Defend Your Favorite -- SF or Fantasy (split off from "Race to 100")

[Hilarious Joke]

That probably aligns with your dislike of Epic Fantasy, Conn.

And I probably like longer series because I love Epic Fantasy.

Different strokes.

 

[Granfalloon]

Hey folks, Sorry to butt in, or whatever, but I asked a question in the original thread, and was apparently ignored. I REFUSE TO BE IGNORED!!! Yes, I'm joking, but I am generally an SF reader. I've read some J.K. Rowling, as well as a fantasy book I quite enjoyed called "The Mists of Avalon." by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Still, I am an SF person, and I would like to know the answer to this question:

Just curious - Is there such a thing as "future fantasy"? (or would that just be another branch of SF?)

 

[Fried Egg]

Just curious - Is there such a thing as "future fantasy"? (or would that just be another branch of SF?)

Well, there's the dying earth sub-genre which is usually thought of as science-fantasy but I think it's generally more fantasy than SF really as the technology is usually depicted as at a lower level than ours and it's set in a time so distant from our own that it bears little resemblance to our current world. I think that it's usually only associated with SF attall because it's set in the future but I don't see why something set in the future has to be SF (anymore than something set in the past has to be fantasy).

 

[Granfalloon]

Thanks for the answer FE. It brings another question to my mind. Would you differentiate between the "Dying Earth" sub-genre, and the "post-apocalyptic" sub-genre (i.e. would Dying Earth be post-"post-apocalyptic"? )

 

[Urien]

Future fantasy? I guess The 'Elf and Safety Stones of Shannara are set in the future... but a future that by the judicious use of nuclear weapons has managed to create Muddle Earth (a close cousin to that which must not be named)... ergo it's just standard (though very popular) fantasy via an imaginative back door.

Gemmell's Jon Shannow books are in a future where the magnetic poles reversed... there is magic there too (jolly good books they are).

I suspect there are others (experts around the forum will know); but as to wizards fighting a Stealth bomber... I don't know.

 

[thepaladin]

Much of the "future placed fiction" would probably be better placed in the fantasy catagory rather than SF. That's part of the discussion realy. Often we can't agree on whether a book ins fantasy or science fiction. There are a lot of "post apocoliptic" novels that can go either way. On the Beach, Alas Babalyon...solidly SF but Dies the Fire or Lamentation would probably fall in the fantasy catagory (particularly the first). I've heard the term "science fantasy" used and that would probably apply to a great many novels today.

 

[Fried Egg]

Thanks for the answer FE. It brings another question to my mind. Would you differentiate between the "Dying Earth" sub-genre, and the "post-apocalyptic" sub-genre (i.e. would Dying Earth be post-"post-apocalyptic"? )

I would say that the difference between "dying earth" and "post apocalyptic" is that in the former, there has been no catastrophy or global disaster. In the latter, it is this major event that causes a sudden decline of civilization whereas in the former, the decline is gradual over many millennia. The decline, not caused by any singular event, is more due to social stagnation and/or the gradual slow death of the sun, or other natural phenomena.

Also, post apocalyptic is usually in the near future, postulating some disaster that science can explain (or at least is rationalised in some way). They often focus on the impact of the sudden environmental change on society and how people must adapt to their new circiumstances. Far less fantastical usually...

 

[Marlon]

...snip...

The reason I asked your age was because the shift from science fiction to fantasy had reached a point where it was noticeable enough that people (professionals in the field and hard-core fans) were discussing it by at least 1989, when my first book was published and I first came to be discussing such things with authors and editors, which means that the drift must have been going on for quite some time byt that point. SF was still selling better, but Fantasy was finally catching up to the point where SF writers were moaning that Fantasy writers were claiming too much of their shelf space.

...snip...

This did affect me. At the time I didn't notice anything other than the decrease in shelf space that the SFF books had at the supermarket. But looking back, I realized that I had gradually shifted to reading F almost exclusively, because that's what was there. LOTR certainly influenced me to include F books in my reading lists, but it was SF that really drew me in and got me to the library every week, along with perusing the local bookshop and supermarket shelves.

A few years back realizing how far my reading had shifted to F, I made a conscious decision to go back to SF. I still love the old ones I read, and have been rereading those as well as filling in some gaps with some of those classic authors. My impression of some of the newer trendy stuff hasn't been so good: Vernor Vinge's Hugo winner -- I gave up on, just couldn't make it through trying to keep track of everything -- too much worldbuilding that made it too fantastic. Charles Stross' Accelerando took me a long time to get through. A lot of interesting ideas but just slow going, and although I can't remember why, I didn't like the ending. I do like most of the work from Greg Bear, David Brin, Jack McDevitt who all tell more traditional tales I guess. I'm also enjoying the stories (and introductions) in The Hard SF Renaissance with mostly stories of the previous decade from it's publish date of 2002.

I'm also trending away from F because of the increasingly seemingly repetitive and lengthy stories. There's something to be said for good concise writing with an end.