speculative fiction

Stacy Stokes Lets the Darkness of Reality Creep Into Her Fiction

I once read an article by Stephen King explaining how horror allows people to explore their darkest sensibilities. This resonated, because throughout my years as an author I’ve come to realize that writing speculative fiction gives me a similar freedom — it allows me to explore, and ultimately process, complex…

Stacy StokesApril 8, 2024

Listicles

Six Thought-Provoking Speculative Fiction Novels for Fans of Octavia Butler

Speculative fiction is a dazzling supergenre that blends multiple literary galaxies into one cosmic whole, from sci-fi and futuristic fantasy to magical realism and twisted literary fiction. Some of these narratives present a dark-humored vision of the not-too-distant future while others offer a haunting reflection of our all-too-familiar present. If you’re eager to…

Wyatt SemenukFebruary 5, 2024

Podcasts

Writers, Ink Podcast: Victor Manibo Explains How He Uses the Story Engine Card Deck to Help Shape His Novels

BookTrib is proud to present to our readers the Writers, Ink podcast, a show about the business of writing. J.K. Rowling was nearly homeless when she wrote the first Harry Potter book. Stephen King penned Carrie on a small desk wedged between a washer and dryer. James Patterson worked in advertising and…

Writers, InkMay 1, 2023

Fiction

Speculative Debut Explores Life in the Shadows of a Surveillance State

Shadows exist as reminders of people’s crimes in this poetic, disturbing and hopeful debut from Marisa Crane. I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself (Catapult) is a near-future, speculative sci-fi novel, set in an imagined United States that feels eerily similar to our own. The Department of Balance acts as the…

Megan BeauregardFebruary 6, 2023

Fiction Romance Romance - Featured

One Young Woman’s Rebellion Against a Society Divided by Race

The Great Peony: Safina Cameron (Pretty Publications) flips the script on racism and discrimination, imagining a world where dark-skinned people thrive in High Society, while light-skinned people make up the lower class with less access to resources and education. Jannah Bayyan has crafted a fascinating piece of speculative literary fiction…

Megan BeauregardSeptember 15, 2022

Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

A Reunion, Jealousy and Murder – And an Exclusive Interview with Ann Cleeves

Feisty and Disheveled DCI Vera Stanhope returns for her eleventh North Umberland investigation in Ann Cleeves’ chilling new novel, The Rising Tide (Minotaur Books). Set on a tiny tidal island off the mainland, a group of friends gather to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of a school holiday retreat called “Only…

Jodé MillmanSeptember 6, 2022

Fiction Fiction - Featured

“The Last White Man” Speculates About Racism and Prejudice

The central theme of Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man (Riverhead Books) is straightforward: race is a construct. In this highly anticipated novel from the author of the bestselling Exit West, the main character Anders is distressed when his skin suddenly changes to a deep, unmistakable shade of brown. He…

Michael FerryAugust 9, 2022

Thrillers

“Spychip Armageddon:” NOW May Be the End of the World

"Captivation from the initial capital letter in Chapter One to the final period. A fictional journey that begs the question, 'could this be real?' Ray Perkins has a visual way with words like no other.” — Wayne Warner, Nashville recording artist and author of Backstage Nashville —∞— “The Spychip protocol…

Chelsea CicconeJune 17, 2020

Fiction

Daughter Answers Father’s War Letters with a Novel

I was standing at my desk in front of a lamp, and when I tipped the envelope to slide out its contents, one of the first things that came out was a color slide photograph. I held it to the light. A young shirtless man, on a beach with the…

Siobhan AdcockJune 14, 2019

Fiction Fiction - Featured

Alternate History Gives Autonomy to Enslaved Young Man in America

What if? That’s the question the alternate history genre of speculative fiction poses as it weaves together real events and gives them a different outcome. One of the best-known examples is Philip K. Dick’s classic, The Man in the High Castle, in which Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan win WWII.…

Joanna PoncavageOctober 4, 2022

Author Spotlight Author Spotlight - Featured Fiction Thrillers Thrillers - Featured

ITW Spotlight: Dean Koontz’s Imagination Knows Few Boundaries

After publishing more than 100 books, including countless New York Times bestsellers and classic novels like Phantoms, Strangers and Watchers, Dean Koontz is famously impossible to pin down: does he write thrillers? Yes. Horror? Yes. Science fiction? Romance? Fantasy? Yes, yes, and yes. For a long time, that was a liability, especially as Koontz was trying…

Adam MeyerMarch 22, 2021

Author Spotlight

Linda Kennedy Discusses the Man-Made Beast System and Her New Sci-Fi Novel

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if people were implanted with tracking devices that could help find missing children, protect against identity theft and provide instant access to medical information in the event of an emergency? Perhaps; but what if those tracking devices could be used to spy on and…

BookTribJune 8, 2020

Audiobooks Fiction Listicles Listicles - Featured

Voyage Into 5 Fascinating Worlds With These SFF Audiobooks

Put down your doomscrolling device and voyage with me out of earth’s orbit to different realms in five new fantasy and science fiction novels. A mix of stand-alone and series titles, they offer powerhouse female characters and the ultimate escape. There’s nothing like a trip out of time or into…

Aurelia C. ScottMay 4, 2022

Fiction Listicles

6 Works of Speculative Fiction With a Heart for Social Justice

Our world changes when we dare to ask what if … What if our carriages could harness the strength of 100 horses? What if we could transport our voices across oceans? What if we could hold all the information we desired in the palm of our hands? Science Fiction and…

Chelsea CicconeSeptember 21, 2020

Fiction Listicles Listicles - Featured

When AI Calls the Shots: A Glimpse at 5 Terrifying Futures

When we speculate about future technology, we hope that whatever advancements we make will be overwhelmingly positive: 3D-printing vital organs or light-speed transportation with net-negative carbon emissions. You might even envision a frivolous piece of tech two: hovercrafts and life-like holograms. What no one wants to imagine is constructing the…

BookTribApril 11, 2022

Fiction Listicles Listicles - Featured

Of Magic and Melodies: Lose Yourself in the Mystifying Music of These 7 Tales

The great Athenian philosopher Plato once said, “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” Wow. Pour me a glass of that, will you? It’s powerful stuff, music. That a few simple notes can so precisely convey emotions many…

Chelsea CicconeOctober 19, 2021