What is speculative fiction? Speculative Fiction is an umbrella term I like to use because it includes all the forms of fantastic fiction or what for ages has been called science fiction and fantasy. No one agrees on this term but I like it and Harlan Ellison insists that he writes speculative fiction (see Forrest J. Ackerman's World of Science Fiction, 1997). With Mr. Ellison's support, I will attempt to show how nicely Speculative Fiction works as a rubric. It is assumed that no definition of these categories is necessary due to the nature of this web site and the probable readership. Below I have included a table with many of the sub-genre that fit under the speculative fiction heading and have provided one or two examples for each. Opinion varies on this alphabetical list, I'm sure, and I have left out the classics on purpose.
Speculative Fiction eliminates the need for a separation between science fiction, fantasy, and horror because they are different forms of one thing. The term also cleans up the confusion of having sub-genres lie within sub-genres such as the coming of age story within the post-apocalyptic novel, "Z for Zechariah" by Robert C. O'Brien or the very post-apocalyptic story within Robert R. McCammon's horror novel "Swan Song". Whichever theme you pick, horror or post-apocalyptic, it's still Speculative Fiction. Furthermore, the term Speculative Fiction provides a home for books such Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, which was marketed as plain vanilla or straight fiction, but is clearly Speculative Fiction. Post-Apocalyptic, to be exact, in my way of thinking. As an aside, I would like to think that the above list would serve as a good reading list for anyone wanting to acquaint themselves with Speculative Fiction.
In Speculative Fiction the action of the story can take place in a culture that never existed, a world we know nothing of, or an earth that might have been or might be, to name a few. It can be a simple story wherein a man and woman, have been involved in an experiment to see if opposite genders could co-exist in the close confines of a spaceship. When they emerge from the sealed experimental room, they find that the entire human race has disappeared (Sherwood Springer's short story, No Land of Nod). Naturally, to preserve the human race they have children. All girls! Who will father the children of this second generation? Another example would be the creation of complex societies and cultures as in the work of Frank Herbert in Dune or Anne McCaffrey's imaginative planet called Pern (The Dragon Riders of Pern). And, in the classic sense, J. R. R. Tolkein's creation of 'Middle Earth' in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Terry Brook's Shannara series and Stephen R. Donalson's Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series. Thus, Speculative Fiction gives a writer the power to create whatever circumstances or cultures necessary to the tale he/she wishes to share.