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A science fiction genre is a sub-category within the broader context of the science fiction genre as a whole. Science fiction may be divided along any number of overlapping axis. Gary K. Wolfe's Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy identifies over 30 definitions of SF, not including speculative fiction and science fantasy.
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Subgenres
Science
Genres concerning the emphasis, accuracy, and type of science described include:
- Hard science fiction - a particular emphasis on scientific detail and/or accuracy
- Soft science fiction - focus on human characters and their relations and feelings, while de-emphasizing the details of technological hardware and physical laws
- Social science fiction - concerned less with technology and space opera and more with sociological speculation about human society
Characteristics
Main article: List of science fiction themes
Themes related to science, technology, space and the future, as well as characteristic plots or settings include:
- Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic science fiction
- Biopunk - uses elements from the hard-boiled detective novel, film noir, Japanese anime, and post-modernist prose to describe the nihilistic, underground side of the biotech society
- Dying Earth science fiction
- Military science fiction
- Mundane SF
- Steampunk - denotes works set in (or strongly inspired by) an era when steam power was still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian England
- Time travel
- Space colonization
- Space opera - emphasizes romantic adventure, exotic settings, and larger-than-life characters
- Spy-fi
Movements
Genres concerning politics, philosophy, and identity movements include:
- Christian science fiction
- Feminist science fiction
- Gay/Lesbian science fiction
- Libertarian science fiction
Eras
Genres concerning the historical era of creation and publication include:
- Cyberpunk - noted for its focus on "high tech and low life" and taking its name from the combination of cybernetics and punk.
- Golden Age of Science Fiction - a period of the 1940s during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published.
- New Wave science fiction - characterised by a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content.
- Pulp science fiction
- Scientific romance - an archaic name for what is now known as the science fiction genre, mostly associated with the early science fiction of the United Kingdom.
Combinations
Main article: Genre fiction
Genres that combine two different fiction genres or use a different fiction genre's mood or style include:
- Alternate history science fiction - fiction set in a world in which history has diverged from history as it is generally known
- Comic science fiction
- Science fiction erotica
- Gothic science fiction - a subgenre of science fiction that involves gothic conventions
- New Wave science fiction - characterised by a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content
- Science fantasy - a mixed genre of story which contains some science fiction and some fantasy elements
- Science fiction romance - fiction which has elements of both the science fiction and romance genres
- Science fiction Western - fiction which has elements of both the science fiction and Western genres
- Space Western - a subgenre of science fiction that transposes themes of American Western books and film to a backdrop of futuristic space frontiers.
See also
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