A Bit About Science Fiction Sub-Genres

This started out as an email and as I was writing it I saw the blog potential. I haven't changed too much from the actual email, but I have added this and that as well as got rid of the email tone. The science fiction by its very nature is a dynamic and ever changing genre, one of the major strengths that comes from this is the unique sub-genres that emerge within the overall science fiction category. There are many, many, many candidates for a list like this, both from the past and the newly emerging works, and this list is by no means complete, but it's a good overview of a few of the more prominent representatives.

Cyberpunk - The cyberpunk genre came about back in the eighties with an amazing book called Neuromancer by William Gibson and flourished until the early nineties before falling out of grace and becoming a more obscure calling. Essentially, Cyberpunk is a response to all of the glamorous science fiction being written at the time, but more importantly a foreshadowing of events to come. Gibson was well versed in the classics, Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein but he felt that the future would be darker and instead of the human heroes of old, the hacker would be our savior. Thus he created a world ruled by corporations instead of governments and in place of the hero there is the anti-hero, main characters that you almost hated, but loved at the same time. Cyberpunk, by definition, is gritty and very tech or as wiki puts it "High tech, low life". It is certainly one of my favorite genres, especially because of the author's foresight of how the world would end up. The heavy hitters of this little genre are as follows:

- Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)

- Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling (1985) - this one is a bit hard to track down, but it is one of the best there is.

- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)

- Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan (2002) -considered post-cyberpunk, Morgan showed amazing creativity and was a breath of fresh air in a genre that almost died with the popularity of computers.

There are a quite a few more, but those four show the diversity of cyberpunk and the brilliance of a (now) defining sub-genre of science fiction.

Hard Sci-Fi – I've discussed hard sci-fi before, but it is definitely one of the major sub-genres out there and at this point one my favorites. A long time ago Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke were on the forefront of this sub-genre even if they didn't know it. Now, though, I'm hard pressed to consider Asimov hard only because the science he was basing his novels on has been disproven or debunked, but at the time he was indeed a scientist writing fiction. Clarke, I think, fits more into the character driven styles than the hard sci-fi now, and Heinlein, well he's just all together difficult to place no matter what. In any case, some good ones today are:

- Alastair Reynolds ~ The one time astrophysicist for the European Space Agency, he retired in 2004 with the success of his first novel Revelation Space and is now pursuing writing full time. He was one of the first contemporary hard sci-fi-ists, and is by far my favorite of the group. His brilliance, though, comes not just from the hard science behind his writing, but also the character driven elements and indeed he straddles the line between Space Opera and Hard Science Fiction in a way that I've never seen before. This is amazing to me because, generally speaking, space opera tends to be on the softer side of the spectrum with its romantic and action/adventure elements. He mainly writes in the Revelation Space universe, but he also has a couple one shot novels which are fantastic.

- Kim Stanley Robinson ~ author of the Mars trilogy and probably the closest to the mark on what will eventually happen with Mars and the expansion of the human race. Robinson tackles everything from ecology to terraforming as well as some of the things many hard scientists ignore such as economy and interpersonal/international relations. I read the first book, Red Mars, while taking a 300 level Earth and Planetary Science course at UNM and was amazed at just how much I learned from reading the book, and indeed I learned a lot of things that the class completely disregarded. He has a couple other books based on the future of earth and the environment that I have yet to pick up, but I highly recommend the Mars trilogy.

Steampunk - I haven't explored the steampunk scene very much, but it is now one of the more popular sub-genres out there. While cyberpunk is high tech and low life, steampunk is almost the exact opposite flaunting low tech and high life. The main influences of steampunk, indeed the first to write in the then non-existent genre, were H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. Authors today dive back to the Victorian age of steam power and make it so the tech never evolved from steam, only got more intricate. Personally, I like cyberpunk more, but steampunk is certainly entertaining at times. Like cyberpunk, steampunk is especially suited for other mediums, in particular film and art, but it thrives best as literature. Like I said, I haven't read much, but I have found that shorter stories are better suited for steampunk, though, there are many who would disagree with me. In any case, I'm gonna list a couple of fantastic anthologies below as well as some full novels.

- The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

- Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock (book 1 in a great little trilogy)

- Steampunk edited by Ann VanderMeer

- Steampunk Prime edited by Mike Ashley

Also, just google "steampunk" and check out the images, there are some amazingly intricate works of everything from jewelery to computers; steampunk has an intense following nowadays.

Others - While there are quite a few more sub-genres out there, I feel like the majority of them are merely slight spins off the normal science fiction genre, space westerns are ever prevalent in film and literature, but I find that it is just a more focused vision of a space opera. Others such as alternate history and military sci-fi while fairly large in scope hold little interest to me. Instead I think now is as good a time as any to jump into the future of science fiction by exploring some of the stuff that has yet to be labeled and is starting all sorts of ruckus in the field.

- The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi; Ribofunk by Paul Di Filippo; and the Xenogenesis trilogy by Octavia E. Butler ~ These three are all follow in the footsteps of cyberpunk and are what is now being called biopunk. Instead of the cyber elements being the focus and because of the recent advancements in biotechnology, a new sub-genre is set to spring forth focusing on genetic modifications, biohackers, and what happens when we mess with our genes. Alastair Reynolds actually touches on this sort of modification in his universe, and while not the focus, his take is interesting. Bacigalupi, in particular is quite extraordinary in his vision.

- The Unincorporated Man by Dani and Eytan Kollin ~ This one is extremely interesting in that it deals more with the socio/political/economic future than the conventional sci-fi elements. It's quite a bit dystopia (or utopia depending on if you agree or not), and while not the best nor most well written or well structured book, I think the Kollins have started something that will lead down some unique paths. Indeed, I don't know what to "label" it as, but then again it's just one of those novels that years from now will be cited as the pebble that started the wave of "X" sub-genre.

- Wraeththu by Storm Constantine ~ God, I don't even know where to start with this one. I picked it up on a very high recommendation and if you only read one book on this list this may be the one to go with. It is the only book I haven't been able to fully classify as science fiction or fantasy because it is neither and it is both. It has so many different themes packed into it that it was easy to become absolutely entranced by it. The main theme, if I can indeed pin one down, is that of gender and gender roles which, as you know, is something very,very rarely touched upon in the male dominated science fiction genre. If I may be so bold, I would say that while reading this I must have felt as those who read Tolkien or Clark for the first time, it was so different than anything I had ever read, but yet absolutely amazing. Sadly, the first novel in this series (it's now sold in a large omnibus) was published in 1987 and yet 25 years later it is still one of the only books tackling this subject. I believe it may be one of those things that is almost too much to handle for most people and while we have progressed as a nation and a society, many people are still unable to read about the blurring of gender roles into one, but I think it will become huge when it does take off. For now I recommend it to everyone, just for the eye opening experience.

- Infoquake by David Louis Edelman ~ Another brand new idea, this time focusing on the future of business and corporations. Instead of the dark views of cyberpunk and biopunk, Edelman has a very different take on what the future will be and as time goes on I can actually see it. Instead of the corporations of today what emerges are called fiefcorps that only last several months at best before the CEO types switch to another product. Nanobots are the name of the game and using them to enhance/change the human body is the goal. While it almost sounds like biopunk, the focus is not just the changing, but he business behind it. Great character and plot development as well, the Infoquake future, while unlikely in certain regards, may have hit the bulls-eye in many ways, especially economically.

I believe without a doubt that while many of these will be around in the future, the greatest thing about science fiction is that it is ever changing; right when you think you've read all there is to read something new and unbelievable comes up and completely blows you away and reignites your desire to read. Certainly the best novels are those written with no specific format in mind, for those are the books that create the sub-genres everyone tries to fit themselves into.