Farewell SCI FICTION

There was once a host organism called SCIFI.COM. It was an online presence designed to market the Sci Fi cable channel in the US. It hosted what I would describe as a symbiote: SCI FICTION – the division of the company that published Science Fiction short stories online. The symbiote, embodied by its enlightened editor Ellen Datlow, did well, and the quality of the material was recognised by awards from the science fiction community at large.

 

Alas, the host organism appears to have decided that the symbiote is a parasite, and will be excising it at the end of this month. So a valuable channel of new (and old) science fiction short story writing will soon be silenced. One can only hope that the existing stories will remain archived at the site – but there’s no guarantee, and some have already been removed.

 

I find the announcement of the closure typical of the "we’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater, because we’re a bunch of philistines" school of not recognising something good when it’s staring them in the face: As SCIFI.COM gears up to expand with exciting new ventures utilizing the newest technology, it will discontinue SCI FICTION, the online publishing division of the site, at the end of 2005.

 

David Schwartz has come up with a good idea to commemorate the writing, and the work of Ellen Datlow, over at the ED SF Project. It’s a collection of appreciations of the stories. Go and visit. Who knows, you might feel inclined to read some of the original stories, even if you are not a fan of SF.