Until that happens, SF will continue sliding through obsolescence toward outright necrophilia. He claims this is because fan critics are failed writers, which makes them jealous of Chalker's success. I'm tired of the 'jealous critics' line that hacks like Chalker trot out to justify their awful work and their giant egos. The fact is that, so long as a mediocre writer remains obscure, critics see that there is a certain degree of justice, and they feel no comment needs to be made. They vent this outrage in their reviews.
Jealousy has nothing to do with it.
Market research would be illuminating. Any other industry would have researched such factors long ago. The cost would quickly be recovered in increased efficiency and responsiveness to real market patterns. In this collection, Mr. Randolph tackles German, French, Danish, Spanish, and Italian. One might hope so, but the underlying structure of these stories leads one to believe otherwise.