Prehistoric fiction

"A hunter attacking a brown bear.", art from The Cave Boy of the Age of Stone, novel by Margaret A. McIntyre.

Prehistoric fiction is a science fiction subgenre in which the story is set in the period of time prior to the existence of written record, known as prehistory.[1][2] As a fictional genre, the realistic description of the subject varies, without necessarily a commitment to develop an objective anthropological account. Because of this, it is possible that the author of prehistoric fiction deals with their subject with much more freedom than the author of a historical fiction, and the genre also has connections with speculative fiction.[3] In many narratives, humans and dinosaurs live together, despite the extinction of the dinosaurs and the evolution of humans being separated by millions of years. The paleontologist Björn Kurtén coined the term "paleofiction" to define his works.[4]

One of the derivatives of cyberpunk is stonepunk, a subgenre of cyberpunk. Stonepunk is a neologism born from the contraction between a stone and cyberpunk. This is an uchronia that refers to the massive use of technology in prehistoric times.[5]

  1. ^ Trussel, Stephen. "Prehistoric Fiction". www.trussel.com. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
  2. ^ "What was prehistoric Britain like?". BBC Bitesize. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  3. ^ "Prehistoric SF". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  4. ^ Annales zoologici fennici. Finnish Zoological and Botanical Pub. Board. 1991.
  5. ^ "Punkpunk: A Compendium of Literary Punk Genres". LitReactor. Retrieved 2021-12-31.