The book Interstellar Pig by William Sleator is considered part of the
science fiction genre for many reasons. One reason is that it takes place
in the future or part of the book happens in the past and part is in the
future. I will explain a specific example of this. The story is about Barney
and his mom and dad who rent a beach house. They hear a story about
the rented house and Captain Latham, a sea captain who owned it long
time ago. The story goes that Captain Latham and his brother were out
to sea and they picked up a shipwrecked sailor. The brother watches the
sailor during the night and he ends up killing him and they never find out
why. They keelhauled him and he went crazy and Captain Latham ends
up locking him in the front bedroom here. On page 4 it describes Ethan
the brother, “He was a raving lunatic from then on. Never said another
sensible word in his life, locked up in the front bedroom here. Didn’t do
nothing but mew like a sick cat and claw the walls. You can still see the
scratch marks all around the windows.” Ethan took something from the
sailor that we do not know about until later and the scratches are a key
clue for later in the future of the story many years later. Another reason
this book is considered adventure fiction is because it has other beings.
The characters of Joe, Zena and Manny are really aliens from the game
Interstellar Pig. They have come to earth to get the object that Ethan
took many years ago from the sailor, who really was an alien. Barney the
boy at the beach house thinks that they are neighbors staying next door
who want him to play a game like Monopoly. Page 156 and 166 describe
Zulna a.k.a.,Moyna. “Zulna was less than four feet high, but she was so
big around that she could not get through the cellar door until she
crawled up on the wall and squeezed through sideways. The facet of an
eye glimmered in the faint light. Her huge soft head was slimy with
mucouslike membrane. Thick veins branched across it. She spasmed
and pulsed like an exposed internal organ. The long threads that
undulated around her tentacles made me think of earthworms. The
tentacles themselves were pliant but muscular, their undersides stippled
with suction cups secreting a yellow gluey substance.” The alien
characters did not reveal themselves until much later. Lastly, this novel
fits into the science fiction genre because it includes catastrophes that
are man-made. The game Interstellar Pig is board game. You have cards
with powers and immunity cards etc. The object is to find “The Piggy”
which, (a one-eyed object that has a thirst for knowledge) is what Ethan
took so long ago and which is why the sailor attacked him and he killed
him. The aliens come from all over the universe to play the game and try
to get “The Piggy”. No one really knows what will happen when they get
it however. Barney finally gets “The Piggy” and gets rid of it when he
finds out that when it hiccups it is the equivalent of a 100 megaton
nuclear explosion. He has 33 minutes to do this, while the other evil
aliens are trying to kill him to get “The Piggy”. These are some of the
reasons that I chose the book Interstellar Pig by William Sleator. It was
full of adventure.