Sci-Fi/Fantasy

[ownedbycats]

Am I the only one who occasionally gets annoyed when they're grouped together?

I like sci-fi. I like fantasy. But I'm usually looking for one or the other.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Am I the only one who occasionally gets annoyed when they're grouped together?

I like sci-fi. I like fantasy. But I'm usually looking for one or the other.

I wish they'd separate them too. I love sci-fi and hate fantasy (with a few exceptions, like LOTR and WOO).

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Am I the only one who occasionally gets annoyed when they're grouped together?

I like sci-fi. I like fantasy. But I'm usually looking for one or the other.

Oh yea, it is my pet hate!!

Walk into a bookstore to the Sci-fi section which, in fact, is predominately Fantasy.

The two bookstores closest to me have tiny, tiny scifi/fantasy section and out of that section, I estimate the scifi is about 10% of the section. The rest of the books are big fat volumes of fantasy.

[Luffy]

I like Fantasy, but not sci-fi.

[Martinoptic]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I wish they'd separate them too. I love sci-fi and hate fantasy (with a few exceptions, like LOTR and WOO).

What is WOO? I like 50s and 60s sci-fi and some fantasy - Guy Gabriel Kay and Stephen Donaldson, and some but not all JRR Tolkien.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Oh yea, it is my pet hate!!

Walk into a bookstore to the Sci-fi section which, in fact, is predominately Fantasy.

The two bookstores closest to me have tiny, tiny scifi/fantasy section and out of that section, I estimate the scifi is about 10% of the section. The rest of the books are big fat volumes of fantasy.

THIS. SO. MUCH. THIS

[gmw]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Am I the only one who occasionally gets annoyed when they're grouped together?

I like sci-fi. I like fantasy. But I'm usually looking for one or the other.

Doesn't usually worry me much because so much science fiction is really fantasy anyway - according to my tastes. (Edited to add: It always seemed to me that a light-sabre was just another name for "magic sword". I'm fine with that, just don't try to glorify it as "science". And warp speed is just a magical way of getting somewhere quickly. And in one episode of Dr Who, Dr Who himself admits: "I didn't want to say magic door.")

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by gmw

Doesn't usually worry me much because so much science fiction is really fantasy anyway - according to my tastes. (Edited to add: It always seemed to me that a light-sabre was just another name for "magic sword". I'm fine with that, just don't try to glorify it as "science". And warp speed is just a magical way of getting somewhere quickly. And in one episode of Dr Who, Dr Who himself admits: "I didn't want to say magic door.")

This is the way I look at it as well.

[Sirtel]

I read both and am perfectly ok with them grouped together. But I would be ok with them separated too. I just don't care one way or the other.

[jhowell]

I have always been fine with both together since I enjoy both genres.

How about relabeling the shelf Speculative Fiction.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I have always been fine with both together since I enjoy both genres.

How about relabeling the shelf Speculative Fiction.

Because there are pretty set differences in the two. I'm about to dash to work and can't delve into the details but the two are unique.

I think they should be their own sections, I'd add Horror to this list though that tends to get squashed into Fiction in my experience.

[ZodWallop]

Separating sci-fi and fantasy is a fool's errand. There are just too many edge cases.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Walk into a bookstore to the Sci-fi section which, in fact, is predominately Fantasy.

...I estimate the scifi is about 10% of the section. The rest of the books are big fat volumes of fantasy.

I think it's because fantasy is easier to write than sci-fi (at least the hard sci-fi I believe you are thinking of).

[haertig]

That would be like trying to separate Action/Adventure or Crime/Mystery or Thriller/Suspense. I can separate these things in MY mind, but chances are slim that my separations would match the separations of anyone else here.

[hildea]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I read both and am perfectly ok with them grouped together. But I would be ok with them separated too. I just don't care one way or the other.

Originally Posted by jhowell

I have always been fine with both together since I enjoy both genres.

How about relabeling the shelf Speculative Fiction.

I agree with both of these, with a slight preference for having them together under a common name. There are lots of books which would be tricky to place if you had to pick either fantasy or SF, like:

• Charlie Jane Anders "All the Birds in the Sky", with a witch and a mad scientist as protagonists
• Steam punk book like Westerfeld's "Leviathan" series, which has no magic at all, but weird science that wouldn't work in the real world (the science is about as realistic as the science in "Frankestein")
• Books which take place in another world, but with no magic, like Brennan's "Lady Trent" series (with a Charles Darwin type protagonist in an alternative world where dragons exist, but are unmagical animals), or Kushner's "Tremontaine" books (swashbuckling books in another world)

In another thread I've argued for micro genres. I'm all for adding specific labels/tags to books when those tags can be in addition to sorting in more well known genres. In online book stores and book databases like Storygraph and Goodreads, adding both micro and macro genres helps more people find books they'd like. In a physical book store or library, splitting books up on too many different shelves make it harder for people to find books which straddle genres.