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A review by paracyclops
Spec Fic for Newbies: A Beginner's Guide for Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror by Val Nolan, Tiffani Angus
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
No novice writer is going to learn to write well in a speculative fiction genre by reading this book. Nor will any reader be fully informed regarding any of the tropes, themes, styles and subgenres addressed by the sections of its three chapters. But writers of any standard wanting to find out about speculative fiction genres with a view to working in them should find this a useful book, and for those readers that don't intend to write in these modes, it is a fascinating taxonomy of speculative fiction.
What I find most interesting about its account of speculative fiction is that it doesn't simply offer a list of sub-genres, as a publisher might. This taxonomy, broken down into three long chapters on science-fiction, fantasy, and horror, is designed to be useful to writers rather than scholars, and it is intended to be pragmatic rather than definitive. For this reason, some of its subsections are devoted to subgenres such as cyberpunk, or high fantasy, and others to narrative objects, such as witches or zombies. The SF chapter has four such sections, on spaceships, aliens, 'big dumb objects', and 'robots, androids, and artificial intelligence'. If I harbour any dissatisfaction with the book, it's in thinking that the fantasy and horror chapters could have done with more of these, for example on dragons, magical artifacts, or edifices.
The writing style is light and humourous throughout, but by no means frivolous. The authors are scholars, and they cite sources rather than making pronouncements as though out of the clear blue sky. Sources are footnoted, and collected in a reference list at the end of the book. I would have also liked to see a bibliography and an index, but these things cost money, and this is a lot cheaper than most academic books, so I'm not complaining. I do think a chronological reading list of primary texts would have been a useful addition at the end of each section, however (at the time of writing I'm going through the book with a fine toothcomb to build my own!)
I found this book an entertaining and eminently readable tour of themes, tropes and styles within the three main strands of speculative fiction. It's erudite, informative, practical, generous in spirit, and a great deal of fun to read.
What I find most interesting about its account of speculative fiction is that it doesn't simply offer a list of sub-genres, as a publisher might. This taxonomy, broken down into three long chapters on science-fiction, fantasy, and horror, is designed to be useful to writers rather than scholars, and it is intended to be pragmatic rather than definitive. For this reason, some of its subsections are devoted to subgenres such as cyberpunk, or high fantasy, and others to narrative objects, such as witches or zombies. The SF chapter has four such sections, on spaceships, aliens, 'big dumb objects', and 'robots, androids, and artificial intelligence'. If I harbour any dissatisfaction with the book, it's in thinking that the fantasy and horror chapters could have done with more of these, for example on dragons, magical artifacts, or edifices.
The writing style is light and humourous throughout, but by no means frivolous. The authors are scholars, and they cite sources rather than making pronouncements as though out of the clear blue sky. Sources are footnoted, and collected in a reference list at the end of the book. I would have also liked to see a bibliography and an index, but these things cost money, and this is a lot cheaper than most academic books, so I'm not complaining. I do think a chronological reading list of primary texts would have been a useful addition at the end of each section, however (at the time of writing I'm going through the book with a fine toothcomb to build my own!)
I found this book an entertaining and eminently readable tour of themes, tropes and styles within the three main strands of speculative fiction. It's erudite, informative, practical, generous in spirit, and a great deal of fun to read.