The Genre of Science Fiction What is Science Fiction? science fiction (abbr.: SF or Sci Fi) noun fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets.

What is Science Fiction? Science fiction predicts change, explores consequences, and studies potential futures. It teaches adaptability and open mindedness in the face of change. Science fiction allows writers see the future as a consequence of our present day. It is an examination of what is possible, not impossible.

Kingsley Amis “Science Fiction is that class of prose narrative treating of a situation that could not arise in the world we know, but which is hypothesized on the basis of some innovation in science or technology, or pseudo-technology, whether human or extra-terrestrial in origin.” New Maps Of Hell (London, 1960)

Isaac Asimov “Modern science fiction is the only form of literature that consistently considers the nature of the changes that face us, the possible consequences, and the possible solutions.” “That branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings.” (1952)

Gregory Benford “SF is a controlled way to think and dream about the future. An integration of the mood and attitude of science (the objective universe) with the fears and hopes that spring from the unconscious. Anything that turns you and your social context, the social you, inside out. Nightmares and visions, always outlined by the barely possible.”

Orson Scott Card In his guide How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, Card points out four boundaries of the genre. c. Henderson Photography

Science Fiction vs. Fantasy Orson Scott Card Science Fiction vs. Fantasy “If the story is set in a universe that follows the same rules as ours, it’s science fiction. If it’s set in a universe that doesn’t follow our rules, it’s fantasy. Or in other worlds, science fiction is about what could be but isn’t; fantasy is about what couldn’t be.”