Action fiction

Action novels and short stories were popular subjects for American pulp magazines.

Action fiction is a genre in literature that focuses on stories involving high-stakes, high-energy, and fast-paced events. This genre includes a wide range of subgenres, such as spy novels, adventure stories, tales of terror, intrigue ("cloak and dagger"), and mysteries. These kinds of stories utilize suspense, the tension that is built up when the reader wishes to know how the conflict between the protagonist and antagonist is going to be resolved or the solution to a mystery of a thriller.

The intricacies of human relationships or the nuances of philosophy and psychology are rarely explored in action fiction, typically being fast-paced mysteries that merely seek to provide the reader with an exhilarating experience.

Action fiction can also be a plot element of non-literary works.

Genre fiction

Action genre is a form of fiction whose subject matter is characterized by emphasis on exciting action sequences. This does not always mean they exclude character development or story-telling.

The action genre is also related to comic books and graphic novel formats such as manga, and non-literary media including anime, action film, action television series, and action games. It includes martial arts action, extreme sports action, car chases and vehicles, hand-to-hand combat, suspense action, and action comedy, with each focusing in more detail on its own type and flavor of action.

It is usually possible to identify the creative style of an action sequence, the emphasis of an entire work, so that, for example, the style of a combat sequence will indicate whether the entire work can be classified as action-adventure. Action is mainly defined by a central focus on any kind of exciting movement.

Notable examples

Novels

• 58 Minutes (1987)
• The Bourne Identity (1980)
• The Chinaman (1992)
• First Blood (1972)
• Man on Fire (1980)
• Nothing Lasts Forever (1979)

Films

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Dirty Harry (1971)
• Hanna (2011)
• The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
• Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Seven Samurai (1954)
• Top Gun (1986)
• The Villainess (2017)

Television series

• The A-Team (1983)
• Black Sails (2014)
• Counterstrike (1990)
• Fallout (2024)
• Highlander: The Series (1992)
• MacGyver (1985)
• My Name (2021)
• Nikita (2010)

Comics

• Action Comics (1938)
• Captain Easy (1933)
• Connie (1927)
• Corto Maltese (1967)
• Dick Tracy (1931)
• The Phantom (1936)
• Tarzan (1929)
• Terry and the Pirates (1934)

Animation

• Arcane (2021)
• Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005)
• Blue Eye Samurai (2023)
• Ghost in the Shell (1995)
• Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
• The Legend of Korra (2012)
• The Transformers: The Movie (1986)

See also

• Action-adventure game
• Action hero
• Martial arts film
• Pace (narrative)
• Spy fiction
• Thriller novel
• List of female action heroes and villains
• List of male action heroes and villains
• List of genres

References

Parenthetical sources

• Turco, Lewis (1999). The Book of Literary Terms: The Genres of Fiction, Drama, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, and Scholarship (1st ed.). Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England. ISBN 978-0874519549.

Further reading

• Kendrick, James (15 January 2015). "Action Cinema". Oxford Bibliographies. doi:10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0157.
• "Genre Guide: Action Novels". The Hub. Young Adult Library Services Association. September 29, 2015.

External links

• Media related to Action (genre) at Wikimedia Commons