I read a lot of both SF and fantasy. Most communities I’ve dealt with have commingled the genres, in part because the line between them can be blurry. Is this community supposed to be strictly SF, or are discussions of fantasy also okay?
I was going to post my mini review of Days of Shattered Faith, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, but it’s clearly fantasy (though Tchaikovsky writes quite a lot of SF), so I thought I should ask.
Edit: it seems like I’ve had pretty good response to the question, and the vast majority would prefer to be more inclusive rather than draw a line. I’ll go ahead and continue posting both, though note that so far a moderator hasn’t weighed I in, and that could change things.
I don’t think so… I mean it’s really hard to draw to line. Like is Book of the New Sun sci-fi, or fantasy? One might think fantasy by looking at the cover or just reading the synopsis, but it really isn’t a fantasy book.
Right, there are lots of examples that have the trappings of one genre but are the other at heart. I feel that way about the Shadow of the Leviathan series. It seems like people are taking magic potions to make genetic changes, but they’ve found these sea creatures that have properties that can be distilled to make genetic changes, and it’s handled in a way that feels more like chemistry than magic.
Cool! You know, if you get down to it; any fantasy book is sci-fi if you try to explain how the magic works. Mostly I think it would be attempting to satisfy the First Law of Thermodynamics, like it does in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
Man Book of the New Sun was one of the best reads ever. That shit was like borderline a different language at some points. I’ve never had to reread a book in the same way to understand what was being said sometimes. Absolute masterpiece.
It’s like a fantasy with a sci-fi backdrop it’s crazy.