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Science Fiction Fantasy is objectively better than Medieval Fantasy

M

micrometers

Diamond Member
I am a sci-fi fantasy fan. I am not so much of a straight up fantasy fan. Do you know why? Space ships.

The cool thing about space ships is that you get a really good view of the cruisers and battleships. You get to see the top and bottom of them all around. in contrast to reality, where you can really only see the top of a naval ship, this is more interesting.

Also, space ships are sort of a home base that the hero goes back to in every adventure. The outside world changes, but inside the space ship there is a nice constant. This is most evident in a show like Firefly.

Fantasy doesn't have space ships. The heroes don't get to have a constant home setting, but have to go from strange inn to strange inn, or strange cave to strange cave.

Also, explanations of powers are more interesting in sci-fi, as while they aren't realistic, they often have glimmers of physics in them. Fantasy OTOH relies on ignorance for explanations of magic as "just because."
 
I only refer to it as science fiction (and never really see it called sci fi fantasy) as it is completely different than the genre known as "fantasy".

I love science fiction and can never get into any fantasy for I guess the reasons you listed and more. While science fiction is obviously fantastical in the sense that many if not all of the elements in the story are made up, everything usually strives to have a solid basis in reality. Yes there are spaceships, but they work on true to life physics. While not real, the authors do try to make it plausible. The science fiction story is a platform in which to dream the future.

The fantasy genre on the other hand is just that. It may have some basis in reality, but the fantasy story will have some sort of person/place/thing in it that doesn't and never could exist. It is not coming up with ideas on what the reality of tomorrow may look like, but rather creating a completely fanciful reality that simply isn't possible.

I realize there are plenty of people out there that like fantasy (and lots of them that don't like sci fi), it's just not my cup of tea. My wife devours the stuff and she rolls her eyes at me when I have a book with a picture of a spaceship on the front. I just wish the bookstores would treat them as the separate genre's that they are. When I'm searching Amazon or any other place for sci fi books, I'm not looking for anything with magic or orcs in it.
 
Both the same, fantastical weapons of every imaginable nature and every one of them a proxy for a big schlonk.
 
Scifi gets even better when you realize that George RR Martin primarily writes fantasy. So us scifi readers will never start reading a great series which likely never be finished.....
 
Both are largely worthless, but cyberpunk being on the more conservative side of sci-fi is acceptable, so I suppose I can agree with the op.

EDIT: But outer space sucks. srsly.
 
HamburgerBoy said:
Both are largely worthless, but cyberpunk being on the more conservative side of sci-fi is acceptable, so I suppose I can agree with the op.

EDIT: But outer space sucks. srsly.
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Outer space is way cool. Like, in farscape it was a cool plot device how they visited a different planet every episode.

my point is that the various tropes of sci fi allow for more interesting story-telling and more varied and diverse locations.
 
In sci-fi you get to teleport or space-travel to different planets, which may include a desert planet, a jungle planet, an ice planet, a lava planet, etc. In fantasy you get to teleport or horse-ride to different realms, which may include a desert realm, a jungle realm, an ice realm, a lava realm, etc.
 
Newbian said:
Plus with aliens you are more likely to run into a race with more then 2 boobs on the females. 😛
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Who needs more than 2 boobs when you have Eva Green?

eva-green-camelot.jpg
 
zinfamous said:
no it isn't.
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not sure what point you are trying to make here. adding "fantasy" to sci-fi is redundant because sci-fi is already "fiction" even if highly plausible, unless the word "fantasy" is meant to denote the rank of plausibility, in which case it should just be "soft" sci-fi. or maybe the OP was referring to works that combine both sci-fi and fantasy? those are a rarity though and didn't seem to be what the OP was talking about.
 
dighn said:
not sure what point you are trying to make here. adding "fantasy" to sci-fi is redundant because sci-fi is already "fiction" even if highly plausible, unless the word "fantasy" is meant to denote the rank of plausibility, in which case it should just be "soft" sci-fi. or maybe the OP was referring to works that combine both sci-fi and fantasy? those are a rarity though and didn't seem to be what the OP was talking about.
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there is a very clear distinction, often unrealized because much of what is fantasy is incorrectly labeled as sci fi.

star wars is not sci fi. it is fantasy, for example.

Good sci-fi, real sci fi, deals with what is inherently possible. The best of it happens within the near, indistinguishable future--or even present day.

Fantasy is purely impossible.

Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Sci Fi/Fantasy are rather independent of each other.

"fiction" does not assume "impossible." It never has.

Not surprisingly, "Sci Fi" barely exists today.
 
The Dragon Knight series by Gordon R. Dickson also fit the Sci-Fi Fantasy genre as does the Crystal Singer series by Anne McCaffrey in the Petaybee universe. The Dune series probably fits as well.
 
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