Soft SF
Entry updated 21 April 2025. Tagged: Theme.
This not very precise item of sf Terminology, formed by analogy with Hard SF, is generally applied either to sf that deals with the Soft Sciences or to sf that does not deal with recognizable science at all, but emphasizes human feelings. The contrasting of soft sf with hard sf, though sometimes useful in the study of readership patterns for Genre SF before 1960s or so, is sometimes illogical. Stories of Psi Powers or Supermen, for example, have little to do with real science, but were traditionally regarded by sf readers as hard sf. The New Wave was generally associated with soft sf; Cyberpunk falls somewhere between the two. The term is rarely used in the twenty-first century. [PN]
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