A review of “Ex Partum” by Emma Burnett

An examination of the word “speculative”I’ve always disliked the term “speculative fiction.” I don’t mean I dislike actual works classified as speculative fiction, mind you, but the term itself. There have been arguments over the meaning of this term for going on almost a hundred years now, and it’s fallen in and out of favor several times along the way. So I’m not the only one.(This is, I promise, a review of Emma Burnett’s Ex Partum, and we’ll get there eventually.)Part of my issue is the use of the term as a euphemism meant to cultivate a more literary-sounding veneer. It has never been enough for some fans of science fiction that their preferred genre has achieved total and complete cultural dominance, but it needs respectability as well.More importantly, words have meaning.Robert A. Heinlein, the coiner⁠—or at least original popularizer⁠—of that term, defined it, in part, as works of fiction that tackle the question of “What would happen if–.” That makes sense from a definitional…