What is Speculative Fiction?

Thinklings Books is a publisher of speculative fiction. You may have heard the term (often shortened to “spec fic”) and wondered exactly what it meant. Today we’re not just going to speculate on what it is; we’re going to provide concrete answers!

​When you speculate, you ask “What if?” But all fiction books pose that question in one way or another; it’s what makes them fictional. So whether something is spec fic or not depends on what, where, whom, etc., a book is speculating about.

The key is, any work of speculative fiction contains elements that don’t exist (or are thought not to) in the real world. Another way of putting it is that the “laws” of your fictional world must be different from those of the real world.

​Since I, and a lot of other people, like lists, here are four elements that make a book speculative fiction:
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1. Location (where): The story takes place, partly or completely, outside the real world. The Lord of the Rings trilogy takes place in a fictional world called Middle-earth, so it is quite obviously spec fic. The Harry Potter books take place both in real (London) and made-up (Hogwarts) locations within the UK. The location can also be a fictional version of a real city/state/country/etc., still giving it its real name, but something about it is different in a way that doesn’t fit with reality. If a book takes place in New York City, but the author reveals halfway through that New York City is just a figment of a character’s imagination, or is located inside a giant invisible dome or a pocket dimension connected to ours, then the book is speculative.
2. Rules (what/why/how): The world of the book operates in a different way than our world does. Superpowers, mutant powers, and magic spells fall under this category. A unique, zany example that I (Sarah) love is found in Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Physics “turns its head and looks away,” and there is a peculiar way in which characters are able to fly. And when I say fly, I mean like a bird, not an airplane passenger. What they have to do is to throw themselves at the ground, from a great height, and miss. “It's no good deliberately intending to miss the ground because you won't. You have to have your attention suddenly distracted by something else when you're halfway there, so that you are no longer thinking about falling, or about the ground, or about how much it's going to hurt if you fail to miss it.” 
3. Population (who/what): It contains types of characters that don’t exist in the real world...as far as we know. This includes humans with superpowers or magic powers, animals that talk, dragons, fairies, unicorns, alien races, etc. The species can be sentient or non-sentient. A prime example is the Twilight Saga with its vampires and werewolves, though almost everything else about the books is real-world. The Chronicles of Narnia, Charlotte’s Web, and Watership Down are pretty different from each other, but they’re all speculative because of their talking animals. Winnie the Pooh and friends may be the stuffed variety, but they count. You can even have a sentient mattress, as in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series!
4. Time frame (when): There are no limits with spec fic—it can be set in the near or distant future, the near or distant past, or the present day. The difference between this and non-speculative fiction is that the latter can take place in the past or present but not the future, because any time that hasn’t happened yet is pure speculation. Spec fic can also warp time, or play with it. The Time Traveler’s Wife asks, “What if a relationship took place out of chronological order?” The ability to time-travel also falls under the Rules category.

As far as subgenres go, spec fic books can be labeled fantasy (high, low, urban, etc.), science fiction, dystopian, paranormal, Southern gothic, steampunk, historical rewrite, supernatural thriller, horror, magical realism, superhero story … or [insert your own subgenre here]. The huge variety is part of the fun! We at Thinklings love being surprised when a book has a twist in genre, and we love how all these categories can mix and match, blend, and overlap. Unique books that are hard to pin down make us swoon.

I (Sarah) particularly love Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Is it fantasy? Is it sci-fi? There is science, and the characters travel by tesseract (not a magic spell like apparition in Harry Potter) to other planets; but it’s not hard-science-y, and love is what breaks Charles Wallace out of the control of IT on Camazotz. The forces of good and evil are more the realm of fantasy, and there’s a “Happy Medium” who sees the future in a crystal ball with no scientific explanation. Later books in the series contain unicorns and angels. Talk about unique!

Another great example of a genre-bending book is Bargaining Power, the very first novel we're putting out, written by ​Deborah J. Natelson (yes, our CEO!). Bargaining Power is low fantasy combined with a spy-thriller type of plot. It will definitely have you on the edge of your seat! Preorder starts November 1, 2019. Release day is December 1, 2019.

What’s your favorite subgenre or work of speculative fiction? Why?

Sarah Awa

Sarah writes books about werewolves and lives with two hairy guys. Her debut novel is Hunter's Moon and her author website is www.sarahmawa.com.

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