Writing speculative fiction comes as a timely and valuable addition to the bookshelves of students, writers and educators alike. Science fiction and fantasy from transgender writers. Like science fiction, speculative fiction, defined more broadly as any literary genre which includes elements of the supernatural, fantastic, or futuristic, as well as alternative histories and. Today speculative fiction covers practically the entire fantastic end of the sliding scale of realistic vs. Bacon delivers practical information, stimulating exercises and thoughtprovoking analyses with enthusiasm and authority. This is also the month when ive decided to switch from calling the stories i list fantasy and science fiction, to calling them speculative fiction. If youve ever tried to implement the litany of techniques needed for a perfect baseball or golf swing and ended up with a rigid, mechanical effort, you know the feeling. Brave new world and 1984 are the two bestknown examples describes an oppressive social order. Sex and sexuality in speculative fiction wikipedia. Speculative fiction oxford research encyclopedia of. It crosses the genres of literary fiction and speculative fiction, including science fiction, fantasy or both. By some definitions, speculative fiction specfi is characterized as an umbrella description of the broad spectrum of science fiction and fantasy, but the term first appeared as a genre reference in 1947 in an editorial essay, on the writing of speculative fiction, by the venerable scifi author, robert a. From the prospect of new star wars films, to blockbuster book success of the hunger games and a.
A technology or concept is then introduced into this familiar world to drive the story. I think the problem, more generally, is in our taxonomy. The complete guide to the speculative fiction subgenre. Instructional books on speculative fiction writing can be a valuable step in your writing journey. These examples highlight the caveat that many works now regarded as intentional or unintentional speculative fiction long predate the. Designed for homeschoolers and smallschool settings, this textbook draws on excerpts from dozens of speculative fiction authors and writing experts. George orwell and aldous huxley wrote speculative fiction in the first half of the 20 th. Writing speculative fiction is a valuable addition to writers at any stage of development. The handmaids tale by margaret atwood, 1984 by george orwell, the hunger games by suzanne collins, oryx and. Our talons can crush galaxies, by brooke bolander in uncanny magazine. The term speculative fiction has three historically located meanings. Posts about speculative fiction written by alexandria cannon.
An international speculative fiction reading list, by the. Literary fiction is borrowing the tools of the science. Speculative fiction definition and meaning collins. Speculative fiction can also be an ideal way to explore problems in the modern world that is made safe by being dressed in fantastical trappings. This textbook develops an 18week program designed to guide prospective students through creating their own speculative fiction story, that is, a science fiction, fantasy, or horror story. Examples might include the introduction of androids as servants in our home. To help inspire you, weve collected 116 examples of successful query letters from famous authors spanning various genres, from crime fiction, to fantasy, to young adult. This month, like every month, i read a lot of amazing speculative short fiction. The way i look at it, science fiction is the genre and ya is an attribute of the story. Many speculate the lord of the rings was modeled on the conflicts of world war i. Contemporary speculative fiction examples from the above exploration, id like to think of speculative fiction as a mix of the whatif scenario interacting with a basis in our world.
Use speculative in a sentence speculative sentence examples. One of my most popular blog posts is my 50 fantasy plot ideas and writing prompts, so i thought id share a companion post of sci fi story ideas and writing prompts. With speculative fiction, the stakes are typically higher, and the price of failure much more costly, so a large percentage of ya speculative fiction is about saving the world in some way. You can view the crowdranked popular speculative fiction books list and vote andsubmit entries to it. However, sometimes all the rules can leave you a little dizzy. From a historical perspective, says silverberg, theres a notable difference between todays ya speculative fiction and that of 50 years ago. However, according to the oxford research encyclopedias article on speculative fiction, the term itself was coined by the writer robert a. You may get a different answer depending on who you ask. Eight great speculative fiction novels by women popmatters. This book is about a widowed mouse and her four young children and a mothers will to protect her family. Bull spec is a magazine of speculative fiction roughly, science fiction, fantasy, slipstream, and a few other bits around the edges published quarterly from durham, north carolina. Some of these may be more along the lines of speculative fiction than science fiction. Writers, and publishers, are embracing speculative fiction as an apt form to interrogate what it means to be human, to be humane, in the current climate and to engage with ideas of.
Last time, i shared 20 fantasy story ideas to get your brain moving. Heinlein describes it as a specific science fiction subset, which is. Its been a strange month for me, and maybe some of you as well. The speculative genre also crosses over and meshes with all other genres to some extent expect for those based in realism.
Even so, i read some awesome short fiction, and here are my favourites. Speculative fiction is fiction in which the author speculates upon the results of changing whats real or possible, not how a character would react to a certain event, etc. These books expressed his mature thought, and may be said to contain, in what he conceived as a final form, the speculative achievements of his life. Scan this list of the most widely held science fiction books and movies in libraries for your favorites, then blast off to your local library to check them out.
The handmaids tale by margaret atwood, 1984 by george orwell, the hunger games by suzanne collins, oryx and crake. However, as i mentioned in the beginning, not all science fiction and horror necessarily counts as speculative. Frankenstein, or, the modern prometheus by mary wollstonecraft shelley. Alongside their imaginations, these speculative fiction books encompass political and social commentary with implications for the world we live. Speculative fiction is a term that was developed in the 1970s. Quite simply because i include stories that are horror, magical realism, and, well. The 15 best speculative fiction books of 2010 io9 gizmodo. Remembrance is a speculative fiction debut about a hidden stop on the underground railroad thats protected by more than secrecy by k.
Speculative fiction is a broad category of fiction encompassing genres with certain elements. This time, its my pleasure to go from earth to space. In many cases, speculative fiction is set in present times or the very near future. Paolo bacigalupi, the windup girl nightshade books bacigalupi rebooted hard science fiction with this tale of an environmental apocalypse. Speculative fiction is a fiction genre speculating about worlds that are unlike the real world in various important ways. Fantastic, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, and other, less well known genres. Speculative fiction childrens literature bookshelf. Pro tips for writing and publishing speculative fiction. However, speculative fiction sf and soft science fiction also offers the freedom to imagine alien or galactic societies different from reallife cultures, making it a tool to examine sexual bias, heteronormativity, and gender bias and enabling the reader to reconsider his or her cultural assumptions. They include prompts about the environment, artificial intelligence, genetics, medicine, time travel, space exploration, alien races. Heinlein in 1941, and then popularized in his 1947 essay on the writing of speculative fiction. In this genre, just here for godzilla is in full effect.
Speculative fiction or whatif fictions as they are popularly called, is a broad genre of fiction that encompasses futuristic or imaginative themes. These include, but are not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, horror, superhero fiction, alternate history, utopian and dystopian fiction, and supernatural fiction, as well as. Speculative fiction definition complete list of book genres. On the road to traditional publication, your query letter plays a central role in getting literary agents and publishers to notice your book. Funny, a wrinkle in time is one of the first books i remember reading and loving and i have always thought of it as science fiction. As you point out, something might be science fiction and also ya. Heres your allaccess pass into the ultimate historical fiction guide. It refers to literary works that blur the lines of traditional categories. From the prospect of new star wars films, to blockbuster book success of the hunger games and a game of thrones and their associated adaptations, to the yearly deluge of comic book films and tv shows, it can often feel like everything is sff and for those who insist they dont like speculative fiction, thats a huge problem. Read on to explore this concept, along with examples. Books in the speculative fiction genre are made up of stories about places, characters, and worlds that are unlike what we know.
Obrien is winner of the 1972 john newbery medal, is on the top 100 childrens novels, and has been made into a film in 1982. Explore the fantastical with speculative fiction snhu. For example, there are books of horror that are still set in our world with our rules. Stories might blend horror elements with science fiction, romance, or even historical events to create a unique story. The fiercest and most ferocious piece of prose ive read in a while. They contain elements from fantasy, horror, philosophy, science fiction, supernatural, apocalyptic, postapocalyptic, alternate history, utopian and dystopian novels. A subgenre with elements of the surreal and postmodern themes. A young blind girl flees paris carrying a precious jewel while an orphan joins the hitler youth. Speculative fiction is a broad category of fiction encompassing genres with certain elements that do not exist in the real world, often in the context of supernatural, futuristic or other imaginative themes. Narratives concerned not so much with science or technology as with human actions. George orwells 1984 was set in a dystopian future of total government surveillance and control. This is not the story of how he killed me, thank fuck.
I agree that narratives that take place in a purely secondary world e. What is the difference between speculative fiction and. However, there are many speculative fiction stories that fall on the border between genres, and others that may be completely unclassifiable. To explore this caveat, we need margaret atwood and ursula k. Check out our top 100 short story ideas for every genre here. In these contexts, it generally overlaps one or more of the following. Slipstream is often defined as fantastical, illogical, surreal, and jarring. Therefore, the thing being speculated upon must be more elemental than character or plot. Crosssed genres publications, 2014 meanwhile, elsewhere.
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