How do you like your scifi / fantasy

[Micah]

Cheryl wrote: "Iow, almost everything labeled SF is actually fantasy..."

Might as well throw all fiction into fantasy, too: romance, "historical," horror, police procedurals, mystery, westerns.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

We have a thread for debating the exact point when fantasy and science fiction break from each other on the speculative fiction spectrum. I realize some of this was inevitable when we explain what we mean so we've let it go, but the question remains how do YOU like your spec fic?

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Joseph]

Trike wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Well written."

Artesian or wishing?"

budda
boom.

And thanks. Both. It's best to satisfy one's thirst for the magical, don't you think?

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I'm totally down with all kinds of blending. A little science in my fantasy? Sure thing. A little fantasy in my science? Come at me. I like horror-fantasy and mystery-fantasy and all kinds of mixy subgenres. (One of my husand's and my running jokes is talking about "romaxihoredy" (which I believe is a line from MST3k)).

Anyhoo -

The other side of that is that the "hard" options tend to bore me to tears. I'm more about characters I can get into and root for (or against), and a good story, and I don't care about reading a textbook description of science, or pages of rules about magic, or even never-ending descriptions of cities. Or trees. (Yeah, Tolkien, I'm looking at you...)


Side note - thank you Allison, for getting this thread back on track! ^_^

[Barry]

I read both at almost equal rate. I’m pretty open to most sub-genre, as long as they don’t contain too much sappy romance. Also, I tend to stay away from YA stuff. I prefer the MCs to be at least approaching adulthood.

For SF, I usually prefer to read hard SF, though often times the authors tend to get too carried away with the scientific explanation, and forget about the plot (*cough* KSR *cough* Neal Stephenson *cough*). I also like to read thought-provoking SF works like theDispossessed, for example:, that are not hard SF necessarily.

In terms of fantasy, ever since I discover Joe Ambercrombie, I prefer to read “grimdark”. Although, in my definition, grimdark does not necessarily mean lots of gruesome scenes ... just “realistic” portrayal of life and humanity (lots of flawed characters).

I don’t mind if there’s some blurring between SF and Fantasy (though, some would argue it’d be considered as Fantasy, then). For example, I enjoy most of Mievilles works that usually have mixed SF and F elements. As long as there isn’t too much romance. Oh yeah, I also prefer my MCs to be not “dumb”.

[Kateb]

OldSchoolScholar wrote: "I like my fantasy HIGH. Of course, I'm talking about World Building.

High-Fantasy is becoming so watered-down lately. It seems everyone thinks everything is high fantasy. The bar has dropped so lo..."

Just re read this post and loved your comments about older sci fi books and the newer versions. so true!!!

[Chris]

The classics will never die

[Heidi]

When does a work become classic, or does Classic SF necessaily belong to a discrete period the way music is?

[Kirsten]

I prefer space opera and with a dash of adventure. I'm not that fond of sci-fi that is overly heavy with tech and hard science.

[Trike]

Heidi wrote: "When does a work become classic, or does Classic SF necessaily belong to a discrete period the way music is?"

I treat it like cars: if it’s still loved and appreciated 25 years after it was produced, it’s a classic. Bonus points if it was influential.

Speaking of, this is the 20th anniversary of the release of The Matrix (March 31st, 1999). I have no doubt that will be considered a classic 5 years from now.