Preference: Fantasy or Scifi?

[Thadlerian]

Fantasy or Science Fiction?

I would have to answer Science Fiction., as I have an interest in political and social matters, and I believe this genre tends to adress such terms to a greater extent than Fantasy. The latter may also hold parallels to our modern world (like Discworld), but I have yet to read any Fantasy novel that exists solely to explore a single idea or set of ideas, like Nineteen Eighty-Four, rather than a story about characters.

Also, ironically, my imagination feels more constricted in Fantasy, as it is forced to take into account page up and down of descriptions, portrayals, maps and so on, while some Science Fiction novels may just give you the names of the characters, certain accounts about themes, objects and settings, and that's all.

As for rules, I don't really mind irregularities when it comes to the physical laws. Though if the laws of the setting differ noticeably from reality, it had better have a good reason.
The rules that matter for me are human rules. Like, believeable personality traits, or plausible reactions to things that happen to the characters. You should ideally be able to push a character straight into reality (after teaching him/her some basics about contemporary life and culture), and he/she would be indistinguishable from ordinary people.

Of course, let me hastily add that now I've jumped off the S.F. vs. Fantasy question, as these rules tend to be followed (and usually broken) quite equally in the genres.

 

[stencyl]

If there is any kind of hard line, I'd put it at the point where an idea can be seen as possible as it is explained. We can't jack into cyberspace right now... but rudimentary brain-computer interfaces are being developed.

Great point. Agreed.

If you stick to the rules then your not using your imagination and your tying yourself down to 'boring'. I'm glad there aren't strict rules to fantasy, so it's not the same old boring story over and over just written in the same way.

I guess that I was reacting to the implication that science fiction is repetative and limited by those laws to the point of boring prose. I think that there is plenty of room for the fantasic in metaphysical creative spaces like cyberspace that can be and are employed by science fiction writers. I also think that there is enough room within the laws of nature or the universe to speculate beyond or current understanding and still operate in the realm of the plausible.

But many fantasy novels do break the laws, if only in special cases, and make those exceptions major parts of the story.

It is the cases where they aren't explained, at least internally, that I think make for unearned moments in fiction or film. I guess that I can live with the Force in Star Wars because it is explained in terms of religion. It's no more foreign to me than the Asian concepts of Chi or Ki. I can live with Neo learning Kung Fu in seconds or stopping bullets in the Matrix because of the context I am given.

It's that idea that fantasy is a free-for-all because it isn't burdened with the laws of the universe that I don't agree with. Nor do I agree that fantasy allows a writer to just change the rules as they go.

First off, I can't imagine a science fiction novelist stumped in his or her great novel because of those "darn laws of physics." And second, changing the rules as you go doesn't make you a fantasy writer. It makes you a bad writer with a lot of things left unexplained, a lot of unresolved contradictions and a lot of unearned moments.

 

[Setzertrancer]

This is a difficult question for me because it depends.
I prefur to read fantasy , but I prefur to watch scifi

 

[Ash]

Science Fiction.

I like both, but if I pull a random SF book and a random fantasy book off the shelf chances are I prefer the SF.

That said if someone hands me a fantastic new Fantasy novel, I'll like it just as much as I'd like a fantastic new SF novel.

 

[Brys]

Fantasy - I started reading it more recently, and ironically, SF seems to be slightly closer to its stereotype than fantasy. I've read a couple of amazing authors in SF - Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov particularly, but they aren't as good as the better fantasy authors IMO. There also seems to be a much wider range of fantasy than science fiction, as fantasy has around 10 different sub-genres, all of which are pretty unique, but science fiction only has a few. More importantly, with science fiction, by its very nature of having some kind of plausibility to it, has to seem predictable to an extent (not in plot, but in world), whereas fantasy isn't bound by these constraints - for example, I haven't seen anything like the kind of imagination shown by Mieville in SF. That said, I haven't read much SF, so I can't criticise it much. I still prefer Science fiction to most other fiction, but I just prefer fantasy slightly more.

 

[littlemissattitude]

I'd like to echo what's been said about internal consistency. I don't find any kind of story, in any genre, it it isn't consistent internally. So, there are rules that have to be adhered to within any story that will hold my attention. As far as I'm concerned, if the rules within a story can break down to the point where anything can happen, in 99 percent of the cases, it's a sign that the writer is cheating because he or she couldn't figure out a way for what he or she wanted to happen by adhering to the rules set up for that story. That applies to any kind of novel, not just fantasy or science fiction. I recently read a mystery in which the killer ended up being the brother of the person the story had set up as the probable perpetrator. While I liked the story in general, I felt cheated when the real killer was a character that had only appeared in something like one scene half-way through the book. It was very frustrating for me as a reader.

Anyway, I don't honestly think that science fiction is as bound to the known laws of the universe as some people suppose. Extrapolations can be made in which the known laws of physics in the universe are found to be not exactly what they seem. I think this is completely permissible within science fiction because as much as some scientists try to make people think that they know exactly how the universe works, there is still a lot that we don't understand and some of what appears to be settled law, physically speaking, might well not be so settled and understood after all. Is that where science fiction and fantasy can blur? Maybe.

 

[cyborg_cinema]

some days I'm in an apple mood, and some days I'm in an orange mood.

 

[Leto]

although I do indulge into some fantasy novel (Cook, Pratchett, Lieber, Zelazny and a few others) I'm more a sci-fi kind of girl. Or the science fantasy trend (Tim Powers, Storm Constantine).

 

[Teir]

Although i don't mind the rare Scifi evenin, I'm definitely a fantasy girl through and through

 

[Salazar]

Sci-fi or Fantasy? The big question.

I like sci-fi in movies more than fantasy ones but I do find fantasy more instresting over all.
So my votes with Fantasy

 

[kyektulu]

You read my mind Salazar I love fantasy books there is no contest there but there is something about a good sci fi movie isnt there...

 

[BINKY]

I tend to read more fantasy than anything else...................I like all the fact that you can lose yourself in a world of things that can never happen in the real world.

 

[sanityassassin]

fantasy in books although when i was younger i prefered scifi. In films id have to say scifi because a lot of the fantasy films were better in my head than in visulisation

 

[BINKY]

Gotta agree with ya in that one...............fantasy films really don't come off very well, they always end up looking really cheesy!

 

[Arkangel]

I prefer SF, fantasy to is great but for some reason falls short. Writing fantasy is a tough job, people already know what to expect. Magic and castle. A shiny knight and all sorts of demons. The only way you can write one is to build good characters and a nice plot. I am stuck in the first chapter of my fantasy story for a few months now.

A SF is something new. You can bring in new sets of ideas but it all depends on how you present it. Though i love SF. I choose to write fantasy. I have no idea why. but the story just poped into my head. And i am stuck in chapter 1.

 

[Rane Longfox]

I prefer fantasy, but I read more sci-fi. I know I'm wierd

 

[Thadlerian]

My real reasons for preferring Science Fiction are of course these:

1. Central heating.
2. Water closets.

 

[Allanon]

for me it has to be fantasy, its more exciting. people may disagree, but i feel that you can do more with fantasy, you can create a lot more creatures and beings.

 

[Tim Bond]

My real reasons for preferring Science Fiction are of course these:

1. Central heating.
2. Water closets.

Ditto...heh

I read them (phantasy and sci-fi) pretty equally.
I prefer the veiw into the future though sci-fi provides.

I get very particular about sci-fi and
prefer some feasible hard science to it.

For fantasy my tastes get less finicky and I will eat up even
Dragonlance novels and call it all good.

 

[Milena]

For me, SF is the ultimate 'what if' writing that has been used to question reality ever since Verne. It has often been subversive, a way to question the 'authorities' (in russi during the cold war). There was a whole raft of feminist SF in the 70s - a bit dated now, the 50's US paranoia strand (the 'alien commies' are invading) the cyberpunk revolution - fantasy can be great, but SF seesm to be able to go futher. When it isn't being garbage of course