What Is Science Fiction?

And why is it so much better than regular fiction?

I recently had a go at an old and basic question, "What is Art?" A definitive answer there may be an insurmountable challenge because art is so subjective. This time I'm considering something almost as difficult: "What is Science Fiction?" The answer again seems just as subjective and just as much of a challenge, but tough questions are the most interesting ones to explore.

I may — or may not — be an artist (but “I know what I like”) and suffice to say I have only dabbled in creating art over the years, usually for my own enjoyment.¹ But science fiction has filled my life as long as I've been picking my own reading material. At a rough guess, science fiction is at least 75% of the fiction I read. It could be more. Most normal fiction leaves me disinterested, no matter how insightful it might be. I live in the real world; I want stories that take me far, far away, be it conceptually, spatially or temporally (if only temporarily).

My primary ask with fiction is that it takes me somewhere new, introduces me to new visions. The human story is ancient, though, and even the ancients knew there is “nothing new under the Sun.”² The stories of human drama have been told over and over, and I know them too well to find them interesting. I need more from fiction, especially if I want it to transport me away.

Science fiction is all about new ideas. It casts the ancient human drama against a background unlike anything in our quotidian world. At its best, science fiction allows an author to imagine and explore how humanity interacts with a new idea.

For example, some of Larry Niven's short stories imagine a world where teleportation is trivial and cheap (easier than taking a bus). He explores what that implies for crime or flash crowds. What happens when crooks can be thousands of miles away in seconds? What happens when networked people can be anywhere in seconds?

Imagine 500,000 Twitter followers who hear about a great concert happening right now. Or a big sale. Or a riot. How big can a crowd get before the police shut down the system? One of Niven's stories explores that very thing (long before Twitter or even the interweb existed).

As an aside, I have never successfully turned an adult on to science fiction. It seems to be a form of storytelling you glom onto early in life or not at all. I'm not sure if this says something about how science fiction grows the mind or something about minds being able to "get" science fiction. It does seem the world breaks into those who like it and those who are unmoved by it.³

Without further ado, here's my take on…

What is Science Fiction?

What defines a work of fiction as science fiction?

That question seems almost as difficult to answer as the one about art. The more general and foundational something is, the harder it is to define. Some things can only be described by pointing to enough examples of “this is what I mean.”⁴

A meta-question in both cases is how subjective the answers are. I find, at least in my subjective opinion, that there do seem some objective criteria. Perhaps even more than in the broader question about art.

Science Fiction and Fiction

What makes a story science fiction can be hard to pin down. As with art in general, the scope is vast. Lots of things are art; lots of fiction is science fiction. At best, boundaries are fuzzy.

I think science fiction is a primary classification almost on par the broader category of just fiction. I think of my library as comprised of technical, non-fiction, reference, fiction, mystery fiction, and science fiction. I see these as distinct — as do most libraries and bookstores.

One reason for this category elevation is that science fiction contains the same genres as ordinary fiction. There is detective SF, mystery SF, philosophical SF, romantic SF, sexy SF, historical SF, adventure SF, psychological SF, and more. I see science fiction as a platform for fiction, a mode more than a genre.

[One of the interesting differences between science fiction and ordinary fiction is how often science fiction keeps the reader in the dark. The classic science fiction short story keeps the reader unaware of some key element until, ideally, the very last line. The old Twilight Zone TV show was famous for “surprise” endings like that.]

But what divides science fiction from fiction?

An obvious definition comes from the name: science fiction is fiction where science is a key story element. Both the fiction and the science are crucial. Since the science part can get a bit tricky, let's deal with the easier one: fiction. The movie Apollo 13, while a great movie (and lightly fictionalized), isn't science fiction.⁵

What matters is that Apollo 13 takes place in our real and historical world. It not only follows real world physics, but real-world events. Apollo 13 is a dramatic documentary (making it fictionalized non-fiction), not science fiction (it’s barely even fiction).

Fantasy

It's the other word, science, that launches the fiction into space (or some other fantastic realm).

Some include science fiction's almost twin sister fantasy under the umbrella and often refer to them as speculative fiction (which is still SF). Others see the siblings as clearly related but distinct and refer to them as science fiction & fantasy (SF&F). Of course, the boundary here is just as fuzzy as other boundaries we’ve encountered with art.

I think the crux of the difference is whether the story's reality uses some form of magic. A fantasy, by definition, takes place in a world where magic is part of that world.

In this case magic refers to anything beyond the physics of reality — even a science fictional physics. A story with technology so advanced that, per Arthur Clarke's third law, it looks like magic does not make a story a fantasy. (For example, Hannu Rajaniemi writes lyrically poetic stories that use — but never explain — such advanced tech. As fantastic as his stories are, they are, at least usually, not fantasy.) The key is whether the story is fully explained by the natural world.⁶

Fantasy stories involve being able to invoke magic or do spells. Wizards and witches are clearly fantasy along with flying carpets, unicorns and vampires. The same is true of Santa Claus (sorry Virginia), the Easter Bunny, Paul Bunyon, Jack Frost, the Tooth Fairy, zombies and ghosts.

Yet many zombie stories do have natural explanations (chemicals, meteor dust, biological agents, etc.). Like Frankenstein’s monster, many zombie stories, under the hood, are parables about the dangers of science. I think they remain fantasy, though, due to the — as far as we know — impossibility of animating dead flesh.

This does illustrate the difficulty of trying to classify science fiction (& fantasy). Ghosts, vampires, and some monsters can be argued to be part of the natural world, which makes them horror fiction, but not necessarily science fiction.⁷

There are some inventive stories that take fantasy elements out of the fantasy world and provide natural explanations for them.

I’ve long thought Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series is a canonical example. Dragons as real beings specially bred to solve the problem of 'Thread.' Other examples include stories that provide biological explanations for vampires or zombies, or stories that explain magic as a special form of mathematics or quantum physics.

Speculative Fiction

The science/fantasy line is so tricky that, as I mentioned, some just call it all speculative fiction. Which provides a new definition: speculative fiction is fiction where speculation (beyond real-world dramatic norms) is a key element of the story. What’s nice is that the term covers historical fiction, future fiction, and fantasy fiction, all under one umbrella.

Historical fiction, by the way, is an interesting category. On the one hand there are works that are fictionalized accounts of real historical events (such as Apollo 13). On the other hand, pure fiction that takes place at some point in history. My favorite example of the latter is Ken Follett's novel, The Pillars of the Earth. I don’t call such stories science fiction.

On the other hand, there is historical fiction that imagines history turning out differently. For example, the Roman Empire didn't collapse but survived to become the foundation of the modern world (and we all speak Latin). Such works, because they involve a significantly alternate reality, I do call science fiction.

With regard to speculative fiction, an objection might be that speculation is part of all fiction pretty much by definition.

Which makes the label redundant and useless unless it refers to an extra degree of speculation as compared to “regular” fiction. The term is a vague enough to cover rocket ships and dragons, so the question is, "What constitutes speculation beyond the norm?"

If the story depends on magic or advanced technology, then it is speculation as I mean it here. If the story depends on a different physics (warp drive, for example) or other science elements unknown to us now, that is also speculation. So are alternative histories and worlds. But inventing a cast of characters and giving them a story framed in the current or historical real world is not what I mean by speculative fiction,

Which at long last brings me to…

My Definition of Science Fiction

For me, the simple but vital characteristic of science fiction is that it contains aspects not possible in the world I know. I do distinguish between science fiction and fantasy and never took to the term speculative fiction.⁸

My definition is that:

Science Fiction is fiction with science + imagination.

In this definition, both science and fiction are freely defined, but adhere to the natural world principle. That is, any fantastic element, no matter how fantastic it is, must be grounded in some form of (possibly fictional) physics.

To be science fiction, a story must be (more or less) explained by the physics of that reality. The physics is allowed to be wildly improbable or even impossible. (For a great example, consider Greg Egan’s Orthogonal series.)

Various forms of warp drive are a good example. If Einstein got it right, it is not possible — even in principle — to go faster than light, because this would break causality. But many stories require moving about the galaxy at high speeds, so warp drive is a "gimme" we allow for the sake of the story.

The transporters of Star Trek (and Larry Niven) are likewise fantastic but have the advantage that physics doesn't insist on their impossibility.

The work of authors such as Allen Steele, Greg Egan, David Brin, Neal Stephenson, or Robert J. Sawyer⁹ is strongly grounded in real physics. So grounded that such works are often categorized as hard science fiction. The more science fiction is about the nuts and bolts of some new idea, the harder it is. I personally most prefer diamond-hard SF.

So there it is: science fiction = fiction + science + imagination.

Until next time...

1. And while I’ve written millions of words over the years, it has been almost entirely expository nonfiction. I’ve never felt capable of writing fiction (my infrequent efforts make me cringe).

2. See: The Bible, Ecclesiastes 1.

3. Though science fiction is a lot more popular in the Anno Stella Bella era. George showed the bean counters that SF could make money. Tons of money.

4. Which is similar to how Large Language Models learn to categorize things.

5. Unless you actually believe NASA faked the moon landings.

6. A definition I once read: “If I write that I can blink my eyes and transport across the galaxy, and I explain how, that’s science fiction. If the same thing is true, but the only explanation is “magic”, then it’s fantasy.”

7. They live in the outskirts of Science Fiction town, which is probably for the best.

8. No reason I can name. Habit, I guess.

9. The last two are here on Substack, which I find very cool! See

Neal Stephenson

and

Robert J. Sawyer

.