# SF sub-genres-Definitive stories and newer examples **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 18, 2020, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-sub-genres-definitive-stories-and-newer-examples/918443 "2020-08-18T22:29:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-sub-genres-definitive-stories-and-newer-examples/918443/21 "2020-08-22T13:51:23Z")
I’m not sure of a definitive SF mystery/whodunit, but here are two that were nominated for Hugos recently: [Six Wakes](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28962996-six-wakes): A starship’s crew has been murdered. Their clones wake from hibernation and desperately try to figure out whose original was the murderer, and if their clone is also murderous. Great premise for a thoroughly standard-structure whodunit. [Too Like the Lightning](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114545-too-like-the-lightning): This is some weird shit, focusing like 70% on a bizarre future world, 20% on the nonlinear structure of the novel, and 10% on a series of mysterious hovercar deaths which may or may not be purely accidental (spoiler alert: c’mon, you can guess). The narrator is the worst mass-murderer in human history in several decades, but you don’t find out what exactly his crimes were, or why he committed them, until much later. The whodunit is central to the book’s plot, but the book’s plot isn’t really central to the book, if that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-sub-genres-definitive-stories-and-newer-examples/918443/22 "2020-08-22T14:05:32Z")
Xenobiology Definitive: _Martian Odyssey_ Newer: _Midnight at the Well of Souls_ (though not recent by any means) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2020, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-sub-genres-definitive-stories-and-newer-examples/918443/23 "2020-08-22T17:53:37Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > (anybody got a better and/or more recent example?) Several of Bujold’s Vorkosigan novels qualify as whodunits; it helps that the protagonist of most of the stories changed careers mid-series from intelligence operative to special-investigator-at-large. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-sub-genres-definitive-stories-and-newer-examples/918443/24 "2020-08-23T13:09:24Z")
I’d actually class “Martian Odyssey” as “First Contact story”. Though I don’t know what I’d use as the modern example of that, because good first contact stories are too few and far between. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-sub-genres-definitive-stories-and-newer-examples/918443/25 "2020-08-23T13:22:20Z")
_The Pride of Chanur_ by C. J. Cherryh? Although even that’s from 1981. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-sub-genres-definitive-stories-and-newer-examples/918443/26 "2020-08-23T19:49:13Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Stranded astronaut. > Definitive: Enemy Mine. > Newer: The Martian. I think the definitive example would be Robinson Caruso on Mars. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2020, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-sub-genres-definitive-stories-and-newer-examples/918443/27 "2020-08-23T22:16:46Z")
Caruso? Was he stranded by shipmates who hate opera? ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-sub-genres-definitive-stories-and-newer-examples/918443/28 "2020-08-24T00:15:43Z")
Interesting Avatar/topic combo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-sub-genres-definitive-stories-and-newer-examples/918443.md?page=1)