"Fantasy" no longer a genre in Waterstones?

hitmouse said:
Moorcock started to strut his stuff properly in the late 60s so it is a bit of a stretch to blame recent trends on material half a century old. Also, taking Moorcock’s oeuvre as a whole, as a key new age writer and editor, he was important in SF’s post-golden age re-invigoration.
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The last two decades he;s not written anything new that I've wanted to read.
 
In Singapore, it is hard to find a bookstore that shelve fantasy books. I bought most of my fantasy books online.
 
Any idea why fantasy and science fiction are usually linked together (even this forum)? We don't see any other two genres intertwuned. If anytbing horror would be closer to fantasy than science fiction.

If you think about it, science fiction and fantasy are polar opposites. One deals with the possible, the other with the impossible (or at least highly improbable). Werewolves and vampires are closer to (cor example) Discworld than spaceships and aliens.
 
paranoid marvin said:
Any idea why fantasy and science fiction are usually linked together (even this forum)? We don't see any other two genres intertwuned. If anytbing horror would be closer to fantasy than science fiction.

If you think about it, science fiction and fantasy are polar opposites. One deals with the possible, the other with the impossible (or at least highly improbable). Werewolves and vampires are closer to (cor example) Discworld than spaceships and aliens.
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It’s because there are many examples which could be either, or both.
Examples off the top of my head include the Pern series, and Star Wars
 
I was in Waterstones in Wells earlier this week. Science Fiction submerged in a whole slew of fantasy books in the Science Fiction and Fantasy section. Very disappointed on two counts: lack of decent science fiction books and what I consider a misleading title to the section.
 
Harpo said:
It’s because there are many examples which could be either, or both.
Examples off the top of my head include the Pern series, and Star Wars
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And Star Wars happened a long, long time ago - so does that make it historical? ;)

Star Wars has spaceships, it has aliens, it has other planets, it occurs in another galaxy - it's science fiction.

But I digress. Most stories fit into more than one genre. Many sci-fi stories are horror, most horror is fantasy. An awful lot of romance is set in historical settings, and a lot of historical stories have a healthy dose of romance.

The thing is, we don't clump any of those genres together - it only happens with science fiction and fantasy. And I would argue that the two genres are as different as words and numbers.
 
Serendipity said:
I was in Waterstones in Wells earlier this week. Science Fiction submerged in a whole slew of fantasy books in the Science Fiction and Fantasy section. Very disappointed on two counts: lack of decent science fiction books and what I consider a misleading title to the section.
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I think that it's a common misconception amongst those who have no interest in either genre. An attitude of'it's all make believe, isn't it?' Not considering that most of the stuff they're interested in - whether that's Love Island, the soaps, cop/hospital dramas are just as make believe. In fact even more so, because tjey don't accept themselves for what they are.
 
They’re shelved together because they all fall under the ‘speculative’ ie secondary world bigger genre. And because there is a cross over of readership, by and large.
 
I agree that there is a crossover of readers, but (in my opinion) Terry Pratchett and Tolkien should not share the same shelf-space genre as Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov - they are (literally) worlds apart.

And I do think it is curious that these are the only two genres that we see combined. Of course, what makes it worse is that Waterstones are no longer acknowledging fantasy at all. So in the 'Science Fiction' section of my local Waterstones are 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Conan'.
 
Christine Wheelwright said:
SF and fantasy sharing shelf space may be the least of our problems. Didn't a Harry Potter book win the Hugo Award a few years ago?
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Tbh I have no issue with this. If a book is so enthralling and appealing to as many people as HP is, it deserves as many awards as it can hold.

I don't think it matters how original or well written it is, more a case of bringing enjoyment - and more importantly reading - to a vast audience.
 
I do separate the sections - but not all booksellers are knowledgable enough about two smaller selling genres to do so. Also, there are titles where the genre is not clear - JodiTaylor’sSt Mary’s Chronicles are seen by some as fantasy and others as sci fi - which complicates things further. Add Romantasy into the mix and it’s really not as straightforward as it appears and, frankly, so long as it says sci fi and fantasy, and Asimov is there, why does it matter if Gemmell is too? Different if it says fantasy and sci fi is in there too.
 
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