So I go to some sites and see massive lists of book categories that I never heard of and some times see books that are clearly in my mind one genre yet found in another. For example why people insist on putting
Lord of the Rings in the religious section, when its clearly Fantasy I have no clue.
Today when skimming a review site linked in another thread I came across this:
Quote:
Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible.
Speculative fiction is a genre that shares characteristics of more than one other genre, Star Wars is a good example of this as it shares many fantasy elements in a science fiction setting.
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I have never heard of "Speculative Fiction" but had I seen it in a store I would have assumed it was a "what might have been" type book, i.e. a story about if Rome did not fall, what it would look like today. Instead, turns out by that description, my two books are "speculative fiction." So much for telling everyone that asks me about it that they are scifi books. Of course everyone I know would call Star Wars scifi.
Then on other sites I have seen the genre "trans gender" which I have no clue what that could be???
So I was wondering... is there a definitive list of genres and what they mean, or is it just what ever the store/site decides at the time its sorting books? Is there at least rule of thumb list some place?