Most Important Element in Speculative Fiction

From a reader’s viewpoint, what do you feel is the most important element in a good spec-fic story?

Is it the setting? How fantastical and amazing and removed from the everyday normal world it is? The author’s world itself and its marvels and oddities and difference from our own world? The society, the buildings, the landscape, the relationships, the livelihoods, the power structure, if there’s magic etc.

Is it the plot? The storyline and all it entails: heroes, quests, conflicts, villains, monsters, trials and tribulations, accomplishments etc? Good vs. evil, Right vs. wrong? The underdog defeating the favored and all-powerful? The little guy overcoming adversity? Achieving one’s dreams?

Is it the characters? Heroes and villains you root for or rail against or admire or hate or even unwillingly admire? The human story told through a character you identify with or sympathize with or aspire to be or wish you were? The archetypes as drawn by the writer, bearing the essence of mankind in their very being, their every action?

Is it the writing? The beauty of the prose? The author’s writing style? The way they use their words, so cunningly and cleverly?

Is it the themes? The universal things like Honor? Faith? Truth? Justice? Redemption? Vengeance? (While all novels deal with these themes to varying degrees, I think that spec-fic, especially fantasy, often deals with our idealized version of how the world should work and these themes seem to predominate the stories told within the framework of spec-fic.) Good vs. evil, Strong vs. weak, Woman coming into her own, Boy coming into his own, etc?

The cover? Fantasy seems to be moving away from the old-style covers of muscled warriors brandishing bloody blades etc and to a more mainstream and “safe” or neutral style of artwork. Does a cover influence your decision?

A good title? Some titles just scream “Fantasy!” or Science Fiction!” while others are more neutral or ambiguous.

A good map? Some people like to envision the world and like a good map with their story.

I realize these all have their own part to play but I’d like for you to take a moment and think about the books you’ve loved the most, the types you seem to look for first etc. – then try to decide which one of the above elements you feel plays the largest part when deciding which book to buy/read.

Or, based on the books you've enjoyed most, which of the above do you feel is the most important element as far as your enjoyment of your spec-fic reading list goes.

If possible you could also list them in the order of importance since I’m sure all or most of the elements listed above are weighed in some way by a buyer.

I’m just curious as I’ve found that sometimes, what you believe to be so can be turned on its head when you start getting a sampling of what others think and their ideas on a subject.

And since we’re all basically here writing our own stories, it might help all of us to know what readers think – just as something to keep in the back of our minds while crafting our tales.

Hmmm… for me it depends. The things I look for when initially buying a book can be very different from the things that make a book memorable.

For instance, we can all agree on the importance of the characters in a story - but when you first buy a book, you don’t really know much about the characters. We all know, going in, the basic character archetypes that fall within each genre (fantasy, sf, mysteries, romance, thrillers etc.) and so we have our basic expectations of what we’ll encounter as far as characters go.

That’s why the most important thing for me, initially, is the setting or the world. Especially as time has gone on and I’ve become more accustomed to the tropes and archetypes in the genre.

The novel thing for me is the new world the writer will transport me to. That’s the initial grabber. That moment of “Wow, I haven’t seen this place before” when I read the back blurb.

So when making a decision to buy a book, that and the plotline are the most important elements for me. By plotline, I mean, as long as it isn’t a tired old cliché plotline, and is something new and intriguing than I’ll be more inclined to check it out.

But when thinking of what is the most important element as far as the stories I enjoyed best – characters play a more important role. Yet still, when it comes to my spec fiction choices, I believe the world itself or setting holds dominance.

The reason being that if it was only about the characters, I’d enjoy other genres as much as spec-fiction. There are interesting characters in so many different forms of literature, yet speculative fiction is my first love. Why?

I can only assume it’s the setting - which is the main factor differentiating spec-fic from mystery, romance, thrillers, literary, mainstream etc.

I read other genres also but not as much as spec-fic (and historicals) and I believe this is due to the settings themselves. Worlds removed from our own. A chance to see characters, their actions and emotions displayed against a backdrop so different from the one I experience everyday.

As an example, I’ll use the Dune books. I enjoyed Dune – with Paul Muad’Dib, Duncan Idaho, Baron Harkonnen, Stilgar, Jessica, Gurney Halleck, and the rest of the memorable cast – but without the world itself: Arrakis, the Imperium, The Bene Gesserit, The Fremen, The Great Houses, The Spacing Guild, Sandworms etc – it could’ve been a story in London, Constantinople, Venice, Jerusalem, Mexico city, Osaka, Beijing, Washington D.C.

So it was the setting that set it apart and, of course with the characters and the plot/story, made it memorable. But the setting, or world, - the uniqueness of it - was, I believe, the key factor why I enjoyed it.