Quote:
Originally Posted by ownedbycats
Sometimes the other way around too.
Also, I dislike how often science fiction, fantasy, and horror all tend to end up grouped together. yes, they're all speculative fiction, but if I want to read one type I don't want to have my results cluttered up with the others.
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Yes, and sometimes horror and fantasy together, and you can have horror with no more fantasy than any detective, romance or western.
Also loads of Fantasy fans have no interest in Horror.
But there is a spectrum of SF & F. Some SF has only a few or one fantasy elements (real hard SF with no fantasy at all is rare). There is Dune, which is very like Fantasy. Earlier Pern books only SF by virtue of the Prologue. Then there is Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality series, practically the original SF + Psychic powers.
Space Opera going back to the origin with 1928 EE "Doc" Smith (Skylark uses Iron as fuel and he certainly knew it was the most impossible fuel! An "in" joke?) and 1930s movie shorts Flash Gordon as much Fantasy as SF. See also Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Capek's RUR and Lucien's true history.
It's easier to find Fantasy with no SF or Horror elements than SF without Fantasy, though loads of SF has no actual magic or psychic powers. But much fantasy in SF is "magic by another name" (see TV Tropes). Is the original Alien Movie SF or Horror? It's really horror in an SF setting. Dark Star is comedy with a largely SF setting.
The Morgaine Cycle by C. J. Cherryh are very like Portal Fantasy, but like Pern have an SF element.
Eddings sticks in an SF element in one of his novels (maybe one of the Elenium), but otherwise they very traditional fantasy.
Fantasy might have no magic. In SF magic is usually called psychic powers, or there is impossible nanotech, or impossible AI. Of course each author having star travel has three options:
1) A Generation ship. "Hard SF"
2) A ship with hibernation (actual cryogenic is fantasy, but hibernation/coma is real).
3) Handwavium FTL, either by really going faster and ignoring relativity, or a sciency version of fantasy portals (worm hole is fantasy variation that would destroy any real structure), or skipping to an alternate kind of space for a short cut.
1 & 2 are not popular as you can't have the space equivalent of 16th to 19th C Earth travel and exploration, at least not easily with the same characters for a series.
Have as few unlikely handwavium as possible in the SF if you want it very SF and not like Pern, Dune, Starwars, or Star Trek (one of the worst for inherently fantasy elements, not even consistently done), see Simak's Waystation for a possible inspiration of the Transporter (in it it's practically the single fantasy element and a maguffin to make the story possible.