Types of Speculative Fiction

Speculative fiction is one of the broadest categories of genre fiction. At its most basic, speculative fiction as a genre asks "what if" to create worlds unlike the real world in some fundamental way. The name speculative fiction was chosen at least in part to match the initials of one of the most common speculative fiction categories, science fiction.

Science fiction is the term that speculative fiction was invented to replace. One of the more varied of the speculative fiction genres asks the "what if?" question and speculates what will happen in the future based on scientific or technological advancement. It can also include questions about aliens, or some other force out of our control changes our world. This can also include superhero fiction.

Fantasy is the second most common type of speculative fiction. It is often grouped together with science fiction, though on the surface the two appear almost entirely different. At a deeper level both are interested in the same questions. In the case of fantasy, the "what if" question is general -- what if magic or supernatural elements existed in our world? -- or explores a magical world completely unlike ours. This can also cover that supernatural fiction, which is not considered horror.

Horror is one of the more difficult categories of speculative fiction because not all horror is speculative fiction. Some of the best examples of horror are not speculative fiction, but things that are entirely possible in our world. "Silence of the Lambs," for example, is horror, but there is nothing in it impossible in our world. Stories without that supernatural element are often called suspense, while the speculative fiction part of the horror genre is called horror.

The final form of speculative fiction is that of alternate history, which asks questions about the flow of history. One of the most famous of these is "The Man in the High Castle" by Phillip K. Dick, which asks what if the Allies had lost World War II, but others have examined slavery, the American Revolution, the fall of Rome and many other interesting histological moments or ideas with the simple speculative question: what if things had happened differently?