Memory Lane ~ 2024
I’ve always been a sci-fi person. While I am a romance author now, I mostly got into the romance scene as the direct result of Ruby Dixon and being inspired by how she merged the genres. And since I’m a failed psych major, I like to spend too much time overanalyzing myself and why I am the way I am. So why sci-fi? Why not fantasy or mystery or any other variety of genre fiction that could be used as my personality substitute?
Simple: Sci-fi is hopeful.
Well, kind of. Obviously, the genre is littered with dystopias, war stories, and human depravity being taken to its most extreme limits. But even a future where society has collapsed into ruin still implies a future. It may just be the general state of the world, but it can sometimes be difficult to imagine how we will endure for the next 10 years, let alone the next 1000. Any other genre with a foundation in a society that is currently or previously existing still has an implied endpoint: here. Fantasy may not take place in a literal past, but usually pulls on an aesthetic one, which again anchors it in the same space.
For the most part, sci-fi has to take place in a literal or implied future by necessity—that’s how you get the “Just trust me, bro” suspension of disbelief pass.
Until next time, travelers,
Gael
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