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Mon, 12/10/2007

Penguin Imprint Focus: Subgenres in SF/F:

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Roc and Ace publish science-fiction and fantasy, but what exactly does that mean? When people consider these genres, they might think of The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars—but beyond that it all gets a bit hazy. Enter any book store, however, and you’ll find hundreds if not thousands of novels lining the shelves in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy section. What’s going on? They can’t all be Tolkien rehashes and Star Trek spin offs, can they?

Of course not. The scope of science fiction and fantasy is limited only by the imagination of its authors, and this genre has some of the most powerfully imaginative people writing today. This week we’re going to examine the general categories that most authors fall into, and look at only a few of the great Roc and Ace writers who are excelling in each (if we could add all of Roc/Ace's talented and best selling authors, this entry would be far too long, so consider the names selected below but a random sampling!). Want to know the difference between Alternate History and Military SF? Learn about the increasingly popular Urban Fantasy, or examine the roots of Hard Science Fiction? Then read on, and come back for future installments later this week!

Hard Science Fiction

Hard Science Fiction is a category defined by a focus on the technical or scientific elements of the story. Don’t expect the tales to read like tech manuals for futuristic machines, but rather stories that seek to maintain a certain scientific rigor, that attempt to be internally consistent with what we know of science today, and what we can logically extrapolate about where it might go in the future. Sometimes these stories may include implausibilities such as ‘faster than light travel’, using these elements as ‘enabling devices’ that allow them to tell more fantastic tales, but even when doing so the authors strive to realistically portray the worlds that such technology might make possible.

The classics:

Robert Heinlein (1907-1988)

Robert Heinlein is considered by many to be one of the towering fathers of Hard SF, writing numerous bestselling and award winning works over the half century span of his career. He was a four-time winner of the Hugo Award for his novels Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), Starship Troopers (1959), Double Star (1956), and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966). His Future History series, incorporating both short stories and novels, was first mapped out in 1941. The series charts the social, political, and technological changes shaping human society from the present through several centuries into the future.

Robert A. Heinlein's books were among the first works of science fiction to reach bestseller status in both hardcover and paperback. He continued to work well into his eighties, and his work never ceased to amaze, to entertain, and to generate controversy. By the time he died in 1988 it was evident that he was one of the formative talents of science fiction: a writer whose unique vision, unflagging energy, and persistence, over the course of five decades, made a great impact on the American mind.

Frank Herbert (1920-1986)

Frank Herbert was born in Tacoma, Washington, and educated at the University of Washington, Seattle. He worked a wide variety of jobs--including TV cameraman, radio commentator, oyster diver, jungle survival instructor, lay analyst, creative writing teacher, reporter and editor of several West Coast newspapers--before becoming a full-time writer.

He is best known for the novel Dune and its five sequels. The Dune saga, set in the distant future and taking place over millennia, dealt with themes such as human survival and evolution, ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics and power, and is widely considered to be among the classics in the field of science fiction.

The traditionalists:

Joe Haldeman (1943)

Joe Haldeman is a Vietnam veteran whose classic novels The Forever War and Forever Peace both have the rare honor of winning the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He has served twice as president of the Science Fiction Writers of America and is currently an adjunct professor teaching writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jack McDevitt (1935)

Jack McDevitt is a critically acclaimed author who’s works frequently explore mankind’s first contact with alien species, mixing trepidation and awe with equal measure. After winning a short story contest an undergrad at LaSalle College, he read David Copperfield and realized, as he put it, that “I could never write at that level, and therefore I should find something else to do. I joined the Navy, drove a cab, became an English teacher, took a customs inspector's job on the northern border, and didn't write another word for a quarter-century.” Luckily he returned to writing in 1981, and has since won numerous awards and nominations.

John Varley (1947)

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, John Varley went to Michigan State University because it was the farthest school that he could afford from Texas. He was in San Francisco’s Ashbury-Haight during the summer of love in 1967, and his car serendipitously broke down a half mile from Woodstock in 1969. He has won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards for his work, and is often compared to Robert A. Heinlein due to his interests in free love and free societies. John Varley is the author of the Gaean Trilogy (Titan, Wizard, and Demon), Steel Beach, The Golden Globe, Red Thunder, and Mammoth.

The groundbreakers:

William Gibson (1948)

William Gibson burst into the world of Science Fiction in 1984 with his debut novel, Neuromancer, and has been a mainstay ever since. Feted by The Guardian in 1999 as "probably the most important novelist of the past two decades", his work anticipated important aspects of the internet and the Web, concepts encapsulated in his coinage of the term ‘cyberspace’. Since 1984 he has published nine novels, delving into the realm of Steampunk with his collaborative novel The Difference Engine, and more recently setting his novels in the contemporary universe with Pattern Recognition and Spook Country. His interest in the sociological impact of developing technology and late stage capitalism has recently propelled him into The New York Times best seller lists for the first time.

Charles Stross (1964)

Charles Stross has recently exploded into the US literary scene with five novel sales and several Hugo nominations within the space of two years. His works have often focused on the Singularity, the point where the rate of technological advancement outstrips mankind’s ability to predict what will happen next, and his imaginative and thoughtful speculation on this event and what might follow have earned him significant acclaim. Born in Leeds, London, he initially worked as a pharmacist before returning to University to earn a postgraduate degree in Computer Science. He then emigrated to Scotland where he now resides, working as a freelance journalist specializing in Linux and free software.

Alastair Reynolds (1966)

Alastair Reynolds is a Welsh author and astrophysicist who but recently left a position at the European Space Research and Technology Centre to write full time. Author of over 30 shorter works and seven novels, he is most famous for his Revelation Space universe, a dark hard science fiction setting which reflect his professional expertise with physics and astronomy. They are distinctive for portraying human societies that have not gone to positive or negative extremes, but reflect instead current human society with its potential for the full range of human behavior. He has recently returned to live in the UK.