Genre Conundrum

The novel I'm in the process of querying/submitting is science fiction. That said, the POV character, as well as everyone around her for the majority of the novel, believes their seemingly "magical" abilities are the result of a divine gift from their creator goddess.

In truth, they're driven by nanotech, femtotech, and direct neural interface with artificial intelligence.

While this sort of worldbuilding has been done before, I haven't had any success finding an answer to the query problem it presents. The POV character doesn't learn the truth about the tech vs. divinity issue until the last quarter of the novel, so there's no mention of technology in the query pitch paragraph. The plot itself is about the character's search for the truth behind a family secret, so that's what I focus on. It connects to the technology issue near the end of the novel.

So, the query feels and sounds more like fantasy than SF, with key words like reincarnation and divine sparks and creatures. Yet I'm querying the novel as science fiction because, well, it is.

My conundrum is this: If an agent reads the pitch paragraph and then sees me calling it science fiction, I'm concerned they're going to think I don't know my genres, that I'm conflating fantasy with SF.

I posed this question to an agent at a query workshop at a conference in September, and she seemed a bit stumped. She saw my problem, and actually wasn't sure what I should do. I then asked if calling it "speculative fiction" would suffice, and she seemed to think so, but I'm still concerned that's too vague. Particularly if an agent is specifically looking for science fiction submissions.

I pitched the novel successfully at the same conference, but obviously the dynamic of a face-to-face pitch is quite different from a query.

I hope my concerns aren't too pedantic. I'd just hate for an opportunity to be missed because of this genre issue. Any input would be most appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Fair enough. At the aforementioned query workshop, we were encouraged to restrict the pitch paragraph to the inciting incident and first thirty pages, but I see what you mean and will see if there's a way I could work something akin to your suggestion into the query.

I also thought about working in the science vs. superstition issue in the genre sentence, i.e. "...90,000-word science fiction in which science is disguised as divine magic," or preferably something less corny. I just wasn't sure and figured it would be best to seek outside opinions.

Thank you for the reply! I appreciate your thoughts.

That's a great suggestion! And frankly, seems kind of obvious now, but I guess that's what happens when you've been staring at the same couple of paragraphs for a month.

I'll see what I can do in terms of tinkering with the pitch paragraph and genre/word count line. Thank you again for taking the time to read and respond!