posted by shawmachine on Apr 17
I am new to this format. I will start from the start with a question. Why are S.F. and Fantasy always together in the book store?…Anyone?!!
Hard SF
posted by shawmachine on Apr 17
I am new to this format. I will start from the start with a question. Why are S.F. and Fantasy always together in the book store?…Anyone?!!
May 27th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
S. F. and Fantasy books linked together really irks me. Book stores would do all of us a great favor by separating the two types.
September 19th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Could not agree more – I like SOME fantasy, but not a lot, it takes a really good author to grab me in that genre. So when I am searching for sci-fi, I don’t want to have to look at fantasy books as well.
Does anyone else find in a lot of book stores, the fantasy outnumbers sci-fi by at least 2-1?
September 21st, 2009 at 8:58 am
They’re both on the continuum of speculative fiction. They may look very different superficially, but they both posit a vital “what if” around which the world of the book is built. “What if tried to solve our energy crisis by modifying people’s biology so they could live and work in a deep-sea environment to tap geothermal vents” and “What if this mythological creature really existed and interacted with humans” both require similar extrapolation in creation on the author’s part and acts of imaginative response on the readers’ part. The set rules may differ, but the process is similar and seems to frighten away people who can’t handle anything other than “reality as I see it every day.”
Not to mention, there’s always Clarke’s Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
December 21st, 2009 at 12:52 am
Your concerns exactly are the difference between sci-fi, and hard sf. What I mean is: Sci Fy that’s too “fi” melds into the fantasy category, the limit in the other direction is hard sf. I think where on the spectrum you lie depnds on how what youve read has struck you, and some people move within this spectrum one way or the other depending on the mood. In this light I think its actually good that both genres are there. Now as far as the number ratio of hard sci fi to fantasy, I’d say anyone can dream fantasy, but not everyone has the technical know how to do hard sf. Now in saying this, I’ll add that dreaming up a good story line and good narrative is what makes the story entertain and reach the audience in the end. By the way does anyone have a book list. Or some original stories to contribute?