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There is still some fuzziness around the terms “speculative fiction” and “science fiction.” Some say that “speculative fiction” includes such things as horror and reality-based dystopias and vampire stories, with “science fiction” being a subset. Others make a distinction between “science fiction” — hard and soft, but involving other planets and universes accessed by devices we do not currently have and cannot realistically expect to have — and “speculative fiction,” located on this Earth and containing no devices that we cannot currently foresee.
Let’s just say that there is a difference in nature between stories set in a universe far, far away (some call these “science fiction fantasy”) and those set on this planet, in a future we can plausibly describe, though not infallibly predict. (No predictions are infallible.) All fictions both entertain — otherwise nobody turns the pages — and also instruct, because stories will inevitably be given a moral interpretation by readers, language and people being what they are. But the far, far away galaxy kind — let us call them “zucchinis” — will inspire less immediate fear than the other kind — let us call them “beets.”
Below is a list of “beets.” There are many more, but these are some of the books I have read and enjoyed. They concern this Earth and what is possible on it, given the knowledge available at the time of their writing. They are mostly dystopias — they describe a world we would rather not have. But some are utopias — they point to improvements. Every utopia contains a little dystopia, and every dystopia contains a little utopia, or at least a better world.
Otherwise, farewell to hope and fear.