Okay, some people say they're totally different, others say there is no difference, still others say they both suck anyway, so why the debate? Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Are they the same? Or are they so unrelated that they shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath? Well, i have my own personal convictions, but i would be thrilled if you guys and gals would post your valuable opinions and ideas, because without opinions and debate, where's all the fun? Also feel free to reccomend sci-fi and/or fantasy books that you feel are worth reading. I hope to see lots of posts when i come back!

First off, love the sig...cause I'm Chinese and that's how I live.

Sci-Fi and Fantasy are definitely similar...both are the imagination.
I love 'em both.
I think that there are defintely separate realms with both.
Say, Hickman and Weiss...is totally Fantasy...swords, magic and dragons...
Then something like Zahn which is all mechanical and space
like Orson Scott Card with Ender's Game.

Then there are those that are both...Star Wars is the penultimate example of this...the spaceships and high technology and you add to that the Force...total mix.

So, Valeria I say that there is a difference and there is no difference and they are the same.
How's that for logic? heh heh heh!

Many of these stories are just quests.
whether you have a sci-fi realm or a fantasy realm,
it doesn't matter, sci-fi and fantasy just happens to be a setting.

Does this make any sense??

I think Sci-Fi is to fantasy what squares are to rectangles:

All Sci-Fis are works of fantasy, but all works of fantasy are not necessarily Sci-Fi.

I'm not much into Sci-Fi much beyond "Star Trek is cool!", but I love fantasy books with elves and dwarfs and dragons and such.

I've always been a fan of well, I don't see the distinction much. I mean I don't make a big deal out of it!
I usually did a well stocked section in an average library in a month tops so I'd read whatever they had.
Why do you think I'm on duty in literature for SF and Fantasy? Labor of love.
I do prefer innovative themes and people who use it as a device to explore themes that couldn't happen in reality.

Fantasy to me is epitomized by Tolkien. Never, ever have I read anything to touch him. Fantasy, to me, is a big-sweeping world full of elves, wizards, heroes trying to accomplish an "Impossible" quest. No fantasy I have ever read has come close to the world of Middle Earth. While I like Sci-Fi, it's just a harder edged, futuristic world altogether. It's hard to explain, but C.S. Lewis I think can write both--his Narnia books are pure fantay, but his Space Trilogy is Sci-Fi-to me, anyway. I think they are vastly different genres. Ray Bradbury combines the two genres like no other author I have ever read. I think it is because he has a lyrical way of writing that is not typical of Sci-Fi writers which sets him apart.

I beg to differ Linda.
did you read my previous post on the subject?
ever hear of Star Wars?
that is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy.
the futuristic ships and technology
plus the Force.

I do not think that they are vastly different.
almost every sci-fi and fantasy story
features some kind of quest.
I'd like to see one that doesn't have this requisite.
the only real differences are the settings.

sci-fi is futuristic with incredible technology
and fantasy is a world of magic.

both are imaginitive and share more qualities than you would think.

Consider this. What was E.T.?
sci-fi or fantasy?

Sci-fi is future time while fantasy is past time...all taking place in present time...

I think that for me, fantasy seems to focus on alternative worlds and dimensions and science fiction seems more, well it does that too.
Linda's description of the difference is good, but that's what it's perceived as, but for me, I'd think that Ursula LeGuin was more of a fantasy writer than sf.
I guess Arthur C Clarke is more of a sf writer.
Ray Bradbury, beloved to many of us, would not be in one or the other for me.

What about Dune? (I personally put that on the list of books I've never understood the fuss about, or the reverence though I've probably read them all at one point or another). Does Herbert's work seem like fantasy or SF to you all?

I tend not to read stuff that is clearly one or the other. I read it as a young girl and now I'll choose things that challenge those categories but not something very "SF" or "Fantasy".

Anyone read Cecelia Holland?

I'm not either. I prefer to read something set in the present day. We should all focus on the present day more often!

LordAndry, Yes. I Did read your post--and while I always respect other opinions, I don't feel I should apologize for mine.

The two are more similar to each other than any other booktypes, but I don't think they're necessarily the same, just have a lot of similarities.
For instance, time setting. Fantasy is usually set back a long time ago, or the main characters almost find themselves in a old, wilderness rich kind of world. Science fiction is usually set in the future or places "other than earth."
Of course, some books are really hard to classify, like Enchantress from the Stars, (which I reccomend, by the way,) and such. Hmm... anyone know the author of that? I seem to have forgotten...

Wow!! Fabulous posts you guys!! It's so great to here peoples opinions. I agree with some of you, and I disagree with others. First of all, people keep saying that Fantasy is usually set in the past, but who's to say it's not set in the future? I mean, that's the great thing, it's fiction, you can imagine it wherever or whenever you want! Because no one knows what the future holds. Who knows? In three thousand years the earth could be populated with Elves and Dwarfs and seeing a Magi in the supermarket could be commonplace! I can make statements like this and feel confident that no one can say it's utterly impossible because they have proof of it;no one has proof of what the future will hold! Wow, i'm really rambling on here! Sorry!! Keep the opinions coming guys!

[ 01-25-2002: Message edited by: Valeria ]

Cool deal, Linda.
Just thought you might've missed it.
You know how I am.
Royalty with an ego to match!

Mercedes Lackey wrote "Bedlam's Bard".
it's fantasy in present times.
quite interesting.

I think that Dune is both sci-fi and fantasy.
It has the technology and futurism that defines sci-fi.
Yet it also has the fantasy elements of that genre.
the magic powers of certain people.
A child born with the mind of an adult.
the whole blue eyes thing.

I'd chalk up E.T. as a religious Jesus story.
Being comes to Earth.
preaches peace and performs miracles.
is persecuted and misunderstood.
brings others back to life and is then resurrected.
leaves promising to be back one day.
yeah, I'd say it's got both sci-fi and fantastic elements.

Ah, well-I shall come down from the soapbox and rationally discuss this all. First, I'd like to tell Mysterious_Misty that Enchantress of the Stars was written by Sylvia Louise Engdahl. I remember reading one time how Tolkien won an award for Sci-Fi, and he was really perplexed, because he never considered himself a Sci-Fi writer. While I love Star Wars, which BTW I have All the movies, And the SW Trivia Pursuit ((Dare anyone to say I don't know SW), and ET, too, but they are movies, that we're comparing them with books--in a Book thread-I might add- and how do we compare them with say, Dune, the novel, or other lit? I think Watership Downs was a wonderful fantasy. And I love Xanth-that FL shaped world! Did you know SciFi and Horror are lumped together all the time as the same genre--that I can not understand. That would start a Great thread. And yes, Me Lord, I Do know there are Tons and Tons of Star War spin-off books--but hang it all, I don't like'em!

Yes Linda, I too have noticed that SciFi and Horror are often placed together, which I don't understand either. There are websites that I go too all the time and they'll have a designated place for Fantasy, and then another one for SciFi and Horror. I don't get it at all. And LordAndry,I like your theory on ET. I'd never thought of it that way, but it does make sense. I think it combines SciFi and Fantasy in a way that makes it enjoyable and understandable for people of all ages;i've watched it with my five year old cousin and my eighty-three year old grandmother, and they both loved it!

That's interesting to note.
at my local bookstores
sci-fi and fantasy are lumped together
while horror has its own section.

I think that it's fine.
Brian Lumley writes this series called Necroscope.
which I think is definitely horror.
yet it is in the normal Fiction section...weird.

Ahh yes sci-fi and fantasy. You know all they really are is convenient labels, or were, nowadays the boundaries have becomed blurred so the new label is Speculative Fiction or Alternate Reality. But really who cares, if it's a work of fiction then it's also a fantasy!

I don't think that science fiction are always in the future and fantasy the past. I was looking for a book by R.E.Feist (he writes about elves, dwarves and such) in the fantasy section of a bookstore but could not find it. It was located in the Science Fiction area.

To me, the difference between SF and fantasy is, well---science! In SF, there may be many wonderous, almost-inexplicable gadgets and/or beings, but there seems to be an underlying assumption that science---at least the science of the day and age the story is set in---CAN explain 'em. They're governed by a set of logical, observable, and replicatable universal laws.The characters inside the story expect their world to obey certain scientific laws.

In fantasy, on the other hand, anything CAN happen---magic has no laws.

Therefore, a story about someone who can fly can be a fantasy, if the person drinks a magic potion which allows him to fly---but it's science fiction if he straps on a anti-gravity device. (*grin*)

And yes, I see things like SW as being a blending of the two, although there's some sense that George Lucas was trying to move things more toward the SF side when he introduced the Metachronins or whatever they're called that live inside living things and provide the basis for the Force. (Making it scientifically explainable and testable, rather than simply miraculous.)

I'm not al all certain I've expressed myself clearly---someone argue with me, so I can concentrate my thoughts. (*grin*)

the word you are looking for is 'midichlorians'