A Poor Introduction to Science Fantasy

 Hailing all Travelers And Spacefarers!

This is The Adventure Site calling, do you copy?

In case you haven't realized yet, today we're going to talk about Science Fantasy!  

Why Science Fantasy?  Well, first of all, it's a long standing and beloved sub-genre of Science Fiction.  And second, well, it's my blog and i feel like talking about it, and those are good enough reasons for me!

So, what makes a Science Fantasy story different from a Science Fiction story?  Well, for starters, in Science Fiction there is an effort to make the science sound plausible.  It's based on real-world principles, and often speculates on future advancements based on current theories.  Contrariwise, Science Fantasy concentrates on the story, usually an adventure story, and the outlandish technology is not scientifically explained.  Basically, the way a High Fantasy story treats Magic, that's how a Science Fantasy story treats the Science.

Arguments can be made about just how far back Science Fantasy goes, but they certainly gained popularity in the Pulps.  As more of our own world was being mapped and recorded, leaving fewer places of mystery (and fewer places for the Monster to Be At), adventure writers moved their jungles to Venus, their deserts to Mars, and replaced their natives with weird aliens.  

But the stories were essentially the same:  daring men and women fought against overwhelming odds to save ancient relics, or some benevolent kingdom, or maybe just their own lives!  And all this with a weird exotic atmosphere akin to but at the same time different from the adventure stories that take place in the foreign countries of our own little planet.  

The main idea here is wild, exciting, two-fisted adventure!  And it wasn't just limited to magazines either.  You name a medium, and you can find some form of Science Fantasy.  Books, comic books, novels, movies (& movie serials), TV shows, cartoons, web comics!  I tell ya, it's everywhere!

There are other related terms, like Planetary Romance, Space Opera, and even Sword-and-Planet.  There is some overlap in these terms, but they each have specific differences.  Space Opera, for example, usually has its story set out in space, with adventures spanning several planets.  Sword-and-Planet, on the other hand, is usually about a person from our own Earth who is transported to another planet where they have adventures among the decaying remnants of some decadent space-kingdom.  It is, quite literally, a Sword-and-Sorcery adventure on another planet.

It seems to me that all of the biggest and most popular "Sci-Fi" franchises have some element of Fantasy to them.  Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Gallactica, Babylon 5, Red Dwarf, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...  All these and more can be classified as Science Fantasy.  But I'm sure that you all ready knew that.

Ok, you caught me!  I was really just building up to something else, but I ended up with a blog post all ready!  So, I guess I'll save it for now, and use it next time to build up on this foundation!  

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell