Time Travel storie

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I regularly read two science fiction periodicals, one of these likes to think itself more hard-core than the other, but my post applies equally to both.

It seems to me that, over the last 10 years in particular, there has been a major increase in the number of time-travel stories published in these magazines. Some are very good and I enjoy reading them, nevertheless a time-travel story seems to me an easy way for an author to claim they are writing "science fiction" without having to come up with a truly novel idea.

I wonder whether this is due to authors being less inspired about themes that have traditionally been thought "science-fictional". Perhaps it is because technological advances have accelerated so there is less eager anticipation of the future than before.

Does anyone think that time-travel stories should be given their own category separate from "mainstream" science fiction? BTW I think I have a broad definition of "mainstream", I'm not just including "hard" science fiction which I consider a subgenre. Nor would I exclude something like "new weird" from "mainstream".

Sure, time travel might not be a new idea in science fiction but neither is space opera. Anyway they may still think of new ways to do the time travel story. I'm kind of dissapointed with the lack of technological advance. Computers get better but little else improves. I think time travel stories should have their own subgenre within science fiction.

Saw this a few months ago, seems semi relevant.

http://io9.com/10-science-fiction-and-f ... 1566121756

I don't think the periodicals I read typically publish "pure" space opera of the sort which I consider "Star Wars" to exemplify. In fact, had Star Wars been submitted to Analog back in 1975 it would most likely have been rejected for that reason.



Semi-relevant but the bit concerning time travel is spot on and reassures me of my sanity.