Sci-Fi vs. Fantasy

After talking about one of my favorite sci-fi authors, I remembered one of my pet peeves. I suppose that's a bit strong, as I don't exactly get "peeved" as much as "emotionally itchy." I usually don't scratch that itch, because I'd look pretty nerdy doing so, but with the relative anonymity of the internet as my shield, I will do so now.

Sci-fi and fantasy are not the same thing. Though libraries, bookstores, this website, and the general layperson usually clump the two together, they are rather different. Neither is really a "type" of story, the way that a mystery or romance is, but rather a setting for a story, like a western. You can have examples of both that, aside from setting, could be classified as romance, comedy, horror, adventure, tragedy, mystery, uplifting, or whatever. That being said, poorly written examples of each tend to be very predictable and wanting in originality, but the best examples of each can be incredibly unique pieces of literature. Quite a few novels use the setting as a tool to attempt to address particularly heavy philosophical topics including humanity, religion, reality, equality, social justice, morality, the afterlife, etc. But anyways, enough about how they're similar. How are they different?


Fantasy:
The most well known fantasy is the Lord of the Rings series. Though "fantasy" has been around forever, such as in the Odyssey, Gilgamesh, and Beowolf, the Tolkien series essentially created the modern idea of the genre, and most fantasies written since have pulled heavily from it. This is probably not a good thing, as those fantasy stories tend to be quite formulaic. They often recount the tale of some hero(es) on a fantastical journey from living in obscurity to saving the world. Most of them involve magic, no technology past dark-ages levels, and a host of mythical creatures, including but not limited to elves, dwarves, ogres, trolls, dragons, dire wolves, orcs, unicorns, pegasi, satyrs, and any other "head of one thing, body of another, maybe with wings" sort of creature. This is not to say that all fantasy is some sort of crappy Sword of Shanara-esque ripoff. But a lot of it is. So if you're interested in delving into the genre for the first time, do a little research before you pick up "Wizards of Dragon Rock" off the shelves. If you do, it will probably be your last foray into fantasy.

Sci-Fi:
Fortunately, unlike fantasy, sci-fi started with Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and then was brought to its golden age by 3 major authors, Arthur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein, as well as countless other less famous authors. This helped to create a much more diverse range of plotlines and settings, such that there is much less predictability within the genre. Many stories do take on a sortof fantasy-ish "hero saves the world" type plot (Star Wars being a prime example), but many don't. In terms of its setting, sci-fi is more or less opposite of fantasy, in that there is typically no magic (unless granted by technology or some other psuedo-scientific explanation) and the technology is far beyond current levels. This can include interstellar travel, planetary colonies, biologically integrative weapons and computers, flying cars, immersive computing experiences, artificial gravity, new energy sources, etc. Alien life is sometimes present, and, though often vaguely humanoid, is typically arthropodian, reptilian, or molluscan rather than mammalian, avian, or other (except in low budget sci-fi tv-shows or movies).

Neither or both:
There are a couple of books, authors, and movies which straddle the lines between the two. I'm not talking about vampire books, which are essentially glorified romances. No there are some, like Avatar or The Golden Compass, which embrace aspects of both genres. Like avatar, they can essentially be a sci-fi that gets so immersed into an alien world (or a computer generated world) that it essentially becomes a fantasy. The Matrix is sortof another example of this. Otherwise, like The Golden Compass, a story can be a sortof alternate-reality or alternate-dimension sci-fi, sometimes based off of 18th and 19th century science and technology, a genre which has come to be known as steampunk. Though Jules Verne wasn't intending his novels to be interpreted as such, they now probably fall into this category. Also, dystopian novels like 1984 or Brave New World could be considered alternate reality science fiction, though neither would count as steampunk.

Anyways, I hope that clarified things a little, and if you're interested in reading something in one of the above genres, let me know, and I can give you some suggestions.