Science Fiction: Subgenres (Part Two)

Alright, so we've covered Military SF, First Contact, and Dystopias. What next?
Apocalyptic, Holocaust, and Post-apocalyptic
This is very similar to dystopian novels because many of the same elements do exist. What sets them apart is really a fine line. Basically, they are the same, but "dystopia" applies to a much wider range of similar ideas. For apocalyptic novels there is a heavy focus on, well, apocalyptic things. Super-pandemics wiping out the world, nuclear holocaust, biological warfare, etc. The list goes on. There are also post-apocalyptic, which show the after effects of whatever has gone wrong in teh world. These sorts of stories are actually rather common. You've seen more than enough to be able to rattle off a few.
Examples: 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Day After Tomorrow, The Core, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler.

Cross-genre
Well, let's put it this way, have you ever read a book where it is neither fantasy and neither science fiction? It just doesn't fit into either, but it's certain odd? Think of this genre as one where you can have both things, but it's so hard to decide if it's fantasy or science fiction. You have a spaceship of humans who land on a planet filled with dragons or witches. That's sort of what cross-genre is. It tries to fit in somewhere, but can't because both elements exist!
Examples: The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

Science Fantasy/future fantasy
This is a rather vague term. It seems like it is talking about cross-genre, but it's not. What science fantasy is is sort like what science fiction used to be like when it really started to blossom. These are stories that look like science fiction but literally break all the rules of physics. We could easily lump all those stories with FTL drives in here, but we won't, cause that wouldn't be fair. Regardless, if a story defies the laws that we know exist and it is clearly trying to be science fiction (i.e. no witches or wizards in spaceships, which would be cross-genre), then it's science fantasy.
Example: Star Wars, All Golden-age Science Fiction (for the most part), and works by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

And that's that for today. If you have any suggestions to stuff into the example categories for any of the subgenres I've thus far listed, leave a comment

Science Fiction: Subgenres (Part One)

Science fiction is a widespread genre. Everything from aliens to near future to intergalactic human empires, it encompasses just about anything you can imagine that can be explained, in some manner, by science. Magic becomes psionics, fantasy monsters become genetic creations. For this post I'm going to talk about three subgenres of science fiction to give an idea what they are about. Other posts will add to these.

Military Science Fiction
Space + Military + the Future. That's basically it. The great thing about this genre is that you have a huge range of options for dealing with military battles. Interstellar wars are common, wars between humans and aliens, or even humans and humans are just as common. The most important thing about this subgenre is that the military is involved.
Imagine entire campaigns of war and you have an idea what this genre is about. It does, however, extend beyond that. If you look at Battlestar Galactica you'll see that there isn't a whole lot of actual war, at least in the first season, of which I'm familiar with. While there are battles, a lot of the episodes deal with espionage, conspiracy, and other things within the framework of a militaristic society. The military exists to protect the fledgling human civilization and has to deal with problems beyond war.
Examples: Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, Old Man's War by John Scalzi, Warhammer 40K, and Battlestar Galactica.

First Contact
Any time you read a story or see a movie in which humans meet aliens for the first time, that is a first contact story. That's the basic premise. Humans meeting aliens for the first time. Star Trek does this quite a lot, where Captain Kirk or Captain Picard find new species. That's sort of in the reverse, but you get the basic premise.
Examples: Star Trek, Mission To Mars, and Contact by Carl Sagan.

Dystopia
The infamous dystopia. Okay, it's not infamous, but it is famous. Dystopian novels are probably the most chilling of the science fiction breed because they intentionally draw upon all the darkest things you can possibly imagine about the human condition. Fallen societies, worlds crushed into the stone age, people preying on people for survival, governments ruling their people with violent force, etc.
There are enough movies and books out there to fill this genre to the tipping point. Why? Because it is a most loved genre. All that we hate about ourselves comes out in dystopian novels.
Examples: 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, V For Vendetta, and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

Science Fiction: Definition

Defining science fiction is an elusive practice. One can point to thousands of wholly different definitions and never get a full picture of what it means. Regardless, I'm going to see if I can come up with a decent enough definition for such a powerful literary genre.

What is it about?
The question should probably be "what isn't it about?" but for this argument we have to understand what makes up this genre. First, to the easy stuff:

• The Future
  SF is primarily about the future, or more simply, it is about tomorrow. We can look to a vast majority of SF works and all of them have dealt with the future. When coming to this point, however, we have to note the location of literature in its written history. 1984 by George Orwell was written in 1948, roughly, and dealt with the year 1984, which was then considered to be the future. Obviously that year is long past us, but Orwell's vision is still one of the future. It doesn't matter that the year has past. For the time that it was written it had the future in mind and we have to consider its placement in the literary timeline.
• Science/Technology
  Well, the word science is in the name of SF, so it's pretty obvious this would be a part of it. The interesting thing about science and technology is that it is a vague point. Star Wars certainly shows a vast array of technological achievements for the semi-fantastical society that exists within the movies, but such technology is likely not rooted in science. SF only requires, for the most part, that science or technology exists. Some stories delve deeper into realistic science, while others skip past that, or ignore it.

So, that's the easy stuff, right? Well the hard part is differentiating between fantasy and science fiction. There is actually a gray line here. While we typically think of fantasy as being about swords and ancient empires and magic, that is not always so. Some would consider Star Wars to be fantasy simply because it doesn't focus upon the science (it doesn't try to be realistic). Here is my argument for Star Wars:
Star Wars is science fiction because most people don't watch it and spend the whole time pointing out the logical fallacies in the science. There isn't an expectation of the story to be realistic. One can watch it and forget they are watching something that isn't real.
When you write science fiction you don't have to follow all the rules. Faster-than-light travel is, theoretically speaking, impossible. Einstein ruined that golden nugget of fun for everyone. But you can still write about FTL travel and ignore the rules. We can create wormholes and jumpdrives and warpdrives and not worry about it being completely real. FTL is a device that is, in and of itself, a fantasy, because, so far as we know, mankind will never achieve it. Even wormholes are not proven, and may very well be a fantasy too.
Science fiction, essentially, speculates upon the future, or a future. Star Wars is a possible future of a society that probably doesn't exist. Still, it's a future. Star Trek, for what it's worth, is a possible future of our world and galaxy. Spaceships, however, don't have to be a part of SF. In fact, they aren't even close to a requirement. One could easily have a story about hackers and have it be called science fiction, and in fact this has happened before. 1984 isn't a book about space travel, but about a totalitarian future. There are a million possibilities in SF.
So we have future and science/technology, and some rules about how those are incorporated. How would you define science fiction, then? Here's how I would define it:
Science fiction is a form of literature that deals with the future in some way and includes science or technology. It speculates on what might be, what could be, and what will be.

What do you think? Does that adequately describe it?

The Everchanging Book of Names

This little tool has been mentioned before on YWO, but I think it deserves a good look. This is possibly one of the best tools I've ever come across for writing.

Where can you find it?
Here! Everything you need to know about the program is on that site, including addons, etc.

So, what is EBoN?
The Everchanging Book of Names is a random name generator, only it's better than that. It's a name generator that comes with 'chapters' or alternate languages not only from real life, but from Tolkien's works and various other writers and fantasy worlds. So what? I've already got a random name generator!
What makes it better than other random name generator is that it isn't entirely random. Yes, the names are generated at random, but depending on the 'chapter' you use you'll get varying result. Why? Because each 'chapter' has its own set of rules that it must follow to produce the names. You'll never see Bob in two different languages unless that name would exist in both languages (so, in the case of Japanese and English, you'd never see Bob in the former).
Additionally, you can actually edit the settings that EBoN uses to determine names. You can affect how many consonants or vowels are used, etc., giving you a huge variety of names in one language set. Most likely you'll not mess with that, but if you wanted to get really trick you could!
What about those addons you talked about?
Well, the great thing about having a product like EBoN available to the public without a lot of security garbage protecting things is that users can make their own 'chapters'. The result is that you can find on the website all sorts of languages that don't initially come with the software. Some users have their own languages that they've uploaded and others have worked out the languages of writers or fantasy worlds like Warhammer or D&D. This means that you could end up with a whole lot of different options to come up with names!

How much is it?
Well, technically it's shareware, but the great thing about the program is that you can still use its amazing features without registering. Here is the downside: you can only generate five names at a time with most 'chapters' (these chapters are 'locked'). But all you have to do to get another five names is reload the 'chapter'. That's it!
However, if you want to pay for the software and use all its features, including the ability to generate 100 names instantly, among other features, then it's a mere $10 USD (or you can pay for it in other currencies too).

So, if you need a good tool to come up with names, this is it! Check it out, give it a try, and you'll see how useful it is!