When people ask me what my book is about, I tell them it’s a science fiction novel. I’ve been surprised at how many people have told me “Oh, I don’t read science fiction.”
Equally surprising is how those people view science fiction. When I ask the non-science fiction reader what that genre is, they often tell me that it’s about spaceships, robots and monsters with tentacles from other worlds. That always makes me laugh. 🙂
That prompts a whole other conversation. I start by telling them that science fiction is all about “what if”.
Other genres can make that claim, and should. But science fiction is about the what-if. Take any science discipline and push it just a little further with a compelling what-if.
Andy Weir’s Hail Mary is about us sending scientists into space to combat a threat to the planet. Oh and, what if they meet an alien intelligence that is on the same mission to save their own world?
Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers is about people who become zombie-like with a virus and migrate across the country to a common location. What if an AI presence that has connections with itself in the future has some control of the situation?
Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh (based on his short story “Bridesicle”) happens in the future where cryogenic technology has become commonplace. What if a company takes advantage of this by “thawing out” select people (aka “bridesicles”) to meet rich individuals on a “date”?
This often makes those non-readers think again about the genre.
I also tell them that there is a lot of overlap in the genres. For example, to me, pure science fiction presents something as “plausible”. It may not be possible now, but something that I think could reasonably occur in the future. Take that same story and add a wand or dragon and now you have a fantasy novel.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Harry Potter and Stephen King’s Fairy Tale. Dragonriders of Pern (1967) started my love for sci fi and fantasy.
It’s always a fun conversation with the non-science fiction reader. You can see the little wheels turning when they start to “get it”.
And I like to leave them with the thought “what if the next science fiction book you read made you think differently about what could be possible?”