Speaking of BEA, at the Tor booth, I picked up an amusing item: a brochure designed to be an introduction to SF publishing jargon for the uninitiated. It’s called “Science Fiction and Fantasy: an Introduction from Tor.”

It begins with basic definitions of SF and Fantasy, then inside discusses conventions, the various awards, categories and sub-genres. One odd thing I came across in the pamphlet is a term I actually wasn’t familiar with:

Ruritanian: Witty, swashbuckling adventures set in imaginary European nations in the post-industrial era. (Overlaps with STEAMPUNK.)

Is that really a whole sub-genre? I’ve never even heard of that. Googling the term revealed that it is derived from the novels of late-19th/early 20th- century fantasist Anthony Hope. However, there seems to be some discrepancy between Tor’s definition of the term and what I found on the web. The Tor definition is spot on with other references I found, except for the post-industrial part.

Has anyone actually heard this term before? What are some classic examples of it?