Literary fiction and SFF can offer different possibilities even within the same novel, and the conventions of one form cannot be used to judge them all
Published – November 12, 2026 12:20 pm IST
Genres tell us more about how well certain segments of the publishing market are doing than the world per se. The strange and the familiar often co-exist in novels and the improbable repeatedly intrudes on the ordinary — such as when M. John Harrison won the Booker Prize for The End of Everything.
The win is not a straightforward triumph of literature over genre, however. Harrison is a major figure in science fiction and fantasy (SFF) writing. And to celebrate the prize for The End as a win for SFF could reaffirm the same boundaries its recognition ought to help dissolve. But these boundaries also influence which novels are promoted by publishers and discussed by critics, and they shape readers’ expectations. Thus, we must reckon with their consequences, including entrenching a hierarchy of artistic merit.
