See, I feel like both Sci-Fi and Fantasy have enough different that the should be sperate genres. I think the combining them is to the detriment of both. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve given up looking for something new to watch because I click Sci-Fi and every listing is Lord of the Rings.
Which gets to the crux of it. Unless you are reading REALLY hard sci-fi, most of the tech boils down to “a wizard did it”.
Like, the OT of Star Wars is 100% a fantasy series and it was only the EU (and later the PT) that tried to explain the tech and make it more sci-fi. Similarly, a lot of the litrpg writers think Sanderson is a softy and go ridiculously hard on explaining their magic systems in greater detail than actual textbooks.
And, at the end of the day, they are all just different shades of speculative fiction that primarily use magic/tech/magitech as a plot device to explore the impact on society of whatever metaphor the big bad is.
See, I feel like both Sci-Fi and Fantasy have enough different that the should be sperate genres. I think the combining them is to the detriment of both. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve given up looking for something new to watch because I click Sci-Fi and every listing is Lord of the Rings.
Isn’t a ring which has an inbuilt GPS tracker sci-fi? :p
Which gets to the crux of it. Unless you are reading REALLY hard sci-fi, most of the tech boils down to “a wizard did it”.
Like, the OT of Star Wars is 100% a fantasy series and it was only the EU (and later the PT) that tried to explain the tech and make it more sci-fi. Similarly, a lot of the litrpg writers think Sanderson is a softy and go ridiculously hard on explaining their magic systems in greater detail than actual textbooks.
And, at the end of the day, they are all just different shades of speculative fiction that primarily use magic/tech/magitech as a plot device to explore the impact on society of whatever metaphor the big bad is.