it will take a while, but as more works are tagged that way, and perhaps with a brief description of what “Human Wave” is right in the book description. As the statistics of the term rise, searches will probably start turning them up more often.
LikeLike
You just described EXACTLY what I look for in books that I want to read.
LikeLike
Well– I was thinking on how I could marry fantasy and sci-fi when I came up with an organic spaceship who used to run on virgin blood. Since there are so few virgins, it (he/she??? not sure) will have to find a new energy source. And the plucky crew– lol
LikeLike
It only can take blood from people who’ve never had their blood drawn before?
:)
LikeLike
Nice thought– but no– That might be a good solution–
LikeLike
Cyn, I read an article several months ago about a breakthrough discovery that may allow scientists to create synthetic blood (not just plasma, but the whole schmear). You might do a Google search on “synthetic blood” and see what you get. That way, your ship could manufacture its own blood supply… 8^)
LikeLike
Virgin Blood = Never Been Used
LikeLike
Virgin wool — ugly sheep. (Runs.)
LikeLike
Don’t start– I might have to tell my Scottish sheep jokes– No one wants that– :grin:
LikeLike
You mean ones like, “Scotland, where men are men, and sheep are nervous”?
LikeLike
Well– that is one of them lol– or “who’s your daaaaaaaaaaady?”
LikeLike
At those kinds of prices, what do I care what the sheep are doing at night?
LikeLike
OT: RES, the story inspired by your idea for cover art is done. I don’t think I have your e-mail, so shoot me an e-mail (AlmaTCBoykin@aol.com) if you want a copy.
LikeLike
Is anyone tagging Ringo Human Wave?
LikeLike
I haven’t, but Amazon won’t let me tag right now–
LikeLike