Speculative fiction is an umbrella phrase encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts.
It has been around since humans began to speak. The earliest forms of speculative fiction were likely mythological tales told around the campfire. Speculative fiction deals with the "What if?" scenarios imagined by dreamers and thinkers worldwide. Journeys to other worlds through the vast reaches of distant space; magical quests to free worlds enslaved by terrible beings; malevolent supernatural powers seeking to increase their spheres of influence across multiple dimensions and times; all of these fall into the realm of speculative fiction.
Speculative fiction as a category ranges from ancient works to cutting edge, paradigm-changing, and neotraditional works of the 21st century. It can be recognized in works whose authors' intentions or the social contexts of the versions of stories they portrayed is now known. For example, Ancient Greek dramatists such as Euripides, whose play Medea (play) seemed to have offended Athenian audiences when he fictionally speculated that shamaness Medea killed her own children instead of their being killed by other Corinthians after her departure. The play Hippolytus, narratively introduced by Aphrodite, is suspected to have displeased contemporary audiences of the day because it portrayed Phaedra as too lusty.
In historiography, what is now called speculative fiction has previously been termed "historical invention", "historical fiction," and other similar names. It is extensively noted in the literary criticism of the works of William Shakespeare when he co-locates Athenian Duke Theseus and Amazonian Queen Hippolyta, English fairy Puck, and Roman god Cupid all together in the fairyland of its Merovingian Germanic sovereign Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In mythography it has been termed "mythopoesis" or mythopoeia, "fictional speculation", the creative design and generation of lore, regarding such works as J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Such supernatural, alternate history, and sexuality themes continue in works produced within the modern speculative fiction genre.
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The Historian is the 2005 debut novel of American author Elizabeth Kostova. The plot blends the history and folklore of Vlad Țepeș and his fictional equivalent Count Dracula. Kostova's father told her stories about Dracula when she was a child, and later in life she was inspired to turn the experience into a novel. She worked on the book for ten years and then sold it within a few months to Little, Brown and Company, which bought it for US$2 million.
The Historian has been described as a combination of genres, including Gothic novel, adventure novel, detective fiction, travelogue, postmodern historical novel, epistolary epic, and historical thriller. Kostova was intent on writing a serious work of literature and saw herself as an inheritor of the Victorian style. Although based in part on Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Historian is not a horror novel, but rather an eerie tale. It is concerned with history's role in society and representation in books, as well as the nature of good and evil. As Kostova explains, "Dracula is a metaphor for the evil that is so hard to undo in history." The evils brought about by religious conflict are a particular theme, and the novel explores the relationship between the Christian West and the Islamic East. (more)
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The poet is in command of his fantasy, while it is exactly the mark of the neurotic that he is possessed by his fantasy.
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— Lionel Trilling (1905-1975), The Liberal Imagination (1950).
 Mary Gnaedinger continued to reprint work by A. Merritt in the second series of Fantastic Novels. (September 1948 issue pictured) Fantastic Novels was an American science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine published by the Munsey Company of New York from 1940 to 1941, and again by Popular Publications, also of New York, from 1948 to 1951. It was a companion to Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Like that magazine, it mostly reprinted science fiction and fantasy classics from earlier decades, such as novels by A. Merritt, George Allan England, and Victor Rousseau, though it occasionally published reprints of more recent work, such as Earth's Last Citadel, by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore.
The magazine lasted for 5 issues in its first incarnation, and for another 20 in the revived version from Popular Publications. Mary Gnaedinger edited both series; her interest in reprinting Merritt's work helped make him one of the better-known fantasy writers of the era. A Canadian edition from 1948 to 1951 reprinted 17 issues of the second series; two others were reprinted in Great Britain in 1950 and 1951. Read more...
April 3:
Book releases
Film releases
Television series
Births
Deaths
Possible events in the future as suggested by science fiction:
- On April 27 of 2,774,020, Murcheson's Eye explodes into a supernova and becomes a black hole.
Here are ideas for how you can help improve the coverage of speculative fiction topics on Wikipedia:
Join a WikiProject or task force:
- Science fiction (task force): The 4400, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Firefly, Futurama, G.I. Joe, Heroes, Hitchhiker's Guide, Life on Mars, Lost, Pokémon, Red Dwarf, Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, Superman, Transformers, Twilight Zone.
- Fantasy: Artemis Fowl, Discworld, Fabelhaven, Harry Potter, Highlander, His Dark Materials, Inheritance Cycle, Lemony Snicket, Middle-Earth, Narnia, Oz, Percy Jackson, Redwall, Roald Dahl, Shannara, A Song of Ice and Fire, Warriors.
- Horror: Buffy, Twilight.
- Other and related: Animation, Anime and manga, Balzac, Children's literature, Comics, Disney, Machinima, Games (Board and tabletop games, Warhammer 40K, RPGs (D&D), Video games (Square Enix)).
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- Create an article which someone has requested.
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- Expand and update a new speculative fiction article from the following list:
Note: If no articles are shown below, please work on those found in the Archive.
This list was generated from these rules. Questions and feedback are always welcome! The search is being run daily with the most recent ~14 days of results. Note: Some articles may not be relevant to this project.
Rules | Match log | Results page (for watching) | Last updated: 2020-04-03 20:51 (UTC)
Note: The list display can now be customized by each user. See List display personalization for details.
- Invisible Man (film series) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by 2001:BB6:52DE:B000:941D:5BC7:7C19:5723 (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2020-03-31, score: 80
- Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Jhenderson777 (talk · contribs · new pages (19)) started on 2020-03-31, score: 40
- Fable of the Cosmic Egg (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Stripar (talk · contribs · new pages (12)) started on 2020-03-31, score: 40
- Steven Universe (season 1) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Bendybao (talk · contribs · new pages (2)) started on 2020-03-31, score: 35
- Too Long a Sacrifice (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by BOZ (talk · contribs · new pages (141)) started on 2020-03-31, score: 20
- A Planet in Arms (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by BOZ (talk · contribs · new pages (141)) started on 2020-03-31, score: 20
- Sword of the Lamb (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by BOZ (talk · contribs · new pages (141)) started on 2020-03-31, score: 20
- Linguistics in Science Fiction (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by WinzT (talk · contribs · new pages (2)) started on 2020-03-31, score: 60
- Apostezjon (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Staszek Lem (talk · contribs · new pages (16)) started on 2020-03-31, score: 40
- After America (John Birmingham book) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by CoffeeWithMarkets (talk · contribs · new pages (65)) started on 2020-03-31, score: 30
- She Freak (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Drown Soda (talk · contribs · new pages (3)) started on 2020-03-30, score: 100
- Slavic Orpheus (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Stripar (talk · contribs · new pages (12)) started on 2020-03-30, score: 60
- Safia Ketou (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by ArouaB (talk · contribs · new pages (2)) started on 2020-03-30, score: 40
- Falafel Cart (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Salom006 (talk · contribs · new pages (2)) started on 2020-03-28, score: 20
- The Purge 5 (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by $uperFan32 (talk · contribs · new pages (26)) started on 2020-03-29, score: 100
- Mass Effect: Retribution (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Haleth (talk · contribs · new pages (8)) started on 2020-03-29, score: 40
- Upside Down Flowers (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Yeepsi (talk · contribs · new pages (8)) started on 2020-03-29, score: 20
- Mass Effect: Deception (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Haleth (talk · contribs · new pages (8)) started on 2020-03-29, score: 40
- Stephen Kaplan (paranormal investigator) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Matthiaspaul (talk · contribs · new pages (197)) started on 2020-03-29, score: 20
- Mass Effect: Ascension (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Haleth (talk · contribs · new pages (8)) started on 2020-03-29, score: 40
- Lal Mai (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by IWMbizz (talk · contribs · new pages (9)) started on 2020-03-29, score: 40
- Adriyan Rae (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Sandstein (talk · contribs · new pages (4)) started on 2020-03-29, score: 20
- After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by QLitBabel (talk · contribs · new pages (2)) started on 2020-03-29, score: 20
- Sundry Creditors (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Lord Cornwallis (talk · contribs · new pages (234)) started on 2020-03-29, score: 20
- Shining Knight (Ystina) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Jhenderson777 (talk · contribs · new pages (19)) started on 2020-03-28, score: 40
- Shining Knight (Sir Justin) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Jhenderson777 (talk · contribs · new pages (19)) started on 2020-03-28, score: 55
- New Valencian School (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Punk Hazard (talk · contribs · new pages (9)) started on 2020-03-24, score: 20
- Unhallowed Ground (disambiguation) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by 67.70.32.186 (talk · contribs · new pages (29)) started on 2020-03-24, score: 40
- Legion (Mass Effect) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Haleth (talk · contribs · new pages (8)) started on 2020-03-22, score: 30
- Raf (comics) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Pacostein (talk · contribs · new pages (10)) started on 2020-03-22, score: 20
- Leap Day (TV series) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Jabo-er (talk · contribs · new pages (4)) started on 2020-03-22, score: 45
- Diana Kent (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Anthonycarrol (talk · contribs · new pages (17)) started on 2020-03-22, score: 20
- Twin Pub (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Seokgjin (talk · contribs · new pages (5)) started on 2020-03-22, score: 20
- Omniscient (TV series) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Thornstrom (talk · contribs · new pages (6)) started on 2020-03-22, score: 40
- Bios (novel) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Senix (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2020-03-22, score: 40
- Linnea Quigley's Horror Workout (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Gfin2302 (talk · contribs · new pages (3)) started on 2020-03-22, score: 60
- Doomguy (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Oshwah (talk · contribs · new pages (2)) started on 2020-03-22, score: 140
- Love of Thousand Years (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Wintersdaydream (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2020-03-21, score: 20
- Psycho From Texas (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Gfin2302 (talk · contribs · new pages (3)) started on 2020-03-21, score: 40
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