What do you think of the sub-genre Science Fantasy?

[P.K.Acredon]

I'm a little embarrassed to say this but my favorite genre is science fantasy. If I explained to you why it was, you would not get it at all. But that's not why I'm making this thread. I'm just curious about what others think about it. If you love it or hate it, please explain honestly. One answer someone gave me is that they think its an extremely messy genre that is not really a genre in the first place.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Well, it depends. I wouldn't say it is my favorite sub-genre, but on the other hand, some of my favorite books over the years have been science fantasy. For instance, C. J. Cherryh's Morgaine series has always been a great favorite of mine. The characters and the worldbuilding and the writing are exceptional.

 

[dask]

I like it. Seems to me it has near unlimited flexibility allowing for almost any kind of imaginative adventure.

 

[Rodders]

Forgive me. I thought Science Fantasy was the same as Space Opera. Have i missed something?

 

[Robert Zwilling]

I only recently heard about this category. Depending on how it is defined it could encompass quite a large territory. Is there an official definition? How does it handle FTL, solitary robots that could think or react like humans, aliens with super powers? Is it assumed they have to be true somewhere, so they are science fiction and not science fantasy?

 

[dask]

Deleted. Don't know what I'm talking about.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Some space opera is science fantasy if it includes things like psi-powers (or the Force). But the sub-genre is much broader than that, and actually it has been around for a long time. Andre Norton's Witch World books (and some of her other books as well) are science fantasy. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books are science fantasy, too. More recently, a lot of steampunk crosses into science fantasy—think of all those airships powered by magical fuel.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say: Science fantasy - Wikipedia

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Science fantasy is something older readers will remember. It was a way of imagining the very far future, and perhaps was influenced by, or even originated in, Arthur C. Clarke's famous quote: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

 

[Pyan]

I've always thought of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series as science fantasy, if that helps.

 

[BAYLOR]

Sci Fantasy ? Examples

The Moon Pool by Abraham Merritt
Bloodstone by Karl Edward Wagner
Morlock Night By K W Jeter
The City of the Singing Flame by Clark Ashton Smith
Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen
Magus Rex by Jack Lovejoy
Tales from the Dying Earth by Jack Vance
The Dancing Gods Series by Jack Chalker
And some books in Warhammer 40 K

I still manage to enjoy them.

 

[Randy M.]

Don't forget Leigh Brackett. As I recall (and I'm far from 100% certain) her and Ray Bradbury's story, "Lorelei of the Red Mist" was science fantasy, as were other stories she wrote. C.L. Moore's Northwest Smith stories probably fit the sub-genre, too.

Randy M.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Tales from the Dying Earth by Jack Vance

One of the best examples!

 

[Vince W]

Books like Samuel Delany's books The Jewels of Aptor and Captives of the Flame are pure science fantasy. It's a sub-genre I generally enjoy as I've read quite a bit of it. It was pointed out on this forum that Dune is actually science fantasy.

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

It's probably my favourite genre - the best of both worlds

The majority of my Moorcock books that were published by Mayflower proudly proclaim them as Science Fantasy on the cover.

All The Tropes sums the genre up nicely:
"Robots and wizards, spaceships and dragons, lasers and fireballs. Mix these ingredients in your cyborg witch's boiling pot of Dark Matter, and you get Science Fantasy."

On reflection I reckon you could class Star Wars as Science Fantasy - Sabres and Space Travel; Magic and Machines, but we have another thread discussing that

Star Wars isn't fantasy

Since there was a suggestion to start a thread about this topic, I thought I would share why I don't Star Wars qualifies as fantasy. First, movies tell visual stories. What a novel would have to explain about, a movie can demonstrate. There is no doubt that Star Wars deals with advanced humans...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Bick]

I think that with the exception of ‘hard SF’, all science fiction is to a certain degree, Science Fantasy. There’s a huge amount of overlap between fantasy and SF - the likes of Vance and Silverberg always straddled the fence. I think it seems like it ought to be quite a distinct genre only because epic fantasy has taken over the fantasy genre - perhaps confusing what fantasy is or can be. In essence, I think there are 3 sub-genres in ‘speculative’ fiction: (1) pure fantasy (predominantly epic fantasy, currently), (2) science fantasy, (3) hard-SF. If it ain’t 1 or 2, it’s science fantasy.

 

[Bick]

Another thought - I think readers care much more what the genre is than the writers!

I recently read two collections of stories, one by Alan Dean Foster and one by Harlan Ellison - both contained SF, fantasy, and mostly science fantasy - if you had to classify the stories. I’m sure ADF and Ellison called them ‘short stories’.

 

[BT Jones]

Slightly off topic (and there's probably a genre clarification thread for this), but does 'science' infer 'future' or 'technology'? After all, a fantasy in the far future, perhaps where humanity has reverted to horse-drawn carts and firewood, would surely just be fantasy, would it not? But put the same events and characters in a steel and concrete city with flying cars, it would be science fantasy.

I'm curious as to the dictionary definition of the genres.

 

[Bick]

I think dictionary definitions are difficult. Put simply I think we can agree the following:

Fantasy - made up stuff we know not to be ‘true’
SF - made up stuff that could possibly be, or become, true, given technological advances or due to imagined changes in our history
Science fantasy - containing elements of both of the above

But those aren’t dictionary definitions, they are Bick definitions thought up on the fly

 

[hitmouse]

I think dictionary definitions are difficult. Put simply I think we can agree the following:

Fantasy - made up stuff we know not to be ‘true’
SF - made up stuff that could possibly be, or become, true, given technological advances or due to imagined changes in our history
Science fantasy - containing elements of both of the above

But those aren’t dictionary definitions, they are Bick definitions thought up on the fly

I’ll buy those definitions, though I am not going to get too hot & bothered if people want to call Book of the New Sun, Cugel the Clever, An Alien Heat, or indeed the Martian Chronicles or City and the Stars, Science Fiction. I’m easy, me and love all those books whatever box anyone wants to put them in.

 

[dask]

Fantasy - made up stuff we know not to be ‘true’
SF - made up stuff that could possibly be, or become, true, given technological advances or due to imagined changes in our history
Science fantasy - containing elements of both of the above

I nominate this for the Hugo Award for something.