I have a unique genetic relationship with one set of cousins.
It all began when my Uncle B and Aunty J met. They lived just a couple of minutes’ walk from each other’s houses growing up. They walked to the same school. They attended the same church.
They eventually married and had two children – my cousins.
The complicating factor happened when Uncle B’s brother, let’s call him Dad, fell in love with Aunty J’s sister, we’ll call her Mum.
That’s right – my father’s brother married my mother’s sister. So those cousins are some kind of family anomaly that is in fact genetically closer than cousins.
That’s how I feel the relationship between speculative fiction and historical fiction can be – close enough to seriously blur the lines of identity.
Speculative fiction does what it says. It speculates on a world that does not exist.
It can be a world of total and utter fantasy where almost every element is non-existent in our reality.
Or it can be heavily influenced by our world but ask the question of what if just one thing was different i.e. what if animals could talk? What if women had been raised to believe they are the natural leaders of the world rather than men?
In this month’s book club read we’ve ventured just outside the boundary of my beloved historical fiction genre.
Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching is a speculative fiction/horror novel that is heavily influenced by true events from our world history.
The fictional setting of Bethel is an utterly made-up world but one that mirrors early societies of the United States of America or England in the 17th Century or so.
The author has admitted to being influenced by the Salem witch trials and the many folklore stories of Savannah, Georgia where she grew up.
The Similar Functions of Historical Fiction and Speculative Fiction Writers
Speculative fiction writers and historical fiction writers must perform similar functions in their writing.
World Building – whether the setting is a fantasy world of underground dwellers or Brisbane during 1917, the author must build a world that they have not personally lived in.
Speculation – fiction is speculation. So even if a work of historical fiction is based very closely on true events, there is so much of that story that is what ‘could’ have happened, rather than what ‘did’ happen. Otherwise, it’s non-fiction.
So, while I will forever be an unapologetic historical fiction tragic, I’m enjoying a dive into the world of speculative horror fiction…even if I’m jumping at sounds more than usual.
Find your next read from this Goodreads collection of speculative fiction based on history.
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