National Science Fiction Day

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by cromag

I like both genres, too, but I like to keep the stories separate. I don't want witches on my spaceships. It does require some vigilance when purchasing.

Yea, generally speaking, but I actually like Glynn Stewart's Jump Mage series.

I would argue that the psi powers used by SF writers from the 30's to the 50's, including such names as Asimov, Doc Smith, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, and McCaffery were the functional equivalent of witches. A number of classic SF books used psi powers.

[crane3]

I can see it would be difficult to classify "The Witches of Karres" by James Schmitz. The book has both spaceships & witches.....

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by crane3

I can see it would be difficult to classify "The Witches of Karres" by James Schmitz. The book has both spaceships & witches.....

So have others. eg the Liaden books.


http://www.faqs.org/faqs/sf/written-faq/

8. What is the difference between science fiction and fantasy?

See Q#7.

This also has been done to death. Virtually every answer you give will
fail to clearly indicate which category a large number of books belong
to. Familiar books mentioned that test the boundary conditions include
Anne McCaffrey's "Dragon" series, Piers Anthony's "Apprentice Adept"
series, STAR WARS, and anything that uses FTL. The most concise
definition I've heard was given by John Clute in a radio broadcast 22
March 1997: " "Science fiction: the model is that it is a kind of story
which argues from this world a kind of possible outcome. It's possibly
an improbable outcome, but it is arguable. Fantasy essentially, as I
have been seeing it, is a series of stories, self-coherent stories (a
term we use, kind of a bad neologism to describe stories which as [it]
were understand themselves as stories; they're told stories), that are
set in worlds that are technically impossible, that we can't argue. We
may believe in them, but we can't argue them."
===

[Pajamaman]

I can't seem to find much contemporary SF I like. The only two living authors I like are Robert Charles Wilson and Christopher Priest, and they'rennot young

[Thasaidon]

Nice to see a discussion in which "SF" is being used to mean Science fiction and not "SciFi" or "Speculative Fiction", which are abominations unto the Lord and the invention of the devil.

Grump on: grumble, grumble, neofans, grumble, snobbish bloody critics, grumble, Frederick Raphael, grumble grumble : Grump Off

[Pulpmeister]

Asimov wrote fantasy himself; and he was a fan of LOTR. He enjoyed Star Wars, which he seems to have considered to be fantasy, and fun; but disparaged Close Encounters because he thought the science was ludicrous.

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

Asimov wrote fantasy himself; and he was a fan of LOTR. He enjoyed Star Wars, which he seems to have considered to be fantasy, and fun; but disparaged Close Encounters because he thought the science was ludicrous.

For me, it's not Fantasy I object to per se, but the increasing assumption that the two genres are in fact one. An analogous example to clarify:

French and Italian are very closely related, Hindi and Urdu much more so, but when I want to buy books in those languages, I find each of them in their own category - no French in the Italian section, no Hindi in the Urdu.

In contrast, trying to find science fiction devoid of fantasy is a tedious and time-consuming process because apparently if one enjoys reading fiction solidly based on science, one must therefore also enjoy interminable sagas of wizards, witches, elves and mages. All set on other planets, which apparently makes them SF.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Combining the two goes way, way back. I don't think I've every been to a store that didn't put the two together. There are a number of authors who go back and forth between the two genres as well as works that blur the borders between the two. I suspect that Asimov associated fantasy with pulp works like Conan the Barbarian rather than the more literary works such as LOTR, or the precursors to LOTR. I tend to read both SF and Fantasy myself, so combining the two works pretty well for me.

It's like combining "Crime" and "Mystery", which are two entirely separate genres, but nonetheless virtually everyone does it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I can't seem to find much contemporary SF I like. The only two living authors I like are Robert Charles Wilson and Christopher Priest, and they'rennot young

There are some excellent "hard SF" authors around, eg Peter F. Hamilton and Alistair Reynolds. Both very much alive!

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There are some excellent "hard SF" authors around, eg Peter F. Hamilton and Alistair Reynolds. Both very much alive!

I've tried them and didnt like them much. Neither has a patch on Banks.

I've never liked Heinlein. I don't understand why he is considered great. I used to think Asimov and Clarke were the greats, and I still think they were, in places. Now I think Banks and the Strugatsky brothers were the greats.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I've tried them and didnt like them much. Neither has a patch on Banks.

I far prefer Hamilton to Banks, but obviously such things are very much a matter of personal taste. Have you tried Hamilton's "Great North Road"? Best book I've read in last few years for me personally. It's a standalone "police procedural" set in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the 22nd century. Give it a go!

[Pajamaman]

Ill try it. Thx.

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I far prefer Hamilton to Banks, but obviously such things are very much a matter of personal taste. Have you tried Hamilton's "Great North Road"? Best book I've read in last few years for me personally. It's a standalone "police procedural" set in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the 22nd century. Give it a go!

I love almost all of Hamilton's books but, funnily enough, the one I really didn't is the Great North Road. As you say, personal taste!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[HarryT]

Oh well, each to their own . I loved it!

[Apache]

The Great North Road is my first book of the new tear and I am enjoying it.
Apache