I follow quite a lot of my favourite authors on Bluesky, and this morning, there was a question about whether one of them minded being described as a ‘science fiction author’ rather than a ‘fiction author.’ It got me thinking about genre classifications, personal preferences, and all kinds of stuff that bothers us as human beings.

I generally write science fiction and fantasy myself. Quite often, when people discover I’m an author, they ask what I write, and then apologise, because they ‘don’t like science fiction or fantasy.’ Which I then assume means they’ll never try my stuff. As a reader myself (of course!) who’d read the back of a cereal packet if there was nothing else to read, I don’t really understand this.

I always wonder ‘Have you ever tried to read science fiction or fantasy? Or the umbrella term ‘speculative fiction,’ which always gives me the giggles, because what else could fiction of any kind be but ‘speculative?’ I mean, fiction is called fiction, because we make stuff up. We science fiction and fantasy writers just go a little further than most.

Interlude: Am sitting outside on the deck of an oceanside house and just saw a dolphin.

I’m often bamboozled by the lengths some people will go to to pretend they don’t write science fiction or fantasy. Margaret Atwood is one very famous example. You might know her best as the writer of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ which swept into public consciousness with the television series, first aired in 2017. She was happy bot known as a speculative fiction writer, but not a science fiction writer.

Her quibble was that science fiction was effectively pulp (which some undoubtedly is) but could never be literary (which some undoubtedly also is), but that speculative fiction could be literary in a way that ‘squids in space’ could not be.

If you’re an avid reader of all genres (ie. me) you’d know that any book can be literary. And any book can be pulp. And any book could be anywhere in between. What differentiates any work is simply the writing, and the audience. What is one man’s meat, may well be another man’s poison. (Or woman’s for that matter.) And to argue otherwise probably suggests a little intellectual snobbery.

I think there are important things to consider when assessing anything you’ve read. Firstly, did you like it? Secondly, did it affect you in some way? And thirdly, if it affected you, in changing the way you think, or provoking thoughts that remain with you, then you probably found the writing effective.

There are things I read simply because they make me happy. Other books have stories that are fascinating and draw me in. Others have unforgettable characters, or lines, or collections of words. Some books tell stories whose endings I simply have to know. Occasionally there are books I slog through and then think ‘Why did I read that?’ But all of those works have left their marks somewhere in my mind.

What I would suggest, is that great writing can be found in any genre. And great writing isn’t necessarily what someone might call ‘literary.’ Great writing is writing that resonates with you. I suspect I’d never win a Booker prize, but I have heard people say they haven’t been able to put my books down. (That’s the nicest thing you can ever say to an author by the way.) There are some books I return to time after time, and read again and again, finding something fresh and new and enjoyable each time.

My very favourites I listen to on audiobook, which gives me an even deeper understanding of what might be, and how things are, and sometimes, even a little more insight to the author themselves.

So next time someone asks if you like ‘x’ style of book, ask yourself whether you’ve ever read one, or if perhaps you have and didn’t like it, whether you read the right one.