The Application of the "Science Fiction" Label in YA

[CJ]

While I enjoyed the Lunar Chronicles series as a light fun read, I also found that it lacked a lot of substance.

As an avid sci-fi reader, I have mixed feelings about labeling books like Cinder as science fiction. To me, this is pure unadulterated fantasy. The presence of space ships doesn't quite qualify a work as science fiction, personally. There's absolutely no realism to any of the "science" in this series. It definitely does not belong in the same genre as Andy Weir's the Martian, or Robert Heinlein's Stranger's In A Strange Land, or Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game . It's much too elementary even for a YA novel. (The Ender's Game saga is technically YA, and the science is solid).

It chafes me a little for things like this to be branded as science fiction when it's just sci-fi lite at best

What are your thoughts?

Scarlet
Cress
Winter