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

[Toby Frost]

I find it strange how nobody feels the need to argue that hard SF isn't real SF. I'm sure you could make up some kind of new category for it: "Tech Fiction" or the like, so it would no longer count as science fiction. The need to exclude seems to only go one way.

 

[The Big Peat]

I find it strange how nobody feels the need to argue that hard SF isn't real SF. I'm sure you could make up some kind of new category for it: "Tech Fiction" or the like, so it would no longer count as science fiction. The need to exclude seems to only go one way.

Why would anyone feel the need to?



In any case, Sci-Fan strikes me as a label that potentially covers a huge swathe of popular spec fic but that nobody really wants to use. People seemingly as a whole want to have just Sci-Fi and just Fantasy and go "lah lah lah" about all the crossover stuff. Which in a way makes sense. The people who think of themselves as SFF fans don't hugely need it; the people who see themselves as being predominantly in one genre or the other are often exasperated by people trying to make the genres one. Which does admittedly make life difficult for people who love Sci-Fan more than anything to find what they love, but not that much more difficult.

 

[Lostinspace]

Reading science fiction is often a little like reading a classical detective story. The reader is trying to understand what is going on. Eric S. Raymond wrote a 2002 essay in which he stressed the common jargon of science fiction (For SF Authors - Atomic Rockets or at SF Words and Prototype Worlds ) as giving the clues. However, often the clues require some actual knowledge of science.

If the author mixes in too much fantasy, this style of reading fails and the reader may feel cheated in much the same way as if a writer of a detective story had hidden critical information from the reader.

Of course, this is very much a matter of personal preferences. For example, I liked David Brin’s Sundiver, which is written as a detective story because I worked out what was going on. Most people seem to have disliked that story, possibly because it was very helpful to understand what was going on that I working as a researcher in a field involving optics.

 

[Harun Abu-Qasas]

I think my current WIP could be classified under science fantasy (in addition to superhero fantasy). The intrigue of the occasional sci-fi elements for those too lazy to do the "hard"-style research.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I find it strange how nobody feels the need to argue that hard SF isn't real SF. I'm sure you could make up some kind of new category for it: "Tech Fiction" or the like, so it would no longer count as science fiction. The need to exclude seems to only go one way.

I suppose literary people could conceive of that, how many scientists and engineers would?