Science fiction author (and physicist) Gregory Benford laments the triumph of fantasy over sci-fi, which they argue creates "a core lessening of what I value in the larger genre, with a lot less real thinking going on about the future." This interpretation depends on a very specific argument about the purpose of science fiction, namely to function as "the canary in the mineshaft for the advanced nations, to tell us what to worry about up ahead." Some readers, however, may wonder if Benford isn't overreacting when he suggests that the end result of George R. R. Martin's A Feast For Crows debuting at #1 on the Times bestseller list will be the collapse of Western civilization:

"It's not crazy to think that a hundred years from now, Europe will be a complete backwater, a place that is essentially seen as a living museum, and the hot, big, where-it's-happening cities in the world will be Lahore or Delhi, Bangkok, Singapore, and just possibly maybe Perth, or even Darwin."

To rise to the challenge, Benford vows to stop writing science fiction and concentrate on nonfiction essays in collaboration with evolutionary biologist Michael Rose. Responses have already begun to emerge from other science fiction writers: "The problem here isn't that fantasy is stealing SF's audience," says Elizabeth Bear. "The problem is that SF isn't making itself accessible to a general audience." On his blog, Scott Lynch offers a brutal point-by-point critique of the Benford essay and its "monstrously uninformed balderdash."

John Scalzi adds, "I think tying in the rise of fantasy and decline of science fiction to ominous cultural trends feels nice, because there's nothing like being held in the pitiless thrall of a world-historical hairpin turn toward entropy to make one feel better about the fact that it's JK Rowling making a billion dollars from her books and not you." He also points to the accessibility issue, jocularly observing: "Math is hard, and science fiction looks rather suspiciously like math." (That post has generated a lot of commentary, well worth the consideration of anyone looking to write, represent, or publish sci-fi.) And all these reactions drive home the fact that this is not a new debate; just last year in fact, SF author Norman Spinrad wrote an especially hysterical essay which Matthew Cheney cleverly summarized, "Spinrad's own writing is not getting the attention it once did, nor is the writing of his friends."