The Speculative Fiction community can be a little insular at times – no doubt there are historical reasons for this, including but not being limited to being the victim of literary snobbery.
From high school onwards Science fiction and Fantasy is looked down upon. It’s real books about real stuff1 or mimetic fiction (as mentioned on the Writer & The Critic podcast) that gets the guernsey.
As a result we few, we happy few, we band of social non–conformists stand walled off from many works that share genre elements.
Community has its advantages of course, in numbers we gain strength, understanding and validation but we also stand to miss those works which breach genre boundaries, which refuse to sit comfortably in distinct categorisations.
Hence the point of this post. There are two books that I have recently come across that I have not heard mention of in Speculative Fiction circles. These would easily be appreciated by members of the Speculative Fiction community.
These books slip into categorisations that some of us would not be seen dead browsing in for example:
- Black Glass by Meg Mundell – filed under Religion & Beliefs/Contemporary Fiction it’s reviewed here as part of the AWW challenge.
- When We Have Wings by Claire Corbett – filed under Contemporary fiction and reviewed by me and others at AWW challenge.
So my question is dear readers, is what books have you noticed that have flown under the radar, books that you think might fit the Speculative Fiction label?
1.Ignoring the fact of course that all fiction is made up, an exercise in shared imagination or fantasy↩
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