---
title: "Science Fiction and Fantasy Subgenres"
description: "Browse science fiction and fantasy subgenre pages for cyberpunk, space opera, dystopian SF, high fantasy, urban fantasy, epic fantasy, and other award-recognized books."
canonical: "https://sffawards.com/subgenres/"
---

# Science Fiction and Fantasy Subgenres

These are controlled subgenre pages used by the award-recognized SFF book database. Each page defines one subgenre, shows counts, highlights examples, and links to the filtered app.

- **science fiction subgenres:** 15
- **fantasy subgenres:** 24
- **matching books:** 2,339
- **updated:** Aug 28, 2026

## Taxonomy Rationale

These pages use a deliberately small controlled subgenre list. During taxonomy work, many useful labels were kept as themes, motifs, settings, tones, audience labels, identity labels, formats, or raw source tags instead of being promoted into subgenres. That keeps the public pages stable and readable.

Some labels are ambiguous until the source gives more context. Military can mean military science fiction or military fantasy; romance can be a plot motif, a market category, paranormal romance, romantic fantasy, or romantasy; horror can be a tone, a crossover, or a distinct genre.

## Science Fiction Subgenres

- [AI/Robot SF books](/subgenres/ai-robot-science-fiction/) - 65 books, 92 recognitions
- [Alternate History SF books](/subgenres/alternate-history-science-fiction/) - 29 books, 44 recognitions
- [Apocalyptic SF books](/subgenres/apocalyptic-science-fiction/) - 28 books, 36 recognitions
- [Climate SF books](/subgenres/climate-science-fiction/) - 30 books, 42 recognitions
- [Cyberpunk books](/subgenres/cyberpunk/) - 221 books, 371 recognitions
- [Dying Earth SF books](/subgenres/dying-earth-science-fiction/) - 30 books, 44 recognitions
- [Dystopian SF books](/subgenres/dystopian-science-fiction/) - 530 books, 759 recognitions
- [Hard SF books](/subgenres/hard-science-fiction/) - 144 books, 214 recognitions
- [Military SF books](/subgenres/military-science-fiction/) - 45 books, 53 recognitions
- [Near Future SF books](/subgenres/near-future-science-fiction/) - 30 books, 61 recognitions
- [Planetary Romance books](/subgenres/planetary-romance/) - 3 books, 3 recognitions
- [Post-Apocalyptic SF books](/subgenres/post-apocalyptic-science-fiction/) - 63 books, 79 recognitions
- [Solarpunk books](/subgenres/solarpunk/) - 6 books, 6 recognitions
- [Space Opera books](/subgenres/space-opera/) - 549 books, 819 recognitions
- [Steampunk SF books](/subgenres/steampunk-science-fiction/) - 4 books, 4 recognitions

## Fantasy Subgenres

- [Alternate History Fantasy books](/subgenres/alternate-history-fantasy/) - 27 books, 39 recognitions
- [Arthurian Fantasy books](/subgenres/arthurian-fantasy/) - 27 books, 35 recognitions
- [Comic Fantasy books](/subgenres/comic-fantasy/) - 1 books, 1 recognitions
- [Contemporary Fantasy books](/subgenres/contemporary-fantasy/) - 26 books, 39 recognitions
- [Cozy Fantasy books](/subgenres/cozy-fantasy/) - 8 books, 11 recognitions
- [Dark Fantasy books](/subgenres/dark-fantasy/) - 85 books, 96 recognitions
- [Epic Fantasy books](/subgenres/epic-fantasy/) - 288 books, 342 recognitions
- [Fairytale Fantasy books](/subgenres/fairytale-fantasy/) - 57 books, 85 recognitions
- [Fantasy of Manners books](/subgenres/fantasy-of-manners/) - 4 books, 6 recognitions
- [Gothic Fantasy books](/subgenres/gothic-fantasy/) - 45 books, 62 recognitions
- [Heroic Fantasy books](/subgenres/heroic-fantasy/) - 1 books, 2 recognitions
- [High Fantasy books](/subgenres/high-fantasy/) - 404 books, 514 recognitions
- [Historical Fantasy books](/subgenres/historical-fantasy/) - 119 books, 152 recognitions
- [Low Fantasy books](/subgenres/low-fantasy/) - 2 books, 2 recognitions
- [Magical Realism books](/subgenres/magical-realism/) - 171 books, 270 recognitions
- [Military Fantasy books](/subgenres/military-fantasy/) - 7 books, 7 recognitions
- [Paranormal Fantasy books](/subgenres/paranormal-fantasy/) - 259 books, 310 recognitions
- [Paranormal Romance books](/subgenres/paranormal-romance/) - 28 books, 28 recognitions
- [Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy books](/subgenres/post-apocalyptic-fantasy/) - 1 books, 1 recognitions
- [Romantasy books](/subgenres/romantasy/) - 22 books, 30 recognitions
- [Romantic Fantasy books](/subgenres/romantic-fantasy/) - 19 books, 20 recognitions
- [Steampunk Fantasy books](/subgenres/steampunk-fantasy/) - 22 books, 22 recognitions
- [Sword and Sorcery books](/subgenres/sword-and-sorcery/) - 29 books, 31 recognitions
- [Urban Fantasy books](/subgenres/urban-fantasy/) - 330 books, 471 recognitions

## Related Links

- [Open the interactive subgenre browser](/)
- [Read the browser guide](/guide/)
- [Browse award pages](/awards/)