Science fiction and fantasy exist as strata of various subgenres: hard SF and space opera, epic and urban fantasy, steampunk and cyberpunk, and so on. It’s baked into genre fiction, this omnipresence of tropes and conventions that allow picky readers to know exactly what they’re in for.
But some authors say: screw that noise. Why limit yourself to just one genre when you can toss them all across the floor, grease up your book, and roll it around in the resulting debris, picking up a little of this and a little of that? (You know, metaphorically.)
Here are six recent works of SFF that give absolutely no effs about the genre divide.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Tamsyn Muir’s gonzo debut is the kind of book that demands to be discussed solely in exclamations: Necromancers! Swords! Skeletons! Secrets! Space castles! Giant bone monsters! Dirtbag romance! Shitty teens! A Poochie reference! But I think it’s also important to admire the structure under all that flash. It’s so easy to fall in love with the hilarious and heartrending journey of walking trashbag and teen swordswoman Gideon from “grudging participant in a contest to determine who will join the inner circle of the galactic emperor” to “grudging participant in a murder mystery in a haunted space castle” to, eventually, “grudging participant in the year’s most adorably combative queer romance” that you might not notice how many genres the author is dragging you through along the way.
Is it a fantasy? Well sure: there’s magic galore, dredged from blood and bone. Is it science fiction? Undoubtedly: Gideon is a citizen of a galactic empire and attempts to book passage on a spaceship that will take her to the front lines of an intergalactic war. Is it a mystery? Maybe that most of all: the plot resembles nothing so much as Agatha Christie on mescaline. In short, it’s impossible to slot into any one genre, and if you’re the kind of reader who can’t condone fantasy chocolate in their SF peanut butter, well, Gideon has a one-finger salute for you.
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Gideon the Ninth
The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall
Few fictional characters have been remixed and rejiggered and totally reimagined quite as often as Sherlock Holmes of 221B Baker Street. Holmes is a particularly popular public domain character in SFF circles, where he’s squared off against Cthulhu in the Victorian era and, recast as a queer woman of color, unmasked a conspiracy targeting veterans of the second Civil War in a shattered future America. My favorite Holmesian retelling is also the most unhinged: Alexis Hall’s The Affair of the Mysterious Letter is an excellent mystery in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle, a slightly seedy affair that finds its uptight Watson stand-in being yanked along by the deductions of a possibly quite mad detective. But it is so much weirder than that.
In this case (pun intended), Watson is Captain John Wyndham, a trans man who has recently returned from the front lines of an inter-dimensional war in which he suffered a wound from a time-traveling bullet. Our Holmes is the sorceress Miss Shaharazad Haas, who investigates a blackmail scheme targeting her former lover (one of many, all of whom have good reason to hate Haas with a gleeful vengeance). Solving the mystery—which unfolds through Wyndham’s decidedly understated narration as he writes up his adventures for serial pulp publisher whose editors keep trying to make him delve into lurid detail—will take them through dimensions, into the mirrored halls of a psychic prison, and beyond the boundaries of the legendary city of Carcosa, pitting them against salty vampires, mad gods, and fearsome pirates. There’s weird magic and weirder tech and horrors most cosmic, all in the service of a truly satisfying whodunit.
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The Affair of the Mysterious Letter
Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone
Max Gladstone is the guy who earned a Hugo nod for a series that mashes together dead gods, necromancy, and contract law, so you won’t be surprised to learn his first stab at novel-length sci-fi is just as freewheeling.
This is space opera at its most operatic, gleefully taking advantage of that old Clarke adage about sufficiently advanced science being indistinguishable from magic. It tells the story of Vivian Liao, a billion tech genius in a climate-scorched near-future Earth who fakes her own death to escape a corporate coup and, through quantum shenanigans, finds herself transported to a distant universe ruled over by an all-powerful green goddess who can destroy planets on a whim and is worshiped by monks who soar through the stars in spaceships made of stained glass. Literally marked for death by the goddess’s hand, Vivian escapes and assembles a motley crew of allies (if some of them only very tentatively so), including a disgraced zealot, a girl born to meld her mind with a ship, a warlord with a death wish, and a cloud of grey goo.
Though Gladstone throws around a lot of ideas sprung from classic SF (nanotech, artificial intelligence, multiple dimensions, a mind-expanding vision of the future of cloud computing), all of them are taken so far over the top that they’ve basically ceased to resemble science fiction and are something closer to bizarro space magic. And I mean that in the most enthusiastic, double thumbs-up way.
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Empress of Forever
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
Like a mutated cousin of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods sprung from Clive Barker’s Lament Configuration, Scott Hawkins first and, alas, only novel to date is one of the most original works of nightmarish genre mashing I’ve ever encountered. To even begin to describe the plot is to rob you of the terrible joys of discovering it yourself, but it also isn’t the kind of book you can see coming, so here goes: twelve children survive a disaster that destroys half a city, and are taken in by a godlike being known only as Father, to be raised within the confines of—and in service to—an immense library that holds the secrets to all of existence. Each child is assigned a discipline to master—think Harry Potter, but instead of Hogwarts houses, the children are sorted into “Languages” or “Death and Horror” or “The Future.” Though he seems to care for them, Father is a cruel sort of master; his demands are exacting and the punishments for not meeting his expectations are…severe.
As the novel opens, Father has vanished, and the children are at a loss. One of then, Carolyn, who can speak any language ever imagined, unites with several of her adoptive brothers and sisters to figure out where he went. The more interesting question, of course, turns out to be why they are all there in the first place. Needless to say, the answer is a real cosmic mindfuck.
What fascinates me about the book’s genre savvy is how closely Carolyn’s quest hews to the conventions of the commercial thriller, if one were slathered in phantasmagorical horror. You can almost imagine cheap mass market paperback copies of The Library at Mount Char lining the racks of the Airport of the Elder Gods.
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The Library at Mount Char
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire has written a story in just about every corner of SFF, and her 2019 novel Middlegame—which is, incidentally, the best thing she’s ever written—often seems like her attempt to fill just about all of them at once.
Like Mount Char, this is a truly apocalyptic coming-of-age story. The unwitting children who are fated to change—or end—the world this time around are a pair of twins, Roger and Dodger, who are separated at birth but grow up intertwined thanks to a psychic connection that is the result of their strange origins. Namely, they were brought into the world via alchemical means by a quasi-immortal named James Reed, himself the rebellious creation of one Asphodel Baker, the greatest scientist magician who ever lived (and a fantastic children’s author to boot). Reed believes that manipulating the twins will give him the power to alter reality and become a god. As their relationship grows and changes over the years, Roger and Dodger discover their shared destiny, and come to have other ideas…
This is all the stuff of fantasy, of course, but McGuire’s worldbuilding is so exacting, it plays out like science. Where Roger is able to change the world through an innate mastery of language, Dodger has a strong head for numbers and can see the equations that underlie all of existence. Alchemy is, of course, a magical science in and of itself, an attempt to command and codify the impossible. This all plays out in a grab-bag of cross-genre tropes: time loops, alternate dimensions, genetic engineering, blood magic and more. If you don’t know what a Hand of Glory is now, read this book and never forget.
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Middlegame
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
There is perhaps no other work of modern SFF that fits on this list better than this graphic novel, er, saga from the writer/artist team of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Envisioned as a nigh-unadaptable space-set bildungsroman, it follows the unfortunate life and times of Hazel, the only inter-species child ever born to parents from opposite sides of a galactic war.
Hazel’s parents are Marko and Ilana, ex-soldiers and sworn enemies who find love on the battlefield and mutually decide to desert their respective causes and make a go at marriage. They soon find out that the truly defining struggle of their lives is not the one between the worlds of Landfall and Wreath, but the impossible test that faces every parent, even here on dull old Earth: raising a child who won’t just go on to repeat all of your stupid mistakes.
Saga’s execution is as offbeat as its setup: its universe is truly weird, a place where magic definitively exists, as do ghosts, as do sentient robots with heads shaped like TVs, as do beasts out of fantasy stories and aliens out of your nightmares (but don’t judge a book by its cover, or an armless spider-bodied assassin by her vast number of eyes).
Vaughan and Staples are firmly convinced Saga can only exist as a comic, and that’s not only because of the scope of the story, or its metafictional asides, or its turn-on-a-dime tone, or the vast budget it would take to realize its visuals. It’s also because the sort of wider audience necessary to make it financially viable wouldn’t know what to make of the thing. Sure, Star Wars mixes together science fiction and magic, but Saga mixes together science fiction and everything. It is, and I can’t emphasize this enough, what it is.
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Saga: Compendium One
That closes out my list of six recent examples, which is by no means exhaustive…so what are your favorite examples of fearlessly genre-defying SFF?
Joel Cunningham was the founding editor of the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog (RIP), where he got to explore the galaxy for 5 years and picked up a Hugo Award (well, tangentially) along the way. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children, despite the fact that this is a thing no sane person would choose to do. He tweets @joelevard.
My thought is that manga and anime basically originated this sort of goof-ball mash-up type of story. Most of these books I do want to read sooner or later. Sooner with Gideon the Ninth as I have to get it back to the library in about a week and a half, knowing damn well I’m not going to be able to renew it!
@1 GIDEON has Big Manga Energy.
1: I came here to mention A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun, in which mixes people who can use magic with people who just use SCIENCE! to rewrite the laws of physics in their immediate vicinity. The paths to power are mostly incompatable: if an esper casts a spell, their particular esp knack better involve rapid healing.
I know it’s not recent, but I just finished The Broken Earth trilogy last night, so it is SUPER fresh in my head right now…
I once set off a long thread on rec.arts.sf.written with the question “Is wuxia SF or fantasy?”
My TBR list just got longer.
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson
The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Sadaawi
Really happy to see Joel writing here consistently, after the close of the (fantastic!) B&N blog.
I’m also always happy to see Gideon and Empress rec’d–not that it’s rare, just that no one should miss them.
I think the interesting thing to consider is how genre-mashing (or just borrowing) can increase either the familiarity or the strangeness of a novel, depending on what the author wants/needs. The Expanse novels beginning with a pretty straightforward hardboiled detective, I think, helps ease more mainstream readers into the weirdness to come. Whereas Gideon just embraces and thrives in the weird.
@alex – I had the same thought about Joel!
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin struck me that way. The entire first book struck me as an interesting fantasy novel , until that end of the book when it suddenly moved into the science fiction realm — maybe it just struck me that way — with all of a sudden the lack of a Moon was commented on.
@1 I think if you go back to the weird literature of the 20s and 30s these mash ups were a lot more common since there wasn’t an idea of Sci-fi and Fantasy as separate genres. So Conan meets a weird alien elephant thing and just goes on with his life without thinking it’s different then meeting a wizard. Even post this books like The Book of the New Sun freely mixed Fantasy and Sci-Fi. An early D&D module (Expedition to the Barrier Peaks) takes place exploring a crashed space ship in a fantasy world. I think it was only later on that the idea of two separate genres was created and really only in the 80s and 90s that it started to become uncommon.
I read the title as “Gender Distinctions” and that applies to most of these as well!
“All the Birds in the Sky” of course.
@11 Along that line, much of Andre Norton.
More recently, Archivist Wasp and its sequel Latchkey.
Thank you for reminding me Saga exists; I’m mostly reading graphic novels via the public library right now so new releases in a series sometimes slip my mind and escape my notice, and it looks like my library has gotten two more volumes since the last time I caught up.
Stealing the Elf King’s Roses by Diane Duane is a murder mystery/science fiction/fantasy/thriller about a lawyer from one of several allied alternate universes investigating what turns out to be a massive conspiracy connected with the death of a visiting interdimensional elven dignitary. ALL THE GENRES IN A BLENDER!
And possibly the Pelted universe novels by M.C.A. Hogarth? Though magic doesn’t exist per se and in terms of the physics and the rationale behind the worldbuilding it’s all pure sci fi, but the FEEL is very fantastical, with elves and talking animals and dragons and walking in dreams. It’s just the rationale for all these things is genetic engineering and aliens instead of magic, and it’s all happening IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE
Larry Niven and Steven Barnes deserve a mention for Dream Park – a detective novel set in a fantasy theme park in a near-future world.
@3 – I’ve finally gotten around to watching the various A Certain… anime series. I’m nearly done with s1 of A Certain Magical Index and I’ve been loving the mix of magic and “science” powers.
Pretty much anything and everything Roger Zelazny published danced happily over genre lines. Amber, anyone?
@8 & @9: D’awwww thanks!
There’s a series by Richard K. Morgan called A Land Fit For Heroes. It seemed like any sword and sorcery series, and then one of the characters start talking to her alien father’s leftover spaceship.
Not the best series ever, but okay reads.
This concept is what made Spelljammer so much fun back in the day.
Since I work for two libraries, I’ve placed The Library at Mount Char and The Library at Mount Char on hold request. I suppose if the current run on toilet paper continues, Saga might be useful as well.
The Inheritance Books by N. K Jemisin. Very hard to tell, but absolutely wonderful.
Ehm, that’s Marko and Alana, in Saga, actually…
All the votes for Middlegame!!
Glad to see The Library at Mount Char on this list! I love that book.
On the Library theme, I can recommend Genevieve Cogman‘s Invisible Library series. It’s a delightful multiverse-ish steampunk-fantasy-scifi adventure mashup that has technology, magic, dragons, Fay, and alternate reality versions of Venice, London, and various other cities. And a library that bridges all of this, of course, full of librarian/thieves.
22:
That last was uncalled-for: even if you don’t like Saga, or don’t like comics, it were shameful to use it for this purpose when many would appreciate them used as intended.
I would add in The Laundry Files series by Charles Stross; particularly the earlier books. The Jennifer Morgue, the 2nd, in addition to reasonable claims to being both sf and fantasy, is a book length takeoff of the Bond books
Not recent, but, The Warlock in Spite of Himself, an okay series.