Guidelines on Sub-genres in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

Speculative fiction is the umbrella term that encompasses anything that is on the outer edge of imagination, including all science fiction and fantasy, horror and supernatural writing.  If you want to write in this field – which includes a lot more apparently mainstream books than many in the writing industry like to admit – it does help to know the terms.  As soon as you start to submit work in this field, you will need to know enough to explain which sub-genre your work falls into and unlike other genres, some of the names aren’t self-explanatory.

SCIENCE FICTION 

This includes any story/book where the backdrop and world system is based on technology, rather than magic.  Sometimes these boundaries are blurred.  Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books about dragons appear to be fantasy, until several novels into the series we discover the protagonists are on a colony world and the dragons have been transformed using science, so the term science fantasy can be used for these books. 

Hard Science Fiction  The worlds depicted tend to concentrate on the technology, being highly complex and detailed.  Plots tend to focus on what happens when this technology is in use and the plots are driven by action or events, rather than the characters. The authors include the likes of Greg Bear, Alistair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke.

Soft Science Fiction  These stories examine the social sciences and the personal consequences of a highly technological background and are more character driven.  Ray Bradbury and Ursula LeGuin were forerunners of this type of fiction, but other notable authors are Connie Willis , Sherri S. Tepper, Tricia Sullivan and James A. Cory (a pen name).

Space Opera  This sub-genre presumes that humankind has nailed faster-than-light travel and that we are now Out There in space.  Set on space ships and other planets, and often exploring human/alien interaction, it is a rich seam for science fiction writers to mine.  Lois McMaster Bujold, Elizabeth Moon and Jack McDevitt are all solidly good examples of this type of writing.

Military Science Fiction  There is a branch of science fiction that presupposes we are locked in a battle with Something Nasty from the stars, or taking lumps out of each other using technically advanced weaponry.  John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series, David Weber, John Ringo and Robert Buettner are all examples of this category.   With more blood and guts you can shake a stick at, these books are great escapist fun.  More sombre is Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War.

Apocalyptic/Dystopian Science Fiction  This is a popular sub-genre, when our civilisation is ending/has ended and the novel either recounts the crash into chaos, or what happens afterwards.  Cormac McCarthy’s The Road was made into a film.  John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids are both famous earlier examples.  Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake is another grim offering, however David Mitchell’s awesome Cloud Atlas is a more entertaining read, in my opinion…

Cyberpunk  This hard science fiction sub-genre is generally set in a city.  The tone is invariably bleak as technology runs out of control, law and order is shaky and life is Unpleasant.  The style is punchy, the language littered with techno-speak with often a lot of swearing and protagonists are anti-heroes.  William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Richard Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs books are strong examples.

Steampunk  Ditto the above, except the technology in evidence is steam.  This is one of the genres which straddle science fiction and fantasy. So the language is not so edgy and the characters are often pleasanter.  Adrian  Tchaikovsky’s fantasy Apt series contains steampunk technology,  and the entertaining detective series by George Mann featuring his Victorian duo Newbury and Hobbes is classic steampunk.  The sub-genre clockwork punk is demonstrated by Jay Lake in several of his novels and Greg Egan’s outstanding science fiction novel The Clockwork Rocket, which is the first in his Orthogonal trilogy.

Timeslip  Where Time is being tweaked or mucked about.   Most notable recent offerings is Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife and Doomsday by Connie Willis.

FANTASY

This is where a story or book relies on any form of magic or mythology in order to make the world work.  A selection of the main sub-genres in Fantasy are below.  However, these boundaries are by no means definitive.  Whether a book is dark fantasy or horror is often a matter of opinion. 

High Fantasy  This is where the action and main setting is in a secondary world unlike our own and was begun by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.  It can be entered through a portal, like the wardrobe in the Narnia series, or just be there, like Kate Elliott’s Novaria in the Crown of Stars series.  There are often big themes in High Fantasy, like a quest, or great battle, often represented as a struggle between good and evil.  Excellent writers in this genre include Robin Hobb, Juliet Marillier and Juliet E. McKenna.  And of course, the incomparable Terry Pratchett and his Discworld, which is carried on the backs of four elephants, standing on the shell of a huge turtle that swims slowly through space.

Low Fantasy  These are stories set in our world, where magic operates without most people realising.  The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson and Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden series are examples, as is the Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling.

Urban Fantasy  Set in a real city with often an isolated hero/heroine, this sub-genre borrows a lot from early noire fiction, with sharp punchy prose, memorable imagery and witty dialogue and usually first person narrative.  Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan series is one of the main forerunners and one of the best of the Brit offerings is Kate Griffin’s  Midnight Mayor series.

Occult Detective  This is generally set in an urban fantasy backdrop in a primary world setting, where someone ‘other’ fights supernatural baddies.  Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden is one of the forerunners of this very popular subgenre and Ben Aaronovitch with his Peter Grant series is also a well-written British contender.

Paranormal Romance  A very popular subgenre, where our hero/heroine falls for someone with too much hair or very sharp teeth.  But there is still plenty of action, along with the witty dialogue and romance – which can also include some explicit language and sex.  Again – set in an urban fantasy setting.  The popular YA series Twilight by Stephanie Meyers is a well-known example as is Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series.

Swords and Sorcery  A sub-genre that is set in pre-industrial times with plenty of swashbuckling and everyone plods around on horses.  A grittier version has recently made this more popular, as in Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch’s series. 

New Weird  Where fantasy characters dress and act in modern ways, eg drug taking & wearing jeans, despite being set in some classic high fantasy backgrounds.  The writing style tends to be more literary.  Steph Swainston’s Castle series and China Miéville’s work are examples.

Magic Realism   This is where the magic is embedded into an otherwise natural setting.  It is also a strong clue when editors use the term that they are looking for something literary in style and tone.  Examples include Chocolat by Joanne Harris and The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende.

Slipstream  Another sub-genre that defines a more literary writing style .  This can be either science fiction or fantasy and describes a book that pushes the boundaries into something peculiar.  Christopher Priest and Tricia Sullivan are notable authors who fall into this category.

Godpunk  Recently there has been a strong upsurge in fantastic fiction concerning various pantheons of gods.  This sub-genre can be either science fiction or fantasy, depending on the setting.   James Lovegrove’s Pantheon series has helped establish this – along with N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance trilogy and Kevin Hearne’s entertaining series.

Alternate History  Again this crosses the other main genres – and is particularly currently popular in steampunk novels.  As the name suggests – it is when a particular event in history has changed, as in Germany winning WW2, for instance.  Naomi Novak’s Temeraire series about dragons being used to fight the Napoleonic wars and Fatherland by Robert Harris are popular examples.

Dark Fantasy  This sub-genre overlaps with horror.  Increasingly, the vampire  series, such as Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris and Laurelle K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, are described as dark fantasy.  Mike Carey’s Felix Castor novels are definitely on the darker end of urban fantasy.

HORROR

Horror has been going for a long time.  Again, there are various sub-genres, however many horror writers constantly cross these sub-genres, according to what they are writing.

Gothic Horror  Apparently invented by Horace Walpole with his book, The Castle of Otranto in 1764.  It relies on classic creepy surroundings and plenty of tension which is punctuated by sudden, shocking bursts of violence and cruelty, which can be visceral, depending on the author.  The ‘baddies’ may or may not be human.  There tends to be some poor unwitting innocent wandering around the place, who gets – literally - dragged into the plot.  Modern writers include Susan Hill, whose Woman in Black is a highly successful play; Lemony Snickett’s children’s books A Series of Unfortunate Events puts a modern twist on this genre.  I’d also post Audrey Niffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry in this box.

Paranormal Horror  This is where nasty things that Richard Dawkins doesn’t believe in crawl out of the corners and cause havoc.  It used to be a staple of early horror and has enjoyed a real upswing in popularity as the likes of Stephen King and Peter Straub have produced a slew of highly readable books, using all sorts of weirdness with which to frighten their readers.

Lovecraftian Horror  A subset of Monster Horror, H.P. Lovecraft had an alternate reality of foul things living alongside us.  Only a few chosen humans could fight them but as the outlook wasn’t good, his characters frequently went mad.  The Laundry series by Charles Stross is a modern twist on Lovecraft’s themes and Jorge Luis Borges’ writing is also heavily influenced by his work. 

Splatterpunk  This can be in either science fiction, fantasy or more often – horror.  As the name suggests, it includes lots of blood and inventively gory ways of killing people.  Currently popular in lots of the zombie novels.  Clive Barker’s Books of Blood are regarded as the forerunners of this sub-genre.  Lucifer’s Lottery by Edward Lee and Meat by Joseph D’Lacey are popular examples.  Apparently.