Less Brooding and More Examining

My wife and I took advantage of being near to our closest Barnes and Nobles bookstore on Saturday that we decided to drop in for a little while. The last time I was at this Barnes and Nobles was several months ago, and after putting up my post at the end of last week, I thought it a good idea to follow up on whether or not I could find some of those authors I mentioned on the SF&F bookshelves.

At least this particular Barnes and Noble separates Science Fiction and Fantasy into two separate sections --they did this about 3-4 years ago I believe-- and as Bhagpuss observed Fantasy outstrips Science Fiction in shelf space. But you know what outstrips both combined? Manga. 

Here's a crude representation of the SF&F / Comics section at our B&N:

This is as of November 1, 2025.

It's an approximate design, as I was using Paint and it isn't exactly a precise tool. However, as you can see, Fantasy and Science Fiction took up about 5/6 of the interior section of three bookcases, with Fantasy getting 3/6 and SF getting 2/6, with the last 1/6 a depository for SFF-related oversized books as well as some RPGs. The RPGs shared space with other Western-style comics in the smaller shelf in the center, whereas Manga had the entire outer portion of the bookshelf to themselves. And to be honest, I might not be quite representing this accurately, as there might be even more manga shelves that I missed.

Anyway, all that's past is prologue, so let's get to the interesting part: the books.

For starters on the Fantasy side of things, no David Eddings. There was plenty of Terry Brooks, which I'd seen numerous times before, but Terry is still actively writing so that gives him a boost over the deceased Eddings. There was also no Katherine Kurtz, Katherine Kerr, or Janny Wurtz, which again tracks with what I'd seen before. There was also no Fritz Leiber, but guess where I did find a book of his? In the Science Fiction section:

As of November 1, 2025.

That was surprising, given that his arguably most well-known works are the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser collections. 

I'll use that as an excuse to flip over to the SF section, which when I was last at B&N was indeed very thin. However, in the intervening months, it seems that either the corporate leadership or the local ownership* decided to beef up the SF section quite a bit. There was always quite a few Isaac Asimov books around, although they apparently have yet another cover design, but given that Foundation was (relatively) recently loosely adapted into a television series, I guess that's no surprise.

Ray Bradbury, however, is having a bit of a moment.

As of November 1, 2025.

Because of the video adaptation, classroom requirements, and the political climate, Fahrenheit 451 is present in large numbers. However, it was rather nice to see The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes as well.

Arthur C. Clarke, while not being given even close to the amount of shelf space as Asimov or Bradbury, still has at least a few books present:

As of November 1, 2025.

If you were going to pick 3-4 books of Clarke's to be there, I'd expect Childhood's End, Rendezvous with Rama, and 2001, all of which are present. There's also 2010: Odyssey Two, which is an okay sequel, but I guess it's there because 2001 is there. 

And yeah, I suppose I ought to mention Bob Heinlein:

As of November 1, 2025.

At least the back of Starship Troopers mentions that it is a controversial novel, something which my old Berkley Books edition never did. Speaking of which, it's interesting that Heinlein's novels are being reprinted by Ace, as opposed to Berkley and Baen**, which were you'd find his novels back in the 80s. Given that Ace is now a subsidiary of Berkley, I guess that makes sense, but while investigating who owns what imprint for this post holy crap is the publishing industry consolidated these days. I can easily see why some people go and self-publish if the consolidation of the publishing industry is any clue.

So there you have it. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself incorrect with regards to the SF authors, and maybe that's an indicator that some other novels I read back in the day may have a chance in the sun as well.

*I'm betting on the local ownership, because while the corporate overlords have some say in the overall layout and the big displays around the store, the composition of individual areas will reflect local tastes and what sells.

*Given Baen's current publishing focus in Military SF, it's no surprise that Heinlein's old 40s-60 short stories ended up being published by them in the 80s/90s. As I'd mentioned before, Heinlein's works --particularly his older short stories, have aged really badly, and I suppose you could see his imprint on Baen's authorial focus, particularly some of the right wing aspects of Baen's output.