Do you find yourself bored with the humdrum “real world”? Do you long for adventure and travel? Would you like to explore strange new worlds? Then Science Fiction might be the genre for you!
What is Science Fiction?
Science Fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that features a possible new future with new technological advancements. Settings can include space stations, other worlds, or even earth–in a future where things are very different from what they are like right now. Robots, aliens, space travel, medical and physical enhancements, supercomputers, and more feature heavily in science fiction. While its sister-genre, fantasy relies on magic, in science fiction, it’s all about the tech.
Why Do Readers Love It?
Science fiction can be entertaining for a number of reasons. First, there’s the thrill of new adventures and bold new worlds, just like when you read fantasy. It’s exciting to speculate about what civilization will be like hundreds of years in the future, or what first contact with an alien species will entail. The genre is often hopeful, as we look forward to a world that has been consistently improved; while on the flipside, dystopian and dying earth narratives can be emotionally stirring, sad, or even scary. Either way, the genre is immersive, thought-provoking, and often emotionally stimulating, and allows authors to address themes such as racism, colonization, and even religion in a new way.
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Many libraries (ours included) tend to group Science Fiction and Fantasy together. This makes sense as both genres are speculative fiction and both have similar themes. There are even some books that balance a fine line between the two genres, making them hard to pin down as one or the other. So, how do you tell the difference?
While there’s plenty that I could say, let’s keep it short and sweet. If the setting includes robots, space travel, or aliens–it’s science fiction. If it contains elves, dwarves, and dragons, it’s fantasy. SF uses ray guns and lightsabers, while fantasy uses broadswords and daggers. If the villain is a supercomputer, it’s SF; if a wizard, fantasy.
Set Phasers to Subgenre
There are many subgenres of science fiction, but here are just a few to get you started–
- Steampunk: Often set in an alternate past where advances in steam-power provide strange new technology
- Space Opera: A thrilling melodrama set in space
- Dystopian: A totalitarian regime has learned how to make everyone happy (yeah, right)
- Afrofuturism: Stories that feature futuristic technology, told through the lens of the African diaspora
Related Genres:
- Fantasy: Similar themes, but in a magical setting
- Alternate History: How would the world be different if global events had changed?
- Horror: Speculative fiction designed to terrify
- Apocalypse: It’s the end of the world!
Reading Recommendations
The Sheriff of Yrnameer (Michael Rubens) Meet Cole: hapless space rogue, part-time smuggler, on a path to being full-time dead. His sidekick just stole his girlfriend. The galaxy’s most hideous and feared bounty hunter wants to lay eggs in his brain. And the luxury space yacht Cole just hijacked turns out of be filled with interstellar do-gooders, one especially loathsome stowaway, and a cargo of freeze-dried orphans. Reluctantly compelled to deliver these defenseless, fluidless children to safety, Cole gathers a misfit crew for a desperate journey to the far reaches of the galaxy. Their destination: the mysterious world of Yrnameer, the very last of the your-name-heres-planets without corporate sponsors. But little does Cole know that this legendary utopia is home to a murderous band of outlaws bent on destroying the planet’s tiny, peaceful community. Follow Cole’s adventures through a delightfully absurd science-fiction universe, where the artificial intelligence is stupid, dust motes carry branding messages, and middle-management zombies have overrun a corporate training satellite. In the spirit of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, The Sheriff of Yrnameer is sci-fi comedy at its best-mordant, raucously funny, and a thrilling must-listen.
Fuzzy Nation (John Scalzi) Jack Holloway works alone, for reasons he doesn’t care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorp’s headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporation’s headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, that’s not up for discussion. Then, in the wake of an accidental cliff collapse, Jack discovers a seam of unimaginably valuable jewels, to which he manages to lay legal claim just as ZaraCorp is cancelling their contract with him for his part in causing the collapse. Briefly in the catbird seat, legally speaking, Jack pressures ZaraCorp into recognizing his claim, and cuts them in as partners to help extract the wealth. But there’s another wrinkle to ZaraCorp’s relationship with the planet Zarathustra. Their entire legal right to exploit the verdant Earth-like planet, the basis of the wealth they derive from extracting its resources, is based on being able to certify to the authorities on Earth that Zarathustra is home to no sentient species. Then a small furry biped–trusting, appealing, and ridiculously cute–shows up at Jack’s outback home. Followed by its family. As it dawns on Jack that despite their stature, these are people, he begins to suspect that ZaraCorp’s claim to a planet’s worth of wealth is very flimsy indeed…and that ZaraCorp may stop at nothing to eliminate the “fuzzys” before their existence becomes more widely known.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) It’s an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur’s best friend has just announced that he’s an alien. After that, things get much, much worse. With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite good at languages. And the book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . . . which helpfully has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters on its cover. Douglas Adams’s mega-selling pop-culture classic sends logic into orbit, plays havoc with both time and physics, offers up pithy commentary on such things as ballpoint pens, potted plants, and digital watches . . . and, most important, reveals the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything. Now, if you could only figure out the question. . . .
Hum (Helen Phillips) In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called “hums,” May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance. Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family’s addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights’ respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams, and animals flourish. But her insistence that her son, daughter, and husband leave their devices at home proves far more fraught than she anticipated, and the lush beauty of the Botanical Garden is not the balm she hoped it would be. When her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives as she works to restore the life of her family.
Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend (M.J. Wassmer) Professional underachiever Dan Foster is finally taking a vacation. Sure, his life has been average at best and, yeah, he has never quite lived up to his potential. But after a few Miller Lites in paradise with his girlfriend Mara, things are starting to look up. Then the sun explodes. With the island suddenly plunged in darkness (and Mara pestering him for not springing for the up-charged travel insurance), Dan’s holiday takes a surprising turn when the elite guests install themselves as the new ruling class. As temperatures drop and tensions rise, revolution begins to brew on the island, and Dan accidentally becomes a beacon of hope for the surviving vacationers. But when one six-person plane is discovered that could send them back to the mainland, Dan realizes he has a choice to make. Does he find a way to escape the island with Mara? Or does he stay and fight to become the most unlikely hero of the end of the world?
