I am always intrigued by the debate between science fiction and fantasy fiction. I know many readers who feel science fiction is part of the overall fantasy books genre. At the same time, I know a few hardcore science fiction fans who vehemently oppose this idea. For them, the thought of science fiction and fantasy fiction being similar is quite offensive.
Since I get asked my thoughts on the subject a lot, I felt I would put down my views over here, within the safety of SpookShelf.com as I do not want to get in between passionate and vocal readers with strong opinions on the matter.
Before I get into my personal views, let’s take a look at what most people believe is science fiction and what is fantasy fiction.
What makes something science fiction?
According to me, the following attributes make a story part of the science fiction genre:
- The story is based on either space, time travel or any technology that has not been invented yet.
- The characters in the story are either human, alien or artificial intelligence including robots.
- The main distinguishing feature of science fiction is that whatever the story depicts, is possible someday. It is not completely make-believe. Someday human beings could have the ability to travel through space, through time, meet aliens or invent technologies considered not possible at the current moment.
What makes something fantasy fiction?
For me, a book is part of the fantasy fiction genre, when it has the following characteristics:
- Apart from regular human beings, there are also other characters in the story that have superhuman abilities or are mythical in nature. They are creatures of our imagination. This could include witches, wizards, ghosts, trolls, dragons, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters and a whole lot more. Fantasy fiction has a plethora of magical creatures which is part of its charm.
- The story in a fantasy fiction can take place either on Earth or some completely alternate fictional universe such as fantasy worlds like that in Lord Of The Rings. Wherever maybe the location of the story, it would include some magical or supernatural elements to it.
- The most important aspect of fantasy fiction is that the story is completely a part of our fantasy or creativity. Elements in the story can never be real. It will always remain a fragment of our imagination.
Given what goes into science fiction and fantasy fiction stories, I had always seen the two genres as different. They may deal with something that does not exist at the moment, yet they are quite distinctive in their scope. So growing up, I did not feel science fiction was part of the overall fantasy fiction universe.
However, my views have changed slightly lately. I do say slightly and that is because most science fiction is very much just science fiction. Some though, have definitely crossed over towards the fantasy realm.
They may have elements of technology, space, AI, but they also have started to include some facets of fantasy as well. For example, many of the science fiction stories I read nowadays, have people who have telekinesis powers. Some can see through time, see the future or past. Some use invisible forces or elements of nature similar to what a witch, wizard, warlock or mage would do.
Also as far as I am concerned, any story that talks about a prophecy, some ‘chosen one’ or something similar, is always fantasy fiction. Mind you my views on the prophecies, legends and chosen ones probably need several articles to explain and I do not think highly of them.
So that is my opinion on the subject matter. Science fiction has traditionally been different from fantasy fiction and the two genres are not part of each other. However, things have changed over the years and too many science fiction authors are borrowing fantasy elements in a subtle manner but refusing to accept that they have blended up the two genres.
