I think there are also readers who are quite happy with all sorts of strangeness that’s basically known strangeness – super-tough commandos, high-tech guns, vampires that work more or less like standard mythological vampires – but don’t have what I think of as one of the core SF-reader skills, the one of working out from contextual cues what’s going on about a fictional universe that may be quite unlike any of the usual ones.
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That happened to me the other way round with Brookmyre’s Bedlam. As a skilled SF reader, I found it extremely uninteresting and didn’t read any more of him for years.
P D James’ The Children of Men gave a similar reaction, and is likewise “starter” SF.
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I’ve encountered the phenomenon of the established SF writer whose new book is clearly aimed at readers who aren’t familiar with the SF genre. Niven and Pournelle’s Lucifer’s Hammer, Brin’s Earth, and Turtledove’a Supervolcano trilogy all strike me as having that intent. They aren’t 100% on target usually, but the misses are in odd directions; for example, Niven and Pournelle do an excellent job but slip in fannish references such as Harvey Randall’s telling Maureen Jellison about galactic empires (and ending up in bed with her!).
Is it skilled, or just experienced? Skilled sounds a bit elitism to me (in this context - obviously being skilled is a good thing!)
Clearly not the intention (I’m not really happy with “starter SF” either, maybe “gateway SF” would be better). You could read a lot of SF without developing this ability, but you’d feel lost every time you got away from stuff set in easily-parsed universes (obvious examples being media tie-ins) and I don’t see why you’d carry on doing it.
Experienced would be enough for this point, but I think I have some claim to “skilled.” I went to John Clute’s evening class at the City Lit for close to a decade (I’m credited in the Encyclopaedia of SF), and attended a high-powered book group at the same time. I’ve several times caused serious SF writers to realise they’d put things into books that they weren’t aware of.
I’m currently reading course material for British Literature II (thus far, the utterly awful Milton’s Paradise Lost, which is unreadable trash in so many ways, and Aspana Behn’s The Rover, or The Banish’d Cavaliers, which suffers from Isn’t-Patriarchy-Hilarious but at the same time is very critical for a play written in the reign of Charles II around 1680-ish), and the first Witcher novel (which name eludes me at the moment).
Oh, and I read a really interesting pair of sci-fi TPBs named The Descender, which was… beautiful and well written but I hated (loathed) the ending. But that’s a personal pet peeve of mine and I won’t spoil it for those who are curious. It is really well done, though, and the characters are very interesting and, for the most part, pretty cleverly created (I have a big, massive beef with one of the pivotal secondary characters, Andy, but I don’t think that’s a flaw of the writer… it’s like saying I don’t like Joffery. You’re not supposed to like Joffery).
I’m still waiting on a stack of sci-fi to show up (hopefully soon, since a few of my course books are in the same order), but until then reading about the Witcher is interesting.
Blood of Elves?
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Last Wish isn’t it? (although I’m not certain whether order of publication matched the series chronology).
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I have to say I’m somewhat puzzled by the expression “elitism.” I don’t understand why it would be elitist to say that grasping what is conveyed through indirect exposition is a skill. Skills can be learned, and someone who initially lacks one may be able to acquire it. And not all skills make the people who have them part of a political or cultural elite. I mean, for example, I can’t drive a car, and was dangerously bad when I tried to learn, many years ago; but I don’t think those of you who drive are an elite, because driving isn’t a rare skill in my culture.
It mostly seems to me that the political and cultural elite are more distinguished by social connections, manners and customs, and simple wealth than by being skilled at anything. And being skilled at reading science fiction hardly seems likely to get you into any sort of cultural elite.
And I feel youre being obtuse. It is a perfectly valid use of the term - i accept what @JGD says about his skill but the way it was used could quite easily be interpreted as literary elitism - im a skilled reader so only the great unwashed, unskilled people will enjoy this.
Im sure he didnt mean to imply that but as written, that is what it seemed like.
I think that’s the bunny. It’s book 1 of a 3-book set that a friend lent me. I’m only about 15 pages-or-so in at this point (Dandelion is giving his first (only?) performance under the Throne of Friendship Tree), but it is fun to read.
At this point I must request the intervention of the moderators, rather than trying to examine the issues further, or returning personal insults for the one you have just offered.
I don’t even have my mod hat with me this evening, but as suggested it may be sensible to step back for a tick.
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Last Wish was the first book published, but it is not a novel, it is a collection of short stories.
Blood of Elves is the first novel indeed.
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The Last Wish, while chronologically the first Witcher writings, is a collection of short stories, so I was going based on @Marx’s description of the first novel, which is Blood of Elves.
But anyone wanting to read the Witcher series most certainly should start with The Last Wish if they want to have any idea of what the heck is going on! 
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Oops, didn’t know you were answering this too. You put it much better than me!
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Hey, you just ninja’d me by a bit. Happens all the time!
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Well, curses. I don’t have Last Wish… but I have played all three Witcher games and watched the first season of the show… am I okay to continue with the novel? Or will it just be completely confusing?
I think that’s where I started too, due to being unaware of the short story compilations vs. novel numberings. I did okay, but there were definitely a few things that were confusing. Mostly as the stuff in the novel obviously takes place sometime after the show (which was all I was familiar with at the time). Having played all three of the games, though, I think you’ll be okay. I’ve only played the third myself, but even that helped to fill in some gaps.
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