Spec Fic For Newbies Vol 2 by Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan
I would like to thank Luna Press Publishing for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - Luna Press Publisher
Published - Out Now
Price - £16.99 paperback £6.99 Kindle ebook
Beam aboard your own Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror classroom with the next volume of the BSFA-shortlisted writing-guide series!
Join Tiffani Angus (Ph.D.) and Val Nolan (Ph.D.) for a whirlwind introduction to the storytelling basics of 30 more subgenres and major tropes from across the limitless realms of Speculative Fiction.
Learn about Space Opera, Folk Horror, Climate Fiction, Werewolves, Astronauts, Mythic Fantasy, Goblin Markets, Dragons, and many more with deep dives into each subgenre's history and development, spotter's guides to typical examples, pitfalls to watch out for in your own writing, and activities to help you get started! All derived from a combined two decades of university-level practices and experience!
Spec Fic for Newbies breaks genres into bite-sized pieces for students or for any budding writer. It offers a welcoming introduction to how writers, filmmakers, and other creatives can begin to explore the infinite potential of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror to create new stories beyond the boundaries of the ordinary.
NB - there is also the great Spec Fix for Newbies Volume which I reviewed here https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2023/8/27/spec-fic-for-newbies-by-tiffani-angus-and-val-nolan
The nature of any genre is they’re a bit like an iceberg. On the top are rockets, wizards, vampires Anne all the things that leap to your mind when we say science fiction, fantasy or horror. But any genre that’s been around a long time has many hidden depths, subgenres within genres thematic ideas being played with and sometimes it’s good to see what lies beneath the ocean. to aid this exercise once again Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan have come back again with Spec Fic for Newbies: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing More Sub-Genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror and again essential for those who want to the explore this iceberg.
The format of the book like volume one taking a subject, exploring the history of it into the present day and then laying out the hallmarks of the subject via a Spotter’s Guide, why it’s cool to write in that genre and what it gives the reader/writer/reviewer to make reading it cool before setting the author some idea some writing activities to try.
For me as a reviewer l think again this lifts the lid on a sub-genre really well. So many of the guides I would read when I started out seemed to think you only really needed to know the mid-20th century golden age. Instead Angus and Nolan make it clear no genre is that simple we get impressive concise but informative guides. Exploring the idea of a mysterious island we match up Atlantis of Lwgend with the tv series Lost and it’s fascinating to start to see the connections. They also explore the use of themes in film, media, comics and anime. We also have guides who appreciate that a genre does include more than straight white Americans. The concept of the multiverse is shown not to be that old-fashioned nor Space Opera simply Star Wars. as someone who is often suspicious of being told the old days were golden I did actually find the lists of useful media really helpful and a few are added to the ever long TBR!
As I’m not a prospective author I can’t comment directly on the writing exercises but they seem quite useful to me. What I think the wider guide offers is to help someone learn the show of a genre; to know the rules/tropes of a particular genre and most importantly that they have always been played with. It should give writers lots of ideas of how subjectives have been tackled from different angles and shows no genre is ever truly overdone. As a new reader of reviewer it should help you assemble reading lists and start to recognise where a story is coming from. Part of the fun of reading is realising books are part of an ongoing conversation with other books and also outsider world. This book will help you start to recognise the voices and see how it develops further on your own journeys.
Volume 1 is just as good and enlightening as Volume 2. It’s a fresh and breezy guide to a genre that sometimes we forget how big it is. Angus and Nolan are very creditable guides to starting to underrated the shape of the land and set the newbies on their way to adventure! Highly recommended!
