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Violanthe
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 Science Fiction v. Fantasy
Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 1:39 pm |
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May the best genre win. No apologies here. This is an out-and-out grudge match between the two biggest headliners in alternative reality fiction. Which is your favorite? And why do you think it's the better genre? Does it make for better stories? Characters? Is it more thought-provoking? More exciting?
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Murray Graham
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Science fiction is better...
Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:45 pm |
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when it is well written. Bad science fiction has the same characteristic as does bad fantasy...waaay too much deus ex machina.
Really, really good science fiction either takes me along for the ride in an extrapolation of a fact based premise. It should leave me with the feeling of "man, that could happen".
Really, really good fantasy is every bit as good as good sciernce fiction, but usually requires a suspension of disbelief (as does all fiction to an extent) of the basic premise (e.g. magic works)
It's a matter of personal taste, but I slightly prefer the faintly possible to the highly unlikely.
Regards,
M. Graham
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DougGogerty
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Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:26 pm |
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I mostly agree with what Murray said. I would just add that I like my stuff somewhat grounded in reality. I don't want to have to suspend my belief too much. Thus, in fantasy you have to build the world completely and it is hard to do well. Too much of the time, they take the established fantasy world of Tolkien for granted. Everyone knows that Elves and Dwarves hate each other!
In Science Fiction, your world is grounded in some sort of real world. If it isn't in some way, then it becomes fantasy... Thus, in SciFi you can take the world building short cuts.
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Shadow_Ferret
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 11:13 am |
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| I can't even remember the last science fiction story I read. Maybe something by Larry Niven back in the 70s. |
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Violanthe
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 11:54 am |
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| Quote: | | Everyone knows that Elves and Dwarves hate each other! |
I thankfully have not read too many fantasy novels, beyond Tolkien, that include elves and dwarves. Only very rarely do writers put an interesting enough spin on the old fantasy races to make it worthwhile to use them.
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Last edited by Violanthe on Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Shadow_Ferret
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:17 pm |
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Fantasy is such a huge field of endeaver. The Tolkein knock-offs are just one small part of it.
There's so much stuff out there that doesn't even have elves or dragons or quests.
And honestly, the first fantasy I ever started had an elf and a dwarf as companions. Never having read the "prerequisite" LOTR and it's kin, I had no idea they weren't supposed to like each other.
I think when I get back to finishing that, I'll leave it as is. It's my world. |
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Violanthe
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Shadow_Ferret
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:37 pm |
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Well, Vio, I've been hanging around here long enough to know you only like to write about "people."
Except for that one work, most of my other fantasy projects don't have elves or fairies or dwarves. Although one does have dragon myths, but there are no live ones in the story. Nor is there even magic in that story. |
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Violanthe
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DougGogerty
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Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:21 pm |
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Yes, but Blade of Tyshalle is a cross-over. It could be labeled as either fantasy or science fiction.
Sometime Fantasy forgets to have real people. They hide behind the witches and warlocks and kings and queens and dragons and heroes etc. Sometimes, they forget about the people who do the work. You can have a kingdom without a truck load of farmers. What are their lives like? This is one of the things I do like about Harry Potter. He is mostly an ordinary kid caught up in an extraordinary world. This type of thing I like and it is much more common in SciFi than Fantasy.
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Violanthe
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