What makes a book "science fiction"?

[sniffles]

I'm currently reading 'Angels and Devils' by Dan Brown, preparatory to joining the masses and reading 'The DaVinci Code'. It occurred to me that this book has some material in it that I would consider science fiction. Yet when I go into a bookstore I don't find any books by Dan Brown in the sci-fi section. I recall noticing the same thing about Michael Crichton's novels, namely 'Jurassic Park'. I think cloning dinosaurs is a pretty "sci-fi" theme, don't you?

What makes a book sci-fi? How do the bookstores decide where to put certain books?

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

The publisher is the deciding factor, pretty much.

I don't mean that the publisher decides how to market a book. I mean the publisher on the book's spine determines where the book gets filed by bookstores.

It really comes down to the author and his agent. If they pursue a mainstream publisher (or adventure, mystery, romance, whatever) and can convince them to take it, the book is mainstream, adventure, mystery, romance or whatever. If they pursue a sci-fi publisher, or fall back on a sci-fi publisher after failing to get a bite from mainstream, it's sci-fi.

 

[sniffles]

It had occurred to me that might be the case. Obviously if a book is published by Baen or Del Rey they're going to put it in the Science Fiction section.

Evidently "sci-fi" is an arbitrary designation. Which I suppose is true of any label, at least for books. Gulliver's Travels certainly has a lot of fantastic elements in it, but it usually goes in the "Literature" section.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

The Borders near me has the Crichton stuff in the science-fiction section. Or, at least some of it. Jurassic Park was there, as was Prey, Andromeda Strain, and Terminal Man.

I think if it is in doubt, and the book is popular among the unwashed masses, it will be dumped into general fiction. A lot of people wouldn't wander into the sci-fi section if you were taping an episode of Oprah in there.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

A lot has to do with the way an individual store is set up as well. My wife recently went into a Barnes & Noble in Syracuse, NY looking for a Stephen King novel. She could not find it until she figured out they didn't have a "horror" section, they put all of the Horror/suspense novels in with general fiction.

As for Dan Brown, I think it would not be considered Science Fiction by most because a) it is hugely popular (couldn't possibly be true if it were sci-fi) and b) it has so much historical fiction wrapped into it.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Speaking as someone who used to work for a sf publisher (HarperPrism, now EOS), there is no real way to answer the question "What makes a book science fiction?". You'll get a different answer from just about anybody in the field that you ask. Some are inclusive, some are exclusive. As for the shelving in a bookstore, it all depends on the bookstore and how the publisher solicits the book during the sell-in period.

And one more thing. Some people who write and read sf HATE the term "sci-fi", so be careful how you use it. I find it to be kind of a put down, myself. It's generally used by the general public and media to indicate "One of those books/movies/things that geeks are into", usually in a derogatory way.

 

[Desdichado]

Oohhhh, man. I started a thread a couple of months ago about that that went for many pages of very strange and arbitrary definitions from lots of different people. It was an interesting discussion though. Here it is.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

And one more thing. Some people who write and read sf HATE the term "sci-fi", so be careful how you use it. I find it to be kind of a put down, myself. It's generally used by the general public and media to indicate "One of those books/movies/things that geeks are into", usually in a derogatory way.

As someone who writes and reads sci-fi, I LOVE the term and use it always.

SF is confusing - is it science fiction or speculative fiction, and even if the former, how much science fiction does it include? Space opera? Space fantasy?

Sci-Fi encompasses it all, and has, to me, a certain implication of pulpiness which I very much like.

I can't say I've seen it used in a derogatory way by anyone OUTSIDE the sci-fi community, only by those within it who want to put down soft or pulp sci-fi in favor of 'hard sf.'

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

SF is confusing - is it science fiction or speculative fiction, and even if the former, how much science fiction does it include? Space opera? Space fantasy?

Sci-Fi encompasses it all, and has, to me, a certain implication of pulpiness which I very much like.

To me, SF encompasses it all. Hard science fiction, pulp, speculative (another term I also dislike), slipstream, space opera, whatever you want.

The implication of pulpiness is exactly why so many people dislike the term sci-fi. If you like pulp, fine (and I do), but not all sf is pulpy, so it shouldn't be saddled with a term that taints it from the very start.

 

[MaxKaladin]

I once found some of the books from a series in general fiction with the rest in SF/Fantasy so it evidently can vary on a book by book basis even within the same series by the same author.

This was at B&N, BTW.