How should I classify my Sci-fi?

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Joss

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It's set on modern earth. No spaceships, galactic wars, or anything. Nothing in the hard sci-fi realm.

I know urban fantasy is fantasy that's set on earth. What would the sci-fi I described above be?
Alien invasion, Steve. :p

I'm almost afraid to say it's just "sci-fi" because many people will think outer space, spaceships, other galaxies, etc. I don't even read that kind of sci-fi.
This is annoying. I've been trying to classify this manuscript for years. I'll look up what Meyer's The Host and War of the Worlds are classified as.
 
It doesn't sound like sci-fi at all :-p

Hard sci-fi, strictly, is just sci-fi that doesn't posit anything that is prohibited by the laws of physics as we currently understand them. So your story could be hard sci-fi. Near-future sci-fi, maybe? Really, it depends on what sort of sci-fi elements you do have, and how you present them.

EDIT: I can speak only for myself, but if you said "it's sci-fi," I wouldn't automatically assume it was set in outer space. Alien invasion is a recognised sub-genre. Well - if you say "it's a story about an alien invasion", people will assume it's set on present-day Earth. Movies and TV seem to like that sort of story, possibly because it plays on American paranoia about being overrun by Commies or Muslims, and possibly because they don't have to build so many complicated sets or go looking for lots of locations that can pass for alien planets.
 
Question: What kinds of Sci-Fi are there?

Answer: Science fiction is a wide-ranging genre, with a lot of blurred edges and overlaps between groupings. But a number of types can be broadly identified:

•"Hard" science fiction extrapolates directly from today's modern science and emphasizes scientific detail and accuracy. Hard science fiction writers are often scientists themselves (Isaac Asimov, Gregory Benford).

•"Soft" science fiction, in contrast, emphasizes social issues and issues of personal identity. Examples could include Star Trek in television; among novelists, Ursula K. Le Guin.

•Space opera involves epic scale and a conflict between idealized heroes (often involving a wizened mentor and an untried youth) pitted against irredeemable villains. In film, the original Star Wars is a classic example; a well-known novelist in this type is E.E. "Doc" Smith.

•Alternate History is a branch of science fiction that extrapolates from a point in the past, rather than from today, and takes a different path from the one we took. Questions involve what the world might be like if the Axis powers had won World War II, or if Lincoln had not been shot. Master practitioners include Philip K. Dick and Harry Turtledove.

•Dystopia starts by rejecting the idea that "scientific advance" with automatically bring about a superior civilization; the dreamed-up reality might in fact be as corrupt and unjust as the darker days of our own world. After World War II dystopian fiction often assumed a nuclear apocalypse, with survivors fighting to retain their humanity (Mad Max, A Boy and His Dog); but such a cataclysm is not necessary (Blade Runner).
 
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