Subgenres Demystified

Speculative fiction — a blanket term for science fiction, fantasy, and horror — isn’t a recent literary development, although the term is recent. It’s been around for thousands of years. The Ancient Greeks and other civilizations wrote fantastic tales of men and gods, such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey; Medieval Europeans of knights and dragons and fair maidens. Malory wrote about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in the 15th century; Shelley of Frankenstein’s monster in the 19th. More recently, science fiction came into popularity via the pulps, and modern fantasy was ‘born’ with Tolkien’s stories of hobbits and a magic ring.

What does this have to do with you, the would-be spec-fic writer? Well, in all genres, there are subgenres. For example, there are many different types of romance, many different types of mysteries, and many, many different types of historical fiction. This is also true of science fiction and fantasy. It’s important for any writer to be familiar with the subgenres of their chosen genre. Knowing what subgenre you write in makes it easier to label your own work when querying an editor or agent (”I’ve written a 90,000 word long sword-and-sorcery novel …” is more specific than “I’ve written a 90,000 word long fantasy novel …”) and theoretically shorten your response times, since some agents and editors hate specific subgenres. Dark fantasy, urban fantasy, and hard science fiction are not the same — and you’d better know the difference.

Fantasy and Science Fiction: What’s The Difference?

First, the basics. Despite the tendency of many people — myself included — to refer to fantasy as science fiction, and vice versa, the two are not the same. The differences between them are both subtle and complex, and it can be very difficult to tell one from the other, especially in novels that have elements of both genres, like science fantasy (Star Wars is a good example) or time travel. Usually the fantastic elements in science fiction are explained by science, while fantasy takes magic and supernatural/preternatural events for granted with no scientific explanation; it just is.

There are areas in which the edges blur a little, like telepathy and psi-powers, but I’ll get to them later. For now, let’s begin with:
The Fantasy subgenres

Epic Fantasy

Epic fantasy is just what it says; an epic story with casts of thousands, etc, etc. Usually these contain the generic “quest” plotline — a person, usually a teenage male, finds that he has to obtain the Magic Object in order to overthrow the Dark Lord and save the world. In order to do this, he has to cross the entire world, gaining the alliance of more than one person, usually including an elf, a grizzled warrior (male or female), and a comely young virgin.

However, not all epic fantasies follow this “standard” plotline, and some don’t even include quests. Generally, “epic” is termed because the stakes are set so high; it’s not just the main characters who are in danger, but the world itself.

Heroic Fantasy/Sword-and-Sorcery

What’s the difference between epic fantasy and heroic/sword-and-sorcery? Not a whole lot; in fact, the lines are blurred a little. Generally, while in epic fantasy, the entire world is at stake, heroic fantasy is more character-oriented — if the main character fails in his quest, whatever it may be, the world’s not going to care, but the reader sure will. Usually, in heroic fantasy/sword-and-sorcery, the main character is either a swordsman or a mage, with a few exceptions, and there’s often a lot of fighting and adventure in these books. The best example I know of heroic fantasy is Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness quartet.

High Fantasy

High fantasy is the catch-all term for medieval-esque fantasy that doesn’t make it as epic or heroic fantasy/sword-and-sorcery, but contains magic on some level. Sometimes it is used as a label for light reading, such as Mercedes Lackey’s numerous Heralds of Valdemar trilogies. Sharon Shinn’s Summers at Castle Auburn is another example of high fantasy, in that it doesn’t quite fit into any other category.

Historical Fantasy

Historical fantasy and alternate histories are very similar, but different. The former often contains magic in a historical setting, such as Clare Bell’s out-of-print novel, The Jaguar Princess. For example, a story taking place during the Salem Witch Trials with actual witches and magic would be historical fantasy.

Dark Fantasy

Dark fantasy is borderline horror, sometimes referred to as “supernatural horror.” It generally features werewolves, vampires, demons; dark fantasy can also be a novel where the world setting is so brutal that it might be horror, except for the fantastic elements. Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series is a good example of the former, Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels trilogy of the latter.

Contemporary or Modern Fantasy

This is fantasy that takes place in our modern universe, but slightly tweaked, so that magic works, or there are supernatural/preternatural creatures such as elves and pixies living among modern man. Usually the former is more common. Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series is a particularly good example of contemporary fantasy.

Urban Fantasy

Urban fantasy is a sub-subgenre of contemporary fantasy that often takes place in city slums or ghettos, sometimes with elves. This is not an especially common subgenre, and it’s often difficult to separate from contemporary fantasy. It seems to be one that is defined by the individual. However, Mercedes Lackey’s SERRAted Edge series is the best example of urban fantasy I know of.

The Science Fiction subgenres

Hard Science Fiction

Generally, this is scientifically correct science fiction often written by scientists (though not always). You certainly don’t have to be a scientist to write hard science fiction, but the danger of it is readers of HSF are usually well-read in science and will recognize immediately when the author has goofed up.
Space Opera

Interstellar empires, wars, and starships — does that ring a bell? It ought to. Space opera covers most science fiction television shows, such as Star Trek. Most space opera novels seem to be about a captain of a spaceship (light cruiser, starship, battleship …) who fight against space pirates, or some other variation on the word. Most novels about interstellar empires are space opera, but not all. Elizabeth Moon writes a lot of space opera, but David Weber’s Honor Harrington novels may be the best known.

Cyberpunk

For the most part, cyberpunk is a dead subgenre; its heyday was in the 80’s, and most of the novels dealt with a future in which people are hard-wired into computers, at odds with an oppressive government. William Gibson’s Neuromancer is considered by many to be the first cyberpunk novel — in fact, it was Gibson who coined the term “cyberspace.”

First Contact

No, I’m not talking about the Star Trek movie here. First Contact novels are basically what it says; novels in which first contact is made between two cultures, usually human and alien, and the resulting conflicts that arise. Lisanne Norman’s Sholan Alliance novels are a good example of a series that started out to be “first contact,” and gradually complicated themselves along the way.

Dystopia/Utopia

Although completely different, these two share the same subgenre. In science fiction, you don’t see a lot of utopic fiction (after all, who would ever want to read about perfection?), except for novels in which a utopia is destroyed in some manner. Dystopic fiction usually features a futuristic world in which everything that can go wrong has gone wrong, and people are trying to pick up the pieces; Octavia Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower and its sequel, Parable of the Talents, are literally the best examples of dystopic fiction I’ve ever read.
The Horror subgenres:

Lovecraftian

This is fiction based on H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos, detailed in his novels. There are whole publications dedicated to this subgenre.

Psychological Horror

Does your fiction revolve around playing games with people’s minds to terrify, both inside and out of the story? If so, you’ve probably got psychological horror on your hands. Thomas Harris’s novels about Hannibal Lector could be described as psychological horror as well as thrillers.

Splatterpunk

This subgenre is generally horror fiction that includes gore for the sake of gore. Think your standard cheesy horror flick and you wouldn’t be far off.

Supernatural

Monsters, werewolves, ghosts, vampires, demons, witches, you name it. Most horror probably fits into this category, although vampire fiction could arguably be an entire subgenre on its own. Stephen King is probably the most well-known supernatural horror author; others include Poppy Z. Brite and John Saul.

Gothic

This subgenre often is also meshed with vampire fiction, although you certainly don’t need vampires to be gothic. These are usually very dark, foreboding novels with romantic elements, which may or may not contain references to the gothic subculture. Good examples of gothic writers are Anne Rice and Mary Ann Mitchell.
Blurring the Edges:

Science Fantasy

Science fantasy is pretty much what it says — it’s a cross between the two. Some hardcore science fiction fans like to categorize novels that feature psi powers, such as Anne McCaffrey’s The Rowan and its respective sequels, as science fantasy, because psi powers aren’t scientifically proven. However, sometimes novels are categorized as science fantasy because they don’t fit into either genre; for example, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover novels vary so wildly as a series (some are purely fantasy, others are purely science fiction, and still others are a weird mangling) that science fantasy is the only thing you can classify them as.

Time Travel

Technically, because time travel isn’t scientifically possible (unless you manage to worm a black hole in as an explanation somewhere), it should be fantasy. However, most time travel novels are fundamentally science fiction stories and are only classified by hardcore fans as fantasy because of this technicality. It could be lumped under “science fantasy,” but there are enough time travel novels out there for it to have earned its own label.

Slipstream

These are the weird little novels that don’t really belong to either science fiction or fantasy; often, they’re literary novels rejected by their own non-genre with a very slight science fiction/fantasy flavor. This is a very recent subgenre that’s still early in the definition stages; now, if you can shoehorn it in, pretty much anything goes.

Alternate History

Alternate histories rewrite history in a way that completely changes the world; a novel in which the South won the Civil War would be such. Eric Flint’s 1632 is a popular alternate history.

Steampunk

Steampunk, as a general rule, takes place in a quasi-Victorian setting with semi-modern technology. The basic thought behind it all is, “What if the future happened sooner?” Perdido Street Station by China Mieville fits into this subgenre.

Anthropomorphic

This is fiction featuring animals with human characteristics. Replace humans with animals, and you’ve got the basics. Brian Jacques’s successful Redwall series is a prime example of such.

Magic Realism

Magic realism is a hard-to-describe subgenre. While similar to slipstream, it’s different in that there is usually an undertone of accepted magic, which may not be the case with all slipstream. This subgenre has been made popular by Latin American writers, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Hopefully by now you’ve got an idea of what you tend to write. Many writers write in multiple subgenres, and some even mix and match a few. Please keep in mind that this is only a limited list of the main subgenres; if your story doesn’t fit in here, don’t fret. Maybe you’ll be the first to create a new subgenre!

Originally published in Neverary, Issue #7

Posted by Nonny under Uncategorized