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Quantum fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that reflects modern experience of the material world and reality as influenced by quantum theory and new principles in quantum physics. It is characterized by the use of an element in quantum mechanics as a storytelling device. The genre is not necessarily science-themed, and blurs the line separating science fiction and fantasy into a broad scope of mainstream literature that transcends the mechanical model of science and involves the fantasy of human perception or imagination as realistic components affecting the everyday physical world.
Novels that have been described as quantum fiction include Vanna Bonta's Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel (1995), M. John Harrison's Empty Space trilogy (2002, 2006, 2012),[1] David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (2004),[2] Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr. Y (2006)[2] Samantha Harvey's The Wilderness (2008),[2] and Andrew Crumey's Sputnik Caledonia (2008).[2]
Charles Platt introduced the term in his essay "Quantum Fiction: A Blueprint for Avoiding Literary Obsolescence", first published in The New York Review of Science Fiction in April 1990.[3]
- ^ Scholz, C. (2017). "Quantum fiction! – M. John Harrison's Empty Space trilogy and Weird theory". Textual Practice. 31 (6): 1149–1163. doi:10.1080/0950236X.2017.1358689. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d Sonia Front. Shapes of Time in British Twenty-First Century Quantum Fiction. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015.
- ^ "Quantum Fiction: A Blueprint for Avoiding Literary Obsolescence". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 22 September 2024.