science fiction
DEFINITION: Science Fiction is speculative fiction based on plausible extrapolation from our current understanding of science and the physical world. The appeal of the genre is often the intellectual exploration of traditional ideas in non-traditional settings. The best Science Fiction evokes a “sense of wonder” in new worlds and new adventures. The genre defies precise classification because Science Fiction authors experiment with themes, styles, and frames, blending technology with sociological ideas or adventure stories with far future settings. The list below groups authors in subgenres that reflect much of their writing.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Technology and science is both the framework and the forefront of the story. Xenophilia: or, a love of the strange, alien and new. The reader is routinely challenged to accept new cultures and unimagined technology. Setting and atmosphere contribute to this strangeness and “sense of wonder”. Generally plot-driven; very few novels are character studies. Pacing is moderate to brisk; again, very few dreamy, slow, unfolding stories. Short stories are very prominent, and readers have great affection for anthologies of both classic and new stories.
APPEAL: Readers like being intellectually challenged and are proud at the amount of tacit knowledge they must have to read and understand the genre. For SF set in our near future, the setting is very familiar, just ramped up. The adrenaline rush of military or space opera is a draw for both men and women. SF has become very feminist, and there are almost as many empowered heroines as there are in Romance!
READERS: Intelligent and young: the average age for SF /Fantasy discovery is 11! Often begin as media readers and discover other, more specific worlds. May disdain fantasy or adore it, but a constant is the love of escape and a willingness to use their imagination to learn new languages, memorize alien street names, and comprehend alien biology. Generally not big fans of libraries: they like to own their books and mistrust the librarian’s knowledge of the genre. Anecdotally, more male than female.
TRENDS: Afrofuturism is a distinct artistic and philosophical movement originating in the last decades of the 20th century. It critically reinterprets black identity, the history of Africa, and the African diaspora through a science fictional/hyper-technological lens. Think N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth novels, Nnedi Okorafor's Binti series, and Marvel's Black Panther.
Dystopian has been a dominant science fiction subgenre of the new millennium and often describes corrupt totalitarian governments, surveillance states, and a building resistance among oppressed people. Classic dystopian novels include George Orwell's 1984 and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Some recent additions include Year of the Orphan by Daniel Findlay, Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich, and American War by Omar El Akkad.
A related subgenre is post-apocalyptic fiction, which takes place in a world forever transformed by natural disaster or plague and focuses on survival, as in The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson and The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker. Books can also contain elements of both genres, like Suzanne Collins' teen series The Hunger Games, where a young woman unleashes a revolution against a despotic government in post-apocalyptic America.
Cyberpunk, pioneered in William Gibson's Neuromancer, is more relevant than ever. While this subgenre races to keep up with technological progress, stories confront a nearer rather than a distant future. The Internet both encourages and subverts reality and information becomes a weapon in Dexter Palmer's Version Control and Malka Ann Older's Infomocracy.
Science fiction themes are becoming more mainstream in literary fiction. Authors like David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) and Haruki Murakami (1Q84) helped popularize speculative conventions to appear in non-genre books, like Kate Atkinson's time-traveling Life After Life, Kazuo Ishiguro's chilling dystopian, Never Let Me Go, and Emily St. John Mandel's haunting post-apocalyptic, Station Eleven.
AUTHORS:
Classic - Isaac Asimov, Ray Brabury, Octavia Butler, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. LeGuin, Andre Norton, Theodore Sturgeon, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells
Adventure - Catherine Asaro, Louis McMaster Bujold, William C. Dietz, David Drake, Elizabeth Moon, John Ringo, John Scalzi, Dan Simmons, Harry Turtledove, John Varley
Cyberpunk - William Gibson, Ian McDonald, Malka Older, Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling
Dystopian - Margaret Atwood, Pierce Brown, Christina Dalcher, Nick Harkaway, Sarah Tarkoff
Hard Sci Fi - Greg Bear, Nancy Kress, Alastair Reynolds, Vernor Vinge, Andy Weir
Society - Kage Baker, John Barnes, Orson Scott Card, N. K. Jemison, Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Sawyer, Charles Stross, Karen Thompson Walker, Connie Willis
Space Opera - C.J. Cherryh, James S. A. Corey, Peter Hamilton, Sharon Lee/Steve Miller, Jack McDevitt, Larry Niven,
CHARACTERISTICS:
Technology and science is both the framework and the forefront of the story. Xenophilia: or, a love of the strange, alien and new. The reader is routinely challenged to accept new cultures and unimagined technology. Setting and atmosphere contribute to this strangeness and “sense of wonder”. Generally plot-driven; very few novels are character studies. Pacing is moderate to brisk; again, very few dreamy, slow, unfolding stories. Short stories are very prominent, and readers have great affection for anthologies of both classic and new stories.
APPEAL: Readers like being intellectually challenged and are proud at the amount of tacit knowledge they must have to read and understand the genre. For SF set in our near future, the setting is very familiar, just ramped up. The adrenaline rush of military or space opera is a draw for both men and women. SF has become very feminist, and there are almost as many empowered heroines as there are in Romance!
READERS: Intelligent and young: the average age for SF /Fantasy discovery is 11! Often begin as media readers and discover other, more specific worlds. May disdain fantasy or adore it, but a constant is the love of escape and a willingness to use their imagination to learn new languages, memorize alien street names, and comprehend alien biology. Generally not big fans of libraries: they like to own their books and mistrust the librarian’s knowledge of the genre. Anecdotally, more male than female.
TRENDS: Afrofuturism is a distinct artistic and philosophical movement originating in the last decades of the 20th century. It critically reinterprets black identity, the history of Africa, and the African diaspora through a science fictional/hyper-technological lens. Think N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth novels, Nnedi Okorafor's Binti series, and Marvel's Black Panther.
Dystopian has been a dominant science fiction subgenre of the new millennium and often describes corrupt totalitarian governments, surveillance states, and a building resistance among oppressed people. Classic dystopian novels include George Orwell's 1984 and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Some recent additions include Year of the Orphan by Daniel Findlay, Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich, and American War by Omar El Akkad.
A related subgenre is post-apocalyptic fiction, which takes place in a world forever transformed by natural disaster or plague and focuses on survival, as in The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson and The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker. Books can also contain elements of both genres, like Suzanne Collins' teen series The Hunger Games, where a young woman unleashes a revolution against a despotic government in post-apocalyptic America.
Cyberpunk, pioneered in William Gibson's Neuromancer, is more relevant than ever. While this subgenre races to keep up with technological progress, stories confront a nearer rather than a distant future. The Internet both encourages and subverts reality and information becomes a weapon in Dexter Palmer's Version Control and Malka Ann Older's Infomocracy.
Science fiction themes are becoming more mainstream in literary fiction. Authors like David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas) and Haruki Murakami (1Q84) helped popularize speculative conventions to appear in non-genre books, like Kate Atkinson's time-traveling Life After Life, Kazuo Ishiguro's chilling dystopian, Never Let Me Go, and Emily St. John Mandel's haunting post-apocalyptic, Station Eleven.
AUTHORS:
Classic - Isaac Asimov, Ray Brabury, Octavia Butler, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. LeGuin, Andre Norton, Theodore Sturgeon, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells
Adventure - Catherine Asaro, Louis McMaster Bujold, William C. Dietz, David Drake, Elizabeth Moon, John Ringo, John Scalzi, Dan Simmons, Harry Turtledove, John Varley
Cyberpunk - William Gibson, Ian McDonald, Malka Older, Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling
Dystopian - Margaret Atwood, Pierce Brown, Christina Dalcher, Nick Harkaway, Sarah Tarkoff
Hard Sci Fi - Greg Bear, Nancy Kress, Alastair Reynolds, Vernor Vinge, Andy Weir
Society - Kage Baker, John Barnes, Orson Scott Card, N. K. Jemison, Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Sawyer, Charles Stross, Karen Thompson Walker, Connie Willis
Space Opera - C.J. Cherryh, James S. A. Corey, Peter Hamilton, Sharon Lee/Steve Miller, Jack McDevitt, Larry Niven,