Speculative Fiction

Science fiction, fantasy and everything in between. See What If for categories of things that are speculated on. On television, series in this category traditionally have been destined for either cult status or a very short run, with a couple very notable exceptions.

The term 'Speculative Fiction' was originally a "backronym" for the initials SF; at the time, some writers felt that science fiction, or 'sci-fi', now equated to flying saucers and rubber monsters, and wanted to distinguish themselves with a new genre label. The desire for a separate category became even greater when people began to apply the sci-fi label to horror films containing blatantly supernatural elements (such as various immortals) but few if any science-based elements whatsoever. Over time, however, the term 'Speculative Fiction' grew to become a Super-Trope covering not only what self - described Speculative Fiction authors wrote, but also the Sci Fi and Horror B-movies they were trying to distinguish themselves from. Nevertheless, Speculative Fiction can be applied to a work -- correctly or incorrectly -- in order to help it avoid the Sci Fi Ghetto; it can allow the more pretentious to believe that their favourite work is a proper 'literary' work with no connection to and thus obvious superiority over that geeky science fiction or fantasy.

Today Speculative Fiction covers pretty much the entire fantastic end of the Sliding Scale of Realistic Versus Fantastic, including Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, and other, less well known genres. However, there are many speculative fiction stories that fall on the border between genres, and others that may be completely unclassifiable. Furthermore, many of these genres can be either used to terrify or Played for Laughs, with the latter producing such genres as comic SF and comedy - horror.

See the Analysis page for why the boundary between Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror is fuzzy, and why a broad term like Speculative Fiction is necessary.

Naturally it has its own page devoted to Speculative Fiction Tropes. See the Speculative Fiction Creator Index for a list of pages for Speculative Fiction creators.

Basic Ingredients

 * Fantasy
 * Standard Fantasy Setting
 * Dark Fantasy
 * Heroic Fantasy, also called Sword and Sorcery.
 * High Fantasy, epitomised by The Lord of the Rings
 * Low Fantasy
 * Magical Land
 * Medieval European Fantasy
 * Sword and Sandal
 * Urban Fantasy
 * Gaslamp Fantasy
 * Historical Fantasy
 * Supernatural Soap Opera
 * Wuxia
 * Horror
 * Body Horror
 * Cosmic Horror Story
 * Defanged Horrors
 * Gothic Horror
 * Slasher Movie
 * Survival Horror
 * Science Fiction
 * Inside a Computer System - The Matrix, eXistenZ
 * Interplanetary Voyage - technically proto science fiction
 * Planetary Romance
 * Punk Punk - various genres derived from Cyberpunk
 * Space Opera
 * Space Western
 * Standard Sci Fi Setting
 * Urban Sci Fi
 * Wagon Train to The Stars - Primarily a TV genre.
 * Weird Science

Tasty Recipes

 * Alternate History
 * Alien Space Bats
 * Alternate Universe
 * Never Was This Universe
 * Mass Teleportation
 * Bizarro Fiction
 * Fairy Tale
 * Fractured Fairy Tale
 * Grimmification
 * Fantastic Noir
 * Mons Series
 * New Weird, non-derivative Horror, Scifi and Fantasy mostly blended together.
 * Ontological Mystery
 * Epiphanic Prison
 * Punk Punk
 * Cattle Punk
 * Clock Punk
 * Cyberpunk
 * Post Cyber Punk
 * Desert Punk
 * Diesel Punk
 * Dungeon Punk
 * Raygun Gothic
 * Steampunk
 * Science Fantasy - Mix And Matched scifi and fantasy elements
 * Superhero
 * Sentai
 * Standard Superhero Setting
 * Supernatural Fiction - It's all about ghosts, witches, suspense, and mystery
 * Vampire Fiction
 * Weird West
 * Werewolf Works
 * Xenofiction
 * Zombie Stories

Overlap With Other Genres

 * Mundane Fantastic, fantasy elements intrude on mundane everyday life.
 * Demythtification, also called euhemerism. A retroactively realistic spin on events.
 * Fantastic Comedy, fantasy elements used for parody or satire.
 * Magic Realism, "Hey! You got magic in my whimsical literary epic!"
 * Paranormal Investigation
 * Paranormal Romance
 * Slipstream
 * Speculative Documentary