"This book creates a taxonomy for the major currently popular and bestselling fictional genres: romance, religious and inspirational, mystery and detective, and science fiction, horror and fantasy. Each of the main chapters looks at the history of a generic form from its earliest roots to its most recent works"--
Creates a taxonomy for the major currently popular and bestselling fictional genres: romance, religious and inspirational, mystery and detective, and science fiction, horror and fantasy. Each of the chapters looks at the history of a generic form from its earliest roots to its most recent works. The structural patterns in the plot, characters and setting of these genres are then explained. The book also contains a critique of currently popular hyper-formulaic, hack, unliterary writings that have multiplied in recent decades.