"Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction, which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life."
Overview of the development of the science fiction genre, from early tales to modern speculative fiction.
Early prototypes and precursors: The earliest ideas and stories that laid the foundation for science fiction as a genre, such as the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
Golden Age of Science Fiction: A period from the 1930s to the 1950s, often considered the peak of science fiction as a popular form of literature, which produced many famous authors and influential works.
New Wave science fiction: A movement in the 1960s and 1970s that saw science fiction shift in style and focus, incorporating more experimental writing, themes of social and political issues, and a greater focus on literary quality.
Cyberpunk: A subgenre of science fiction that emerged in the 1980s, characterized by a focus on computer technology, dystopian societies, and gritty, noir-esque settings.
Feminist science fiction: A subgenre that arose in the 1970s and 1980s, with a focus on exploring gender roles and issues in futuristic or alternative settings.
Afrofuturism: A subgenre that explores the intersection of African and African American culture with science fiction and futurism, often incorporating themes of race, identity, and social justice.
Post-apocalyptic fiction: A genre that offers a glimpse into the aftermath of catastrophic events, exploring themes of survival, hope, and societal collapse.
Space opera: A subgenre of science fiction that features larger-than-life characters, epic adventures, and interstellar conflict.
Hard science fiction: Stories that focus on scientific theories, concepts, and principles, exploring the possibilities of futuristic technology and society based on scientific knowledge.
Alternate history fiction: Stories that take historical events and reimagine them with fantastic or science fictional elements, exploring the endless possibilities of how things might have been different.
Utopian and dystopian fiction: Literature that imagines ideal or flawed societies, exploring the possibilities of a perfect world or warning of the consequences of a societal imbalance or collapse.
Time-travel fiction: A genre that explores the possibilities of travelling through time, exploring how it affects the present, and playing with the concept of causality.
Postmodern science fiction: A genre that challenges traditional narrative structures, blurring the lines between reality and fiction, and experimenting with metafictional elements.
Young adult science fiction: Science fiction literature aimed at younger readers, often exploring coming-of-age themes, personal growth, and identity.
Environmental science fiction: A subgenre that explores the relationship between humanity and the natural world, offering cautionary tales of environmental degradation or presenting a vision of a harmonious future.
Space opera: It often concerns explorations of distant galaxies and interstellar conflict between civilizations, usually showcasing a hero or group of heroes.
Cyberpunk: These stories often depict a dystopian future where technology dominates everyday life; the narrative may include exploring the moral and ethical implications of certain futuristic technological advances.
Time travel: Stories where the protagonist(s) travel through time, usually with some temporal paradox going on, either explicit or implicit.
Hard science fiction: These stories often concern themselves with science, physics, or engineering details, a sort of "what if we apply this method" approach.
Alternate history: These stories are fictional stories that explore the idea of "what if" moments in history unfold differently, creating an alternate world with its own unique consequences or events.
Space Western: These stories often merge science fiction and western motifs, usually in a space environment, showcasing frontier values of rugged individualism and self-reliance.
Social science fiction: These stories explore the societal consequences of technological advancements, focusing on philosophical and ethical considerations of future implications.
Superheroes: These typically feature a protagonist that has superhuman abilities and fights for justice, sometimes leaving science-fiction and entering the realm of comics.
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic: These stories explore the idea of a world-ending event or catastrophe and usually involve the aftermath of humanity's response to the event.
Military science fiction: These stories often depict a military conflict in a science fiction context, from space battles to ground combat.
Steampunk: This genre often depicts a fictional retro-futuristic world where the industrial revolution never ended but shifted into a different direction, showcasing a world of steam-powered and clockwork machinery.
Arthurian science fiction: These stories usually take the character and plot motifs of Arthurian legend and transpose them to a science fiction environment.
Gothic science fiction: This genre often depicts a science fiction storyline with themes and motifs of gothic horror and romanticism, showcasing dark and bleak environments and philosophical questions of morality and ethics.
Alien invasion: A sub-genre of science fiction that typically involves an alien invasion of Earth, often with the story's conflict centered on humanity's struggle for survival.
"It is related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres."
"Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers."
"Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has become popular and influential over much of the world."
"It has been called the 'literature of ideas', and often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations."
"It sometimes serves as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations."
"Besides providing entertainment, it can also criticize present-day society and explore alternatives."
"It is also often said to inspire a 'sense of wonder'."
"Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology."
"Imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life."
"It often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations."
"Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has become popular and influential over much of the world."
"Besides providing entertainment, it can also criticize present-day society and explore alternatives."
"Science fiction (sometimes shortened to SF or sci-fi) is a genre of speculative fiction."
"Imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life."
"It sometimes serves as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations."
"Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers."
"It is related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres."
"It has been called the 'literature of ideas', and often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations."
"It is also often said to inspire a 'sense of wonder'."