The Guardians--A Novel

As preparations for The Guardians moves forward, I am confronted by a stigma in the Science Fiction community. Like many other genres of commercial publication have subgenres, Science Fiction is easily divided into Hard-Science Fiction, Space Opera, Cyber Punk, Steam Punk, and many others. Each genre has its specialized market that the writer writes to and the publishing house focuses on. The general reader may not always catch the nuisances as they browse the bookshelves at their local books store, for the books stand next to each other, the marketing people and editors are focused upon the differences.

It must be asked if these subgenres really do stand alone and can be pigeonholed. Or if they crossover. The obvious answer is yes. Let me use a simple example of a series of tv shows, movies, and novels: Star Trek. Anyone who knows the universe that Gene Roddenberry created knows it is really Space Opera. Yet, many of the things in Star Trek that were created to save on budget of money and/or time have come to be science and in reality fact. So is Star Trek then Space Opera?

The communicators in Star Trek were the idea behind our cell phones. The computer elements, like great databases of music and entertainment have also become reality or are in development to do so. Examples of what I mean are: Ipods, Kindle readers, internet and various “libraries” of information, Medical Records being stored electronically, Genetic research and the use of it to grow food, and the list continues. An example of something that is in development is the “holodeck” of virtual reality. In fact, the only thing on the surface that forces it to be Space Opera is the fact of faster-than-light travel. What happens if someday we are able to figure out how to break that barrier?

The fact is that the subgenres are not as easily pigeonholed as the universe of those who see things as only “this or that” would like it. It is with this foreknowledge and acceptance of fact that will push the blending of subgenres into The Guardians.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for up to date information on the articles, blogs, novels, and short stories that I write.