Science Fiction Explorer
Dataset collected by Dr. Kathleen M. Carley
Visualization by Ben Gross

This network visualization clusters popular science fiction novels around the sub-genres they most relate to, as ranked in Kathleen Carley’s 2016 Sci-Fi Books dataset. Heavier lines between two nodes indicate a stronger relationship. Larger book nodes indicate greater book popularity around 2016 (as ranked by a books inclusion in “top N lists” of the time).

See below for the full methodology and attributions.

This viz should be viewed on large devices, fullscreened.

Methodology

To determine how related a book was to a sub-genre, each book was first read by two people. They then came to consensus on how related their book was to each sub-genre using the following scale.

Viz Lines Ranking Description
No line 0 Category not present
Faint line 1 Category present but peripheral
Medium line 2 Category present at a stronger level but not strongly integral to the story
Heavy line 3 Category present, strong, and integral to the story

This data was processed in D3.js using a force-directed graph. In general, books with a 3 ranking are 3x as attractive to the associated sub-genre compared to books with a 1 ranking.

Thanks to Peter Yeager for the starry background, Nicole Cote for the critique, and so many creators on observable ( Martin Chorley, Stephen Thomas, and Mike Bostock to name a few) who led the way with great examples to pull from.