Can sci-fi also be thriller?

Greenwolf103 said:

I have two sci-fi stories that are set in the future, but I'm curious if they can be considered a "thriller" as well?

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I think the only way to answer this is to know what your stories are about. Really, you should be able to answer this yourself.

If you were to pull the stories into the present and remove the speculative elements, would they be thrillers?

-Derek

Sci-fi's can be anything they want as long as the elements are there. Sci-fi romance, war, adventure, action, horror, thriller, so on and so forth. Sci-fi merely means the presence of Science fiction material. What you put with it, adds on the secondary tag. Derek has it right, remove the Sci-fi elements, would it still be this other genre? If so, then absolutely.

Greenwolf103 said:

I just came across a call for submissions to an anthology. They want thrillers set in the future.

I have two sci-fi stories that are set in the future, but I'm curious if they can be considered a "thriller" as well?

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How do the anthology editors define thriller?

I recently saw this distinction between mysteries and thrillers: In a mystery, a crime has already been committed, and someone is trying to discover who did it (and how and why). In a triller, a crime is threatened (usually of cultural, national, or international significance, such as mass destruction or a political assassination), and the hero is trying to prevent it. (The distinction comes from a popular thriller writer, but I forget who. It was in an issue of The Writer a few months ago.)

In any case, I don't see any reason that a science fiction story couldn't fit whatever definition of thriller the editors have in mind. (Though off the top of my head I can't think of an example of a science fiction thriller.)

Dale

I say go for it.

Computer program turned deadly? Sounds like a thriller to me.

Dale Emery said:

How do the anthology editors define thriller?

I recently saw this distinction between mysteries and thrillers: In a mystery, a crime has already been committed, and someone is trying to discover who did it (and how and why). In a triller, a crime is threatened (usually of cultural, national, or international significance, such as mass destruction or a political assassination), and the hero is trying to prevent it. (The distinction comes from a popular thriller writer, but I forget who. It was in an issue of The Writer a few months ago.)

In any case, I don't see any reason that a science fiction story couldn't fit whatever definition of thriller the editors have in mind. (Though off the top of my head I can't think of an example of a science fiction thriller.)

Dale

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I remember reading that. I think it was James Patterson.

Don't do the editor's job for them.
Send the story and let them decide

The techno-thriller is a special case of science fiction, though it doesn't normally appear on the SF shelves. At core, SF is about the frontiers of science and technology messing with peoples' lives. That's also the concern of the techno-thriller. (A book by Dan Brown uses antimatter for example, and one of Michael Chricton's uses alien microbes.)

Readers who like techno-thrillers won't necessarily like other kinds of SF though, which is why you must be careful cross-marketing. The techno-thriller exploits our fear of new technology and emerging science. If you make the setting too unfamiliar then the techno-fear may not work as well. Also, the techno-thriller normally resolves with a reassuring assertion of fundamental human values over the evils of new technology, while broader SF may take very different perspectives.

Lastly, it's hard to write a thriller story by accident. The dramatic structure is all oriented toward suspense and tension, a looming threat and a lit fuse. Ask yourself whether every scene puts the reader on the edge of the seat. If they don't then it's not thriller writing. Most SF isn't thriller writing because many SF scenes are written to explore the possibilities of new science and technology; a thriller mainly uses SF premises to spur the reader to fear.

Um . . . I'd like to mention that "futuristic" isn't necessarily synonymous with SF. A futuristic thiller CAN be science fiction, but certainly doesn't have to be. It merely needs to be set on good 'ole Earth. SF generally includes the use of science in the plot and resolution OF the plot and often is set off-Earth. Futuristic is Earth-based. But yes, if the SF has the element of danger to both the protagonist and the general public, it would probably qualify. But if it's merely a mystery, it might not. It all comes down to the plot. Never hurts to try, of course.

Science fiction can be anything--both figuratively and sometimes literally, it's the universal genre.

Examples in literature and film (not all descriptions are technically genre)...
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/Blade Runner--thriller, philosophical/film noir
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--satire, comedy
Alien--thriller/horror
Star Wars--fantasy
Star Trek, Uplift, Hyperion, Vorkosigan series--space opera
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer--religious musing
Behold the Man--social commentary on hero worship and myths
Foundation, Mars Trilogy--world-building

This list goes on. Science Fiction can be just about anything. The real goal of science fiction isn't to talk about small green men from other planets; it's to reflect and give perspective on issues we are facing today or things that we might face in the future. The Forever War was a way for Joe Haldeman to discuss his experiences in Vietnam and the alienation the veterans felt upon returning to the US. The Mars Trilogy tells us the possibility and perhaps the need for humanity to expand beyond the Earth, and the dangers that come with backward political and ideological thinking.

Cathy C said:

Um . . . I'd like to mention that "futuristic" isn't necessarily synonymous with SF. A futuristic thiller CAN be science fiction, but certainly doesn't have to be. It merely needs to be set on good 'ole Earth. SF generally includes the use of science in the plot and resolution OF the plot and often is set off-Earth.

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This is one of those craft vs marketing questions I think.

From a craft perspective we can't differentiate thriller or SF by setting -- although both often use exotic locations. What makes a thriller is its dramatic structure. What makes a story SF is its science/tech frontier plot content. You can set either of them anywhere. A great deal of SF is set on Earth: virtually the whole Cyberpunk genre, for instance, and Steampunk etc... not to mention books by pioneers of the genre like Wells, Verne and Shelley, which were nearly all set on contemporaneous Earth.

But thriller-writing is a dramatic technique you can apply to almost any premise: romantic encounter (Fatal Attraction), murder mystery (Silence of the Lambs), religious intrigue (Da Vinci Code), corporate intrigue (The Firm), travel adventure (The Beach). [For a bigger list see here]. For sample SF thrillers, consider The Invasion of the Body-Snatchers, The Stepford Wives (the first one) and Alien. All use the classic thriller formula of a looming atrocity; excited, fearful, almost paranoid pursuit; headlong pace; and either a lit fuse or options dwindling to the unthinkable. All are nail-biters. All are SF because of the premises, and some are arguably horror too.

While these stories are all thrillers in a craft sense, for marketing purposes you might only find them on the SF or horror shelves -- because ordinary thriller customers often prefer their stories to be about the familiar. But thriller-genre specialists push the credibility envelope themselves all the time -- e.g. Crichton's space-germs or Brown's antimatter-bomb.