The Official 'Is My Novel SciFi' Thread

Here it is, folks. The place where you can ask if your novel is science fiction or not. We all know the lines are a little blurred, but that is why we have awesome people every year who frequent this thread to help you sort out your genre woes. All you need to do is post a short description of your story, and our scifi gurus will help you sort it into the proper genre.

I am fairly certain that my novel and book series are Sci-fi however does my book have a sub genre?

My first novel (almost done publishing) is about a girl who can manipulate time. She goes blind in the story and must learn to cope with that ontop of controlling her power. My second novel (the one I am writing with NaNoWriMo this year) is about a shapeshifter who goes through painful transformations and must find a way to remain human instead of becoming a monster.

What do you think? It is The Gifted Series so I guess it is similar to superhero but they don't wear costumes or anything like that. It's not futuristic and there are no aliens but I still feel it is definitely Sci-fi even if it has some signs of a fantasy novel.

My story involves quantum mechanics and its two most famous interpretations, the Many-Worlds and the Copenhagen.

The Copenhagen Interpretation says that (in a nutshell) parallel universes are created when the subject is observed by a sentient being. Before observation that subject is superimposed with all its possible states, and only force to pick one state as it is observed.

The Many-World Interpretation takes the power away from the observer, stating that parallel universes are constantly being generated, one for each possible state.

A bigger rule to both these is, they only happen in events involving the pure 50:50 chance of quantum events. My novel breaks that rule. Non-quantum events break off into parallels because something unknown has happened to the universes, causing a sudden outburst of parallels.

So the question here is, if it breaks the rule (and barely explains how), does it count as sci-fi?
(I'm thinking yes, but just to be sure)

I'm thinking of writing a New Weird this year, this means; though it does take some stakes from Sci Fi, it tosses out the idea of genre altogether. So can this work? A Sci-Fi that refuses to be called a Sci-Fi?

Some very very rough plot details, if that matters; The Universe is about bless upon its inhabitants an inspiring and powerful gift, the story follows a group of people as they age with constant interaction with the universe from around the globe, whilst it ends at some point in the near future it doesn't take any Aliens, FTL, Ray-Guns, Space Travel (much) Extra terrestrial colonialism, etc.

Mine will be a futuristic novel, involving heavy focus on advancement in, and lack thereof, technology.

I've never paid any mind to genres, I've always just written what comes to mind without trying to put a label on it, but my Google skills tell me Science Fiction is the right ballpark.

If not, I accept impression of stupidity.

Is steampunk living in Sci-Fi this year? I seem to remember last year the steampunk-related threads were scattered between Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

I've been having a hard time figuring out what genre to put my novel in. Someone told me she thought it was Sci-Fi, but I don't think so.

Chocolate is illegal. The story is about a woman's life while she comes to terms with her addiction. It's not set in the past or future, it's on earth, and there's nothing different about chocolate than it exists in real life. She gets married, gets divorced, loses her job, sleeps around, falls in love, and gets arrested, but nothing supernatural happens. It's not meant to be humorous. It's just a hypothetical story of, "What If?"

I don't think it's even fantasy. Modern Fiction?

Honestly, I don't know where this idea goes. Could be a lot of things. The initial idea was to talk about different types of death and how it determines their story in the afterlife. The story would focus more on what happens after they die. I have it where upon their death they go into an afterlife much like their death. They must learn something to move forward on their journey. Here they will meet those with opposite deaths, they will have to learn and understand each other, and help each other move forward. There they will meet people with other deaths and together they have to learn something to move forward. Eventually they will end up in my idea of where we ALL eventually go when we die and after we've achieved some sort of transformation. For example, I have a Holocaust victim (they had a forced death) paired off with a suicide victim (who chose their own death). I was also thinking about pairing poison and illness together and making that the first book. The fact that this involves death and that the people will be of different eras is confusing, along with the overall theme of transformation, which could be religious. Could someone help me? Otherwise, I'll just chose "other".

Still in the concept-formulation stage, but here goes: setting is Mars in the far (post-Apocalyptic?) future, there is a heavy mystical/magical component to the plot, and there may or may not be aliens, but there certainly will be angels and demons. Mars is at least partially terraformed and there's obviously future-tech, space travel, and the like, but also magic, psychics, and probably faeries. So what is this? Futuristic fantasy? Sci fi? Where do I belong???

Well, I'm not the only one about what genre my novel is. Sorry for bothering, but I can't figure which genre my novel fits in. Seems to me that Sci-Fi and Fantasy would both work.

Here it goes : it takes place in an underground city, built underneath an actual one. Setting is nowadays, but the people trapped inside the underground place have no clue than something else even exists.
I did put in some Angels and demons, however they're pretty much extraterrestrial who took refuge on Earth, creating the human race in the process.
But I still put some elements that would be probably considered as fantasy, such as "magic" (ability to inhabit other bodies, necromancy, ability to read people's memories...).

So, in all this beautiful mess, where does that leave me ? Sci-fi, or something else entirely ?

I'm pretty sure my Novel is, though it never hurts to check. I'm also wodnering where it might be placed in a sub genre, is any.


I've been building my universe for almost 3 years now. It involves things like:

- memory blocks done by hypnosis (typically a temporary block that allows the person to slowly process a tramatic event) and chemical (which is supposed to cause a permenant block)

- werewolves, except they aren't your typical fantasey type. transformation takes at least 5 days and they don't look like wolves. Rather, their hair and nails and teeth grow (and then fall out/breack off) and the hormone inbalance gives them two 'phases' on either side of the transformation -agressive and armourus. I'm basing their cycle on animal breeding cycles. And the onlyw ay to become 'Nueri' is to be born that way as it's a birth defect caused by the mother consuming a certain plant from a specific planet (or if both parents are Nueri, as it's a gentic mutation).

- space ships with FTL drives. I had fun designing those and then creating a speeadsheet for looking at air supply, food and water supply, speed, and fuel consumption for determining just how far a ship can go (hydroponics, provides supplemental fresh food and 'atmosphere').

- multiple planets, some which are like earth, others that have been terra formed, and others were sheilding is required

- cyborgs, or at least the begining of experimentation with placing human brains into machines

- deep sleep, which is not quite cryogenic freezing, but rather puts the body into a hybernative state, slowing the aging process down and allowing people to sleep away long space flights. I'm looking into what the side effects might be.


The plot is actually going to focus around the people (one half-Nueri, two Nueri, one human, and one cyborg) not necessarily the technology, but the technology has obviously shaped these people into what they are and I fully intend for them to visit multiple planets. *grin*

Thanks,
:} Elorithryn

50percentdakini and Wickedly, many novels fall into that region of being both SciFi AND Fantasy, I think both of your proposed stories fit that mold. Most Steampunk stories tend to go this way also with the mixing of tech with a bit of magic or alchemy.

Steampunk non-earth world.

Mad-science resurrection. Guns. Airships. Mechanical monsters. Bio-genetic-engineering in labs with not-quite sentient plants and weird chemistry backdrops. A horribly inefficient postal service that really, really needs to be redesigned.

Not sure what to call this one. I don't think there's going to be a drop of magic. So...?

My novel uses newly developed technology (that my main characters dad has been working on in his basement for 13 or so years and finally found the answer to inserting foreign DNA into a quickly catching Virus like HIV and letting the new virus infect the person. This, in my book, causes a decently quick transformation (a couple of weeks). The main character goes through several of these, some by accident mutation (because the virus quickly goes through mitosis to infect quicker).

Supernatural / horror or Sci-fi?

I intentionally threw some fantasy elements into my sci-fi setting, partly to Be Different and partly because a secondary major character is a bit of a wizard archetype and I didn't want to completely strip him of that. I don't think the end result is any more fantasy than Star Wars, but I'm happy to submit to opinions on which forum I should be posting to!

The world of Viridia was cut off from the rest of human civilization nearly 300 years ago. They have knowledge of high technology, but they lack the resources to build anything in large quantities. Computers and cybernetic implants exist, but they are artisan-crafted, with schematics and user manuals protected like religious artifacts.

What the planet lacks in resources it makes up for in a power called "gaia", the cumulative life-force of everything on the globe which can be channeled by any living creature - including the immigrant humans. Gaia and the study of it are the only reasons a human colony was even built on the resource-scarce planet, and with trade channels cut off the descendants of those colonists have had to learn to make due with what they have. Gaiamancy has become a common way to heal sickness and grow crops. For the most part it's a very practical, pagan magic.

The one major city on Viridia is run by the remnants of the corporation that founded the original colony, and within that corporation is a powerful organization called Arandee. Here they conduct research ostensibly for the good of the public, but this includes some questionable practices, including cloning humans for research purposes. The story focuses on a castoff clone from a failed experiment and his relationship to the leftover technology of this world, as well as his feelings of alienation from the world as a whole since he was cloned from someone born off-world before they lost contact.

I tend to think that, when the lines are blurred, the themes of a story become the best way to place it. There's a magical element, yes, but the themes are more typical of a sci-fi story so I'm content to post here but still call it science fantasy. What do y'all think? :)

Hmm... pretty sure my novel is sci-fi, but it's so soft that I do wonder about it sometimes.

-Far future, looming apocalypse by time stopping across the universe (softsoftsoft!~).
-Plasma guns, implant-based comm. devices that fit over the eye like a monocle (or a DBZ "scanner" if you're that way inclined, though I don't know much about the show)
-Time machine, looks like a supercomputer hooked up to an array of weird-looking mirrors that "totally internally reflect tachyons and chronons, bending and twisting them" (Yes. I created fibre optic time travel.) The machine itself doesn't just drop them off though, it needs to hold them there, they return when the machine is powered down. Also if the machine's power supply cuts out, they disintegrate. (Plot-driven decisions, but I reverse-engineered/technobabbled that the machine compensates for any changes they make to the past while they're there.)
-Mentions of contact with aliens, never seen on-screen and is told that nothing came of it because both parties gave up trying to find a means of communicating.
-Steampunk power at one era in the past.

Um... can't think of anything else, think that's it. Sci-fi? Or too squishy?

I definitely consider my story sci-fi, though i am not sure if it's "pure" sci-fi or if it should be sub-genre:d. It takes place in a dystopian future ( i am imagining a "Big Brother is watching your EVERY MOVE" kinda society- ish) and there's technology for people to get "upgraded" as in get implants to improve various abilities/skills/etc, though it's extremely expensive and only available to a select few.
The focus is on the dystopian thing- the tech bit is a bit in the background, though important since my secondary character (who might become a second main character depending on) has had these enhancements made. With the exception for the rich people it's a kinda basic world and where the "normal" people pretty much do what they can to survive and they have very little tech to help them.
So anyone have any thoughts?

Okay, here goes. Cade is an actor whose been imprisoned and tortured (sleep deprivation) for participating in a gay pride march in a culture where LGBT rights are non-existent. He's rescued by Drew, a doctor at the facility, who spirits them both to an alternate universe where there is no such persecution. Cade suffers from the obvious fallout of his ordeal, but Drew shows more subtle signs of not living his real life (he left a wife, was completely in the closet). This new universe is set under a dome (the atmosphere still sports remnants of radiation from previous conflicts) so there is no rainfall, a continually temperate environment, albeit offering both men their freedom. Cade gets involved with a nurse, Annie, while Drew falls for Bill, a technician where the refugees landed. Cade can't sleep, which interferes with his and Annie's relationship, while Drew has a hard time with the openness of this new society. Both men react to their new-found liberties, unable to leave their ordeals in the past. When Drew cracks, it's Cade to bring him back from the brink, but Cade's footing is just as slippery. Annie and Bill aren't sure their partners can cope with their adopted surroundings, not just living under a dome but the freedom.

So, is this sci-fi? Overt and subtle forms of torture and oppression will be explored, as well as accepting life in new realm, alongside the notion neither man will ever return home. I'm more of a lit-fiction soul, plenty of angst, but I like to dabble in sci-fi (DS9 is one of my all time fave series, plenty of Doctor Who as well) so I'm just wanting to know where this belongs. Thanks!

Alternate history stories? Mine is based off of "what if hitler never fell." Sci-f? Or not...

Yes, it's sci-fi, but can you help me with sub-genre?

Pyte: Set in the present. Well, technically, the present is an elusive non-linear point in time, but it's set in our contemporary time period.

Part One: Jade

-There's a man in Jade's back yard, dressed in a ridiculous sci-fi-con alien suit and claiming to be from another planet. His name, supposedly, is Zukk Gevv. Jade doesn't believe in interstellar travel. When he steps into an apparently-very-real spaceship and disappears, Jade is compelled to understand what really happened. She does research, she enlists the help of UFO investigators, she searches her soul. With the help of her family, she finally comes to the conclusion that her experience didn't happen in the physical world: it was a vision.

-Subplots include the story of how Jade's town was founded and developed to the current day, and how she meets and gets close to her boyfriend. There's romance there, but her romantic girlfriend-love never gets any more attention than her family-love for her daughter, mother, sister and nephews, or her platonic love for her best friend.

-The two feelings that I expect will pervade in Part One are:
Jade's struggles with questions such as: Am I going crazy? Are the laws of physics nothing but an illusion (and hence, do I need to worry a monster will eat me or the floor will disappear)? Maybe a lot of people would just shrug that off, but it shakes Jade deeply.
The many emotions of the characters' relationships. Not sappy, not gritty, but a realistic in-between.

-Just when Jade has finally decided her experience is a vision and found peace with herself, she gets an email from a woman who says, "You're not crazy. I had the same experience myself. Can we meet?" So Jade and her boyfriend jump in the car and drive 16 hours to meet her--only to find that she's just a crazy lady, blurting out things that make no sense at all.

Part Two: Piper

-Piper wakes up in a desert on an alien planet, dying of thirst. Some people rescue her and keep her as a pet. It takes them a while to figure out what to feed her. Her first approach is to try to teach them English and all the other things they need to know. After a while she realizes she's the one who's different: she's the one who needs to learn. It takes time to learn a language, and as desperate as she is to tell them where she's from and demand a ride home, she has no choice but to wait. She finds herself in a close-knit community with a rich culture, surrounded by selfless friends who save her life repeatedly, risk themselves for her sake. But she doesn't notice because she's too consumed by her indignation at being held there against her will.

-As she acquires communication skills, Piper learns that occasionally, objects and animals from other planets appear at the edge of the village, and she's one of those animals. They think it's a side effect of something they're doing in a nearby research center, and nobody really knows where any of the things come from. Finally, one day, she succeeds in communicating to her owners that she really, really needs a ride home. She draws a diagram of our solar system, marks the third planet as the destination. They understand, they're enthusiastic about finding Piper's home star in the maps. Then they find it, and Piper is ecstatic: she's going home!

-But they tell her no; that's not the way we handle first contacts with alien worlds; you'll have to stay here. Piper argues, but they just laugh at her like she's cute, like they did back when she tried to teach them English. Just then her owners' son, who up to now has been a tadpole, metamorphoses and crawls out of his pool and walks into the room. Piper looks at the child and says in English, "You're my hope. I'm going to be so nice to you that you're going to love me, and when you're old enough, you'll get me home." In keeping with tradition, one of the parents tells the little boy his name, officially welcoming him to the community of air-breathing, walking people. "Your name," says the parent, "is Zukk Gevv."