The term “fiction novels” is actually redundant since a novel is always fiction. In publishing, fiction refers to imagined stories and characters, while non-fiction is writing about true events or real people. Fiction novels are books written in different genres, or themes. Science fiction, romance, mystery and thriller are just some of the many genres of popular novels sold today.
Thrillers have exciting plots, or story lines. Often, in thriller fiction novels, the main character fights to overcome situations in which he or she could die, or be ruined in some way, at the hands of a dark enemy. The main character, or protagonist, could be blackmailed for his or her past secrets, for example. Thrillers differ from mysteries in that the enemy, or antagonist, is usually identified near the beginning of the novel. John Grisham is a popular legal thriller writer, while Robert Ludlum is known for his spy thrillers.
Mystery fiction novels center around a puzzling crime, typically a murder, that must be solved. Mystery novelists such as Patricia Cornwell and Janet Evanovich masterfully dish out clues to the reader while their lead characters work with the same information to solve the crime. Quirky detectives are the most common type of lead character in mystery or crime novels.
Romance stories are about the search for love and the conflicts between people involved in relationships. A fiction novel in the genre of romance can have many settings, but of course, romantic locales tend to be the most appealing in these types of books. Wayne Jordan’s Embracing the Moonlight is set on the tropical island of Barbados, while Barbara Taylor Bradford’s Three Weeks in Paris takes place in France.
Science fiction books offer readers imaginative tales that could take them to other planets, times and lands that haven’t been written about before. Of all the different genres of fiction, science fiction is the least predictable because unpredictable new worlds are what the readers expect to read. Many science fiction novels feature objects in space written about in unusual, highly imaginative ways. For instance, Joe R. Lansdale’s Drive-In series involves a comet that dissolves the bodies of people trying to leave a drive-in movie theater called the Orbit.
Fiction novels may be in paperback, hardcover or digital form. Digital, or electronic book (ebook), novels are read online on computers. Although digital novels may be in any genre, the graphic novel is especially suited to the computer medium. Digital graphic novels are visual, comic book types of publications. They may offer the reader visual interaction as some of these online novels are computer games.