Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Subgenres of Speculative Fiction

I've mentioned before that I'm going to be appearing at the Elgin Literary Festival this weekend as part of a speculative fiction panel. I've contacted my co-panelist, and we've come up with a list of topics for the panel. One of them deals with the various subgenres of science fiction/fantasy. I plan to talk about them briefly, but I'm not sure I want to list every single subgenre possible. I may find a list or diagram of the subgenres and share that with the audience.

When you think of science fiction or fantasy, which subgenres come to mind first? Time travel? Epic fantasy? Alien invasion? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

6 comments:

PT Dilloway said...

Military and space opera are the ones I worked with most.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Hope you nail down your specific topic soon!
Space opera and epic fantasy come to my mind first.

Crystal Collier said...

Oye! Really? I think of Urban fantasy, paranormal, historical fantasy... I'm sure there are others, but those are the first to come to mind.

Anonymous said...

Subgenre I think of are: steampunk, planetary romance, military, space opera, paranormal, epic fantasy, urban fantasy, mythos fantasy.

Jennifer Ruth Jackson said...

Epic and urban fantasy are huge. Paranormal romance is still at the forefront for many readers.
For science fiction... invasion, military, space opera.

And steampunk somewhere in all that.

Sandra Ulbrich Almazan said...

Thanks, Pat!

Alex, I think we're going to give an overview of several topics instead of focusing on one.

Thanks, Crystal, nowastedink, and Jennifer!

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