As with any London Tube style map, distance on the map has no connection with distance in reality. Position is about how to make everything fit. I feel like it needs more stops on the big pink Fantasy circle line. Green stops allow you to change services to mainstream rail lines. Purple stops allow you to change to the horror tram services.
There is a foot tunnel between Cyber Punk and Steam Punk.
Hard SF is the Northern Line: deep, but crowded and can get quite stuffy.
Fantasy is the Circle Line: stay on it for long enough and you just end up back where you started.
Portal fantasy should be two stations with no obvious connections. (You take an escalator, cross the street, down another escalator, and you’re on the other side of the map.
Dark fantasy (or weird?) on pink with an interchange to horror.
I’d quite like to work out a connection with heroic fantasy (or sword and sorcery as mentioned above) and science fantasy and so on. Maybe some sort of “pulp zone”?
Virtual Reality belongs near Cyberpunk. Urban Fantasy belongs near Low Fantasy. Slipstream belongs on the loop with Magical Realism. First Contact should be near Hard SF.
I was going to suggest busses! Although it occurs to me that if you think of what sort of vehicles ought to be on each of these loops, that might make it easier to pick stations. E.g. rocket ships vs. steam engines vs. carriages (optionally pulled by dragons).
Yes, sword and sorcery definitely needs a station. Meanwhile, there are probably several foot tunnels and connecting lines to the romance line, i.e. from soft science fiction, space opera, urban fantasy, paranormal romance (which of course has its own station, that’s probably an interchange with the romance line), time travel and even steampunk. Probably dystopian and post-apocalyptic, too, at least I’ve seen romance versions of both.
Meanwhile, at least according to the Kindle store, the military SF and space opera stations are moving closer together with soft science fiction as some kind of Aldwich or Mornington Crescent, where the train hardly ever stops. And they definitely have a foot tunnel to science fantasy.
Seems to me that magical realism should be a stop closer to literary fiction than science fiction is, since the literary establishment accepts it with far more ease. Of course, I’m spatially challenged and couldn’t imagine how to fix it so it looks as good as you have it.
This is fantastic, but I agree with others that Magical Realism needs a connection somehow to Lit Fic… those highbrow negative critics of SFF seem to accept that magical realism is MORE OKAY than the other parts of our galaxy.
Thanks for a hilarious and thought provoking juxtaposition of two mental maps. Will be studying.
I can see why one might put space opera next to planetary romance, but space opera can be quite hard (e.g. Bujold, Cherryh) – and MilSF doesn’t strike me as particularly hard.
Maybe techothrillers should be somewhere on the map.
I’m just worried about what the train schedule looks like at Time Travel (especially for the trains that haven’t been built yet), and how many interchanges there are at Parallel Worlds and Alt History.
Camestros Felapton 
28 responses to “A Tube Map of SF&F Genres”
Planetary Romance is nearly a closed station these days.
Sword and Sorcery explcitly needs a station, I think, even if its mostly covered under Low
I’d add Sci Fi Thrillers as a green station
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Planetary Romance is not quite closed yet, but the people who use it steadfastly like to pretend that it’s some other station.
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What about “science fantasy”? It’s kinda old but shows up every now and then. Perhaps “sword and sorcery” too, though that may be too general.
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How about “specious lawsuits” ? 🙂
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Hard SF is the Northern Line: deep, but crowded and can get quite stuffy.
Fantasy is the Circle Line: stay on it for long enough and you just end up back where you started.
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I second the suggestion about Sword & Sorcery needing it’s own station.
Other possibilities on the pink light: Portal Fantasy, Fairy Tales, and Superheroic Fantasy? Maybe?
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Portal fantasy, fairy tales, anthropomorphic should have their own line with interchanges
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Portal fantasy should be two stations with no obvious connections. (You take an escalator, cross the street, down another escalator, and you’re on the other side of the map.
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Dark fantasy (or weird?) on pink with an interchange to horror.
I’d quite like to work out a connection with heroic fantasy (or sword and sorcery as mentioned above) and science fantasy and so on. Maybe some sort of “pulp zone”?
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Quite pulpy on the left there
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Feminist fantasy? (Change at Angela Carter for literary fiction.)
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Virtual Reality belongs near Cyberpunk. Urban Fantasy belongs near Low Fantasy. Slipstream belongs on the loop with Magical Realism. First Contact should be near Hard SF.
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The Transport ministers will be adding bus services to these suburbs soon 😉
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I was going to suggest busses! Although it occurs to me that if you think of what sort of vehicles ought to be on each of these loops, that might make it easier to pick stations. E.g. rocket ships vs. steam engines vs. carriages (optionally pulled by dragons).
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If I had the time and skill, a big theme park map of sub genres would be cool – particularly as theme parks sort of work that way already.
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Yes, sword and sorcery definitely needs a station. Meanwhile, there are probably several foot tunnels and connecting lines to the romance line, i.e. from soft science fiction, space opera, urban fantasy, paranormal romance (which of course has its own station, that’s probably an interchange with the romance line), time travel and even steampunk. Probably dystopian and post-apocalyptic, too, at least I’ve seen romance versions of both.
Meanwhile, at least according to the Kindle store, the military SF and space opera stations are moving closer together with soft science fiction as some kind of Aldwich or Mornington Crescent, where the train hardly ever stops. And they definitely have a foot tunnel to science fantasy.
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Also grimdark fantasy definitely needs a station with connections to fantasy proper, dystopian and horror.
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Seems to me that magical realism should be a stop closer to literary fiction than science fiction is, since the literary establishment accepts it with far more ease. Of course, I’m spatially challenged and couldn’t imagine how to fix it so it looks as good as you have it.
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There’s also more and more Climatepunk (or maybe Climatepocalypse) nowadays, which would be somewhere between Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian.
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Maybe Climatepunk could be a solar-powered shuttle bus between the ~punk subgenre stops, apocalyptic and dystopian.
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This is fantastic, but I agree with others that Magical Realism needs a connection somehow to Lit Fic… those highbrow negative critics of SFF seem to accept that magical realism is MORE OKAY than the other parts of our galaxy.
Thanks for a hilarious and thought provoking juxtaposition of two mental maps. Will be studying.
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I can see why one might put space opera next to planetary romance, but space opera can be quite hard (e.g. Bujold, Cherryh) – and MilSF doesn’t strike me as particularly hard.
Maybe techothrillers should be somewhere on the map.
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I just wanted to say I love this.
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I’m just worried about what the train schedule looks like at Time Travel (especially for the trains that haven’t been built yet), and how many interchanges there are at Parallel Worlds and Alt History.
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Rather like wizards, the trains are always on time, no matter when they arrive.
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“Do not meddle in the affairs of trains, because they are heavy and wont to turn you into a smear”?
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Don’t forget Hope punk and Solar punk as a ditch you can fall into when making your way from Steam punk to Cyber punk (obligatory /s here).
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[…] PULLING OUT ALL THE STOPS. In “A Tube Map of SF&F Genres” Camestros Felapton has designed an irresistibly amusing representation of the […]
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