Poll: Fantasy or Scifi?

[Starik20X6]

I have periods where I adore Sci Fi, but the period where I adore High Fantasy (aka Lord of the Rings, Zelda etc.) is all the time.

 

[Roxor]

Science Fiction for me. I like exploring worlds.

TV Tropes said something pretty interesting about how the two are different: Science Fiction plays to hope, while Fantasy plays to yearning.

With Science Fiction, it's about how things play out because of some introduced factor the author wants to explore (usually some kind of technology). It leaves you hoping that we'll turn out like that for the good outcomes, or hoping we've been shown how not to handle it via the bad ones.

With Fantasy, it's all "Oh, I wish the world was still like this". While it is true that not all Fantasy is set in the past, a large chunk of it is, and the examples which aren't still carry the feeling of longing for a different era.

 

[Thommo]

I never said there was anything inherently wrong with sci-fi. If you like sci-fi, good for you. Have fun. Enjoy yourself. Send a postcard from space, even. I was just explaining why *I* didn't like it. Personal opinion =/= objective statements.

its just your reasons for disliking it seem quite....odd...not wrong, just odd

hence why your geting alot of argument over it

Doesn't speak well of the forum's tolerance for the harmlessly unusual, then.

Perhaps it was your use of generalizations that caused these debates. I know you have already made your point on this matter in another post but i am sure you understand that generalizations tend to make make people feel shunned. By you saying "Sci-fi is all optimistic" you can accidentally make the people who like Sci-fi feel discriminated against; I know this is what it felt like to me. I am sure you never had such intentions but these things happen. It is for this very reason I try and avoid generalizations, though every now and again they slip through.

Edit: I have revised my earlier thought about fantasy thanks to another poster mentioning the diskworld novels...they are pure genius

 

[Thaluikhain]

I've always seen sci-fi as an offshoot of fantasy. Fantasy is a very broad genre after all, and it pretty much covers anything that has something unreal in it as a driving force. Sci-fi is the same, except in SPEHS.

Science fiction came first, though.

But nowdays, mostly sci-fi is fantasy, but with spaceships.

Only less awesome that Spelljammer, which went in the obvious direction with that idea.

 

[Darken12]

Perhaps it was your use of generalizations that caused these debates. I know you have already made your point on this matter in another post but i am sure you understand that generalizations tend to make make people feel shunned. By you saying "Sci-fi is all optimistic" you can accidentally make the people who like Sci-fi feel discriminated against; I know this is what it felt like to me. I am sure you never had such intentions but these things happen. It is for this very reason I try and avoid generalizations, though every now and again they slip through.

You know, there's just no winning with people. You write excruciatingly detailed reasoning why you think something is one way or another, and they're either ignored because TL;DR or painstakingly taken apart by nitpickers who dislike your opinions. So you summarise everything in a single, neat paragraph for everyone's convenience, and you get accused of broad generalisations. Dislikers gonna dislike, I guess, and there's no way to avoid that no matter what you do.

 

[Galletea]

When it comes down to it, they're not that far removed from each other at all. I couldn't really split them, but I suppose the fantasy I've read was more enjoyable than the sci fi, but only really because the settings are easier to picture, being mostly based upon medieval history and the characters are often more believable, for me.

I generally prefer modern fiction (or possibly post-modern, I don't pay much attention to genre) or a good classic thriller.
Although Sci fi and Fantasy are genres I would like to read more of, it is a pain trying to sift through the shit to find the gems. I own a few older sci fi, but the whimsy of Douglas Adams just doesn't do it for me, and so many have copied his style.

 

[sageoftruth]

I have been a fantasy fan for a long time, but it has started to become a bit formulaic, so I'm gravitating towards sci fi. As someone on the Escapist once said, Fantasy is too often drawn towards the Tolkien fantasy model. I'm hoping science fiction will be more speculative, and less homogenized.

Are there any science fiction cliches that get overused?

 

[Raikas]

Why do I have to choose? Can't I enjoy both?

This. As long as they're decently written either setting works for me.

Fantasy became boring to me in my late teens. It was getting to ridiculously arbitrary. You'd have writers pulling rules out of their asses which were completely new, unpredictable, and ultimately convenient to the plot - and then forget they ever existed two books later.

At least with Sci-Fi, the rules of the Universe are based on reality. They are semi-predictable, or if the writer is any sort of good, consistent with previously shown rules.

To be fair, there is fantasy that sets up rules for the universe - maybe not so much in high fantasy (although there are some of them), but it's not uncommon in Urban Fantasy (like Megan Lindholm's Wizard of the Pidgeons) or Futuristic Fantasy (like CS Friedman's Coldfire series).

 

[Lynx]

Well, let's see... Harry Potter, Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods and The Dresden Files are all at the top of my favorites list. So... fantasy. I'll always choose magic and supernaturality.

 

[Thommo]

Perhaps it was your use of generalizations that caused these debates. I know you have already made your point on this matter in another post but i am sure you understand that generalizations tend to make make people feel shunned. By you saying "Sci-fi is all optimistic" you can accidentally make the people who like Sci-fi feel discriminated against; I know this is what it felt like to me. I am sure you never had such intentions but these things happen. It is for this very reason I try and avoid generalizations, though every now and again they slip through.

You know, there's just no winning with people. You write excruciatingly detailed reasoning why you think something is one way or another, and they're either ignored because TL;DR or painstakingly taken apart by nitpickers who dislike your opinions. So you summarise everything in a single, neat paragraph for everyone's convenience, and you get accused of broad generalisations. Dislikers gonna dislike, I guess, and there's no way to avoid that no matter what you do.

Yeah well thats people for you

 

[Julius Terrell]

Fantasy because it allows for a much greater range of story ideas. Plus i love when magic is part of the equation. It's amazing how many different magic systems authors can come up. The Wheel of Time is the perfect example of how fantasy should be done. I want to boldy go where no one has gone before.

 

[infohippie]

Sci-fi.

But there's more to it than that, you need to distinguish between soft science fiction and hard science fiction.

Soft sci-fi would be Star Wars. The technology is there, everyone uses it but it's not part of the plot. So there is usually no explanation as to how anything works, but there is also not any need for any explanation; we just happily join the universe and explore as we watch it. A lightsaber? Yeah cool

Hard sci-fi would be Star Trek. The technology is often very central to the plot and technology is around every corner of every episode acts.

Both have pro's and con's but honestly I prefer soft sci-hi. Battlestar Galactica (2004 series), X-Files, Homeworld and most of the Stargate franchise are my favorites

This might be a little late, and someone may have already pointed this out, but I have to comment on this. Star Trek is most assuredly soft sci fi, just as much as Star Wars. Soft sci fi is characterised by routine violation of the laws of physics as we currently understand them, regardless of how it is explained in-universe. Faster than light travel, transporters, and all the other technobabble of Star Trek is what makes it "soft".

Hard sci fi adheres completely or almost completely to our current scientific understanding. Examples of hard sci fi would include Rendezvous with Rama, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series.

 

[Thaluikhain]

This might be a little late, and someone may have already pointed this out, but I have to comment on this. Star Trek is most assuredly soft sci fi, just as much as Star Wars. Soft sci fi is characterised by routine violation of the laws of physics as we currently understand them, regardless of how it is explained in-universe. Faster than light travel, transporters, and all the other technobabble of Star Trek is what makes it "soft".

Hard sci fi adheres completely or almost completely to our current scientific understanding. Examples of hard sci fi would include Rendezvous with Rama, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series.

I'm not so sure. Anything to do with the aliens in 2001 might as well have been magic. The human stuff was very hard, though.

 

[Frankster]

Sci fi by far.

Fantasy has its strong points but ive experiend more varied situations and stories that made me think hard with sci fi rather then with fantasy.

 

[Ickorus]

I like both, I generally have a stronger preference towards low fantasy though, particularly when it straddles the line between the two.

 

[DoPo]

Which one do you like better?

Urban Fantasy.

There's nothing more awesome than a Wizard in a leather trench coat and fedora riding a reanimated Tyrannosaurus through downtown Chicago. Nothing.

Sorry, but I consider the fact that there was also a one man polka ensemble there to be more awesome than just the wizard and the dinosaur. Also, that's not even as awesome as this part

There was a sound of impact, a raspy, dry scream, and the vampire went down hard. It lay on the ground like a butterfly pinned to a card, arms and legs thrashing uselessly. Its chest and collarbone had been crushed. By an entire frozen turkey. A twenty-pounder. The plucked bird must have fallen from an airplane overhead, doubtlessly manipulated by the curse. By the time it got to the ground, the turkey had already reached its terminal velocity, and was still hard as a brick. The drumsticks poked up above the vampire's crushed chest, their ends wrapped in red tinfoil. The vampire gasped and writhed a little more. The timer popped out of the turkey. Everyone stopped to blink at that for a second. I mean, come on. Impaled by a guided frozen turkey missile. Even by the standards of the quasi-immortal creatures of the night, that ain't something you see twice. "For my next trick," I panted into the startled silence, "anvils."