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Worlds of Design: Fantasy vs. Sci-Fi Part 2
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<blockquote data-quote="Jhaelen" data-source="post: 7764754" data-attributes="member: 46713"><p>I've read quite a few novels that are clearly 'just' Fantasy. In these novels the authors made no attempt to explain supernatural events in any way and sometimes didn't even bother to put down some rules applying to 'magical' effects or abilities.</p><p></p><p>It's often harder to tell if a novel firmly belongs into the Sci-Fi genre. It's quite easy if the novel belongs in the sub-genre of 'Hard Sci-Fi', but if it doesn't, you have to come up with some rules for yourself. How do you feel about Nanotech, FTL-drives, alien beings from other dimensions or alternate universes?</p><p></p><p>Sometimes there are only subtle hints that the novel actually belong in the sci-fi genre, e.g. in Iain M. Banks' novel 'Inversions' is set entirely on a planet in a society that resembles Earth's middle-ages. There's only one inexplicable event late in the novel where a reader who's familiar with his other 'Culture' novels realizes what's been 'really' going on.</p><p></p><p>Orson Scott Card did something similar in his 'Worthing Saga': What to the inhabitants of the world where the story is set feel like miracles or acts of god are actually caused by the technically much more advanced beings that are secretly monitoring the world.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jhaelen, post: 7764754, member: 46713"] I've read quite a few novels that are clearly 'just' Fantasy. In these novels the authors made no attempt to explain supernatural events in any way and sometimes didn't even bother to put down some rules applying to 'magical' effects or abilities. It's often harder to tell if a novel firmly belongs into the Sci-Fi genre. It's quite easy if the novel belongs in the sub-genre of 'Hard Sci-Fi', but if it doesn't, you have to come up with some rules for yourself. How do you feel about Nanotech, FTL-drives, alien beings from other dimensions or alternate universes? Sometimes there are only subtle hints that the novel actually belong in the sci-fi genre, e.g. in Iain M. Banks' novel 'Inversions' is set entirely on a planet in a society that resembles Earth's middle-ages. There's only one inexplicable event late in the novel where a reader who's familiar with his other 'Culture' novels realizes what's been 'really' going on. Orson Scott Card did something similar in his 'Worthing Saga': What to the inhabitants of the world where the story is set feel like miracles or acts of god are actually caused by the technically much more advanced beings that are secretly monitoring the world. [/QUOTE]
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