Decades ago, Speculative Fiction, a literature genre that
had always been on the outlying fringe of the reading world began to rise in
popularity. Within the realm of Speculative Fiction fall main genres such as
Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror, with all sorts of child genres spawned
off these parents including Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Dystopian, Cyberpunk, and
many others. For the sake of this article, I will leave Horror aside, as it
seems to have been different enough, with a distinct enough audience, to have
managed to break out on its own as a fully recognized genre. The other
Speculative Fiction parents, Fantasy and Science-Fiction, were no so fortunate.
The roots of Fantasy arguably date back as far as Homer’s
Odyssey or before, with mythology continuing to be an integral part of the
Fantasy genre. Swords and sorcery, knights and heroes, and mythical creatures
galore are the earmarks of mainstream epic fantasy. Of course the fathers of
modern fantasy were greats such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, who took
stodgy old stories formerly relegated to ancient Greek culture classes and
turned them into a vibrant world built by imagination. An entire generation of
youth were inspired by these tales, and with the help of the generation of
writers to follow and pick up the banner, including Madeline L’Engle, Piers
Anthony, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, Ursula LeGuin, and many others,
Fantasy quickly grew from a fringe genre for youth into a full-fledged genre in
its own right. Gary Gygax and the creative team at TSR who turned Fantasy from
something one could read about into an adventure that people could participate
in via the Role Playing Game Dungeons and Dragons further aided this boost
tremendously.
Shortly on the heels of the breakout Fantasy writers came a
generation who picked up the mantle of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley, Johnathan
Swift, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and other classicists who experiments with stories
about the “what-ifs” of science. The modern classic masters included giants
like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Frederick Pohl, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray
Bradbury, Frank Herbert, Roger Zelazny and a host of other writers dubbed
“Futurists” in their time. They took imagination out of the hands of children
and brought it back to life in the minds of a generation of adult readers.
Unfortunately, via an odd bias within the mainstream
publishing industry, there was a lack of understanding of the distinct and deep
differences in these genres. Mainstream readers didn’t understand them, and
traditional publishing houses failed to grasp the appeal and distinct market
for them. They were, early on, relegated mostly as “boy’s stories”, and despite
deep and critical distinctions between Fantasy and Science Fiction, they were
relegated for many years into a hyphenated genre. This was much like a shotgun
wedding, lumping two very distinctive genres into one.
This to some extent was embraced and encouraged by many
factors. Bookstores did not want to spare the shelf space to feature them
distinctly, and many mainstream bookstore owners did not sufficiently
understand the difference enough to properly categorize and separate them. Thus
most bookstores had a section marked Fantasy/Science-Fiction where both were
lumped together, usually organized alphabetically by author.
Furthermore, many authors wrote both Fantasy and Science
Fiction stories, further confusing book stores who would have ended up
splitting author titles by genre. Many authors stick rigidly to a single genre
making them easy to label and identify. With Science Fiction and Fantasy,
however, much of the creative impetus that drives one also can be cross-applied
to the other. In addition many authors wrote blended stories that were more
“Science Fantasy” than clearly one or the other. Anne McCaffery’s Dragonriders
of Pern jumps to mind as a prime example. Robert Heinlein’s story Magic, Inc. is another. Even Terry
Brooks’ Shannara series is set far in
Earth’s future after a set of supernatural events cause the fall of
civilization and the rise of a world filled with fantasy creatures such as
elves and trolls. These factors all served to further reinforce the involuntary
marriage between Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Nowadays, however, there seems to be more and more
distinction being drawn between the two. Larger bookstores have started placing
the two close together but shelving Science Fiction and Fantasy separately.
Online booksellers have recognized the different classifications and begun
tagging books appropriately. Online reader lists like Bookbub and EReader News
Today have recognized the difference and have distinct lists of readers for
each.
While we can still speak about them as linked but distinct
genres that all fall under the umbrella of Speculative Fiction, it is nice to
see more and more readers who may love Fantasy but not really enjoy Science
Fiction, or vice versa, being given the opportunity to easily find and choose
what they prefer to read. It is nice to see it only took a few decades for the
publishing industry to catch on that these two very distinct but understandably
linked genres should stand in their own right. Speculative Fiction overall has,
thanks to the efforts of Hollywood making classics like Narnia, Lord of the
Rings, Alien, and the plethora of superhero films in recent years, moved from a
fringe genre into a recognized mainstream genre. As we continue to support
quality Speculative Fiction authors in their respective areas, we will continue
to see more quality choices in Speculative Fiction emerging in both Fantasy and
Science Fiction.
