Science fiction is not a new genre. Even my relatively conservative judgement puts it at nearly a century old. Anything that lasts that long is bound to go through several iterations. You might have heard terms like ‘Golden Age’ or ‘New Wave’ bandied about, but where these delineations fall is rarely agreed upon. Everything that follows is based on my own personal research, but I hope it proves useful to those interested in the history of the SF genre.

Early Outliers

Notable Works
Utopia (1516)-The Blazing World (1666)-Frankenstein (1818)

If you try hard enough, you can apply the science fiction label to just about everything. Is SF the genre of new technologies? Well in The Epic of Gilgamesh, there is a boat. Boats were pretty cutting edge back in the day. Some will argue that SF started with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or John Milton’s Paradise Lost, but I view these as aberrations. They certainly have SF traits, but there was no concentrated movement. An individual book may scrape a qualification as SF, but the genre itself was markedly absent.

1860-1913: Scientific Romance

Notable Works
From the Earth to the Moon (1868)-The Time Machine (1895)-A Princess of Mars (1912)

Scientific Romance is where we find the real roots of SF. Originating in Europe and Britain, with noticeable offshoots in the United States, Scientific Romance begins to display the hallmarks of a recognisable genre. There is an interest in, and an enthusiasm for, science and technology. At the same time, increased literacy and printing technology meant a wider audience. Thus we have the two cornerstones of the Scientific Romance era. Jules Verne at its dawn, and H.G. Wells at its dusk.

1914-1926: Proto-SF

Notable Works
A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)-Rossum’s Universal Robots (1920)-We (1924)

The First World War left an undeniable scar on the world, felt heavily in literature. This is the war that featured death on an industrial scale. Chemical weapons, machine guns, tanks, and more all proved that science could be as terrible as it is wondrous. The tragedy of the Great War robbed a generation of its sense of Romance, leading to darker and more sombre literature, but it also awakened the world to the possibilities of technology for good and ill purposes.

1927-1949: The Pulps

Notable Works
The Skylark of Space (1928)The Legion of Space (1934)-The World of Null-A (1948)

The widespread availability of cheap paper in the inter-war period led to the height of the pulp magazines. In this period, we have the first use of the term ‘science fiction’ and a codification of what the genre was. Editors such as Hugo Gernsback and John W. Campbell shaped the pulp era, with an emphasis on ideas and a ‘sense of wonder,’ often at the expense of characters and prose. In this period, the short story ruled, with novels tending to be serialised in magazines. After the Second World War, the shadow of the atomic bomb loomed large, colouring the genre for years to come.

1950-1966: The Golden Age

Notable Works
Foundation (1951)-Starship Troopers (1959)-Dune (1965)

I place the Golden Age later than some other students of the genre, but use many of the same stories as a basis. Whereas other Golden Age definitions cite the first appearance of these stories, thus placing them in what I term the Pulp Era, I base my decision on the hardback and paperback printings. These latter releases exist due to a heightened demand for science fiction. Magazines are no longer another to satisfy audiences. Instead, more tangible producst are required. Alongside this, we have the rise of major conventions, as well as the arrival of fandom as a recognisable entity in itself. Here we also see serious science fiction make the leap from page to screen with shows such as Star Trek and Doctor Who.

1967-1980: The New Wave

Notable Works
Dangerous Visions (1967)-The Gods Themselves (1972)-The Shadow of the Torturer (1980)

By the end of the Golden Age, there were those in the genre (notably editors Michael Moorcock and Harlan Ellison) who considers science fiction to have become complacent and unambitious. Influenced by the growing counter-culture movement, these editors and authors proposed a new style of science fiction. Moving away from the technology- and action-driven core of the genre, the New Wave placed an emphasis on craft. More elaborate prose and experimental formats made uneasy bedfellows with previously taboo topics of sex, drugs, and violence to create an uproar in the genre. Though the New Wave failed to supplant what had gone before, it’s effects were long-lasting, with even veteran authors adopting some of the ideas produced by the New Wave.

1981-2000: The Silver Age

Notable Works
Startide Rising (1983)-Ender’s Game (1984)-Raft (1991)

The absorption of the New Wave into mainline SF led to a resurgence of ambitious, idea-driven SF. Hard SF in particular made a major comeback, but the static prose and flat characters of the past had largely been left by the wayside. This era also saw the falling away of the majority of the Golden Age authors, either through retirement or death, leading to an influx of new voices. At the same time, those remaining authors who had adapted to the new way of writing saw a return to popularity. This period is perhaps the most recent in which it is possibly to recognise ‘classic’ novels, at least for the time being.

2001-2009: The Blockbuster Age

Notable Works
Mortal Engines (2001)-Pandora’s Star (2003)-Old Man’s War (2005)

The revolutionary technology being used in film and TV posed a problem for fiction. Stories of spaceflight and planetary epics could now be convincingly wrought on the big and small screens. In the early years of the twenty-first century, printed SF still sought to compete with mass media. Space operas and military SF were king, and books grew thicker and more complex in a bid to complete with the rising popularity of fantasy storytelling. This decade also saw concerted efforts to reach out to new audiences, in particular the young adult market. At the same time, franchise fiction grew massively, with Star Wars and Star Trek continuing their storylines in literary form, while tie-ins for everything from Doctor Who to Warhammer dominated bookshelves.

2010-Present: The Global Age

Notable Works
The Martian (2011)-Ancillary Justice (2013)-The Three-Body Problem (2014)

It is always hard to categorise the era in which one lives, but I think there has been a shift in the past decade and a half. I call this the Global Age on three counts. On the first, science fiction has long since ceased to be a ghettoised genre. Science fiction has bled into every aspect of modernity, from crime procedurals to spy thrillers. On the second, self-publishing has become, for some, a sustainable business model. It is now easy for anyone, regardless of background, to get their stories into print, with digital and audiobooks reaching many ears. On the third count, there is now major attention being given to works of science fiction from outside the English-speaking world. Chinese SF has perhaps garnered the most attention, but it is far from alone. readers now have access to science fiction stories from across the world, from diverse voices and a multitude of political and philosophical perspectives.

As always, I welcome debate with my ideas for these eras. If you would draw the lines differently, I’d love to hear about it. Or, if there is a period you’d like to know more about, I’m all ears.