Where is the line?

What separates sci-fi from fantasy?

Example: I'm writing (haha, wrote a first draft and need to get back to it 'cause it's in a royal mess...) a trilogy of screenplays & novels set in a medeivalistic world...which just happens to utilize plasma guns alongside swords, and a rather dangerous form of cars alongside horses. Half of the story is set in a city, filled with brick & metal warehouses. The other half is out in the free country. Never explains whether it's our world or another - I have gone back and forth a lot, and just decided not to tell.

Is it fantasy, or is it science fiction?

If it takes place in a universe other than our own, it is fantasy. If it takes place in our own universe, it is sci-fi.

On a side note, you might call that technological mix "Technological-Renaissance", and I believe it could also be considered Steam-Punk, but I'm not sure. Steam-Punk seem to be more of a style than an actually science...not sure.

What is Star Wars then? "A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..." They've got all kinds of time periods mixed up in there, from medievalism (the Jedi, lightsaber fighting, save the princess plot) to 70's (hehe, some costumes are very 70's), to Western (Han Solo, the Catina bar scene), everything with that sci-fi spaceships & aliens flavour overtop. [and I know that SW is technically space opera, but I think that's supposed to be a subdivision of sci-fi, kind of like speculative fiction]



Mmm, actually, I have been researching steampunk for a couple of short films I'm writing, and the Chasms world (that's the one I mentioned above) isn't steampunk.

Steampunk is apparently an alternate history in which the society is steambased instead of petroleum, it's typically Victorian, colorgrading is cast in the browns & oranges (a gritty feel), and people like gears and goggles. THere was a good thread on CF about that a while back - http://www.christianfilmmakers.org/foru ... read/6820/

Technological-Renaissance...that's a neat word for it. Did you make it up or is that a real niche genre? Hmm, what's an easier way to type that... Tech-Ren? (I want a genre name for it so I know how to explain it to people better)

Star Wars is simply Sci-Fi. It happens in our own universe. Just not the universe as we know it.



Tech-Ren sounds good. I don't know that it isn't a niche genre term already, but it's original to me, at least.

I think I disagree about SW being in our universe...but whatever.

Anyone else have thoughts on sci-fi versus fantasy?

Well, considering that it says "a long time ago" which means it happens in our time stream, and "a galaxy far away" which implies that its in the same universe, I'd have to say it is. Just like Star Trek.

But the Force doesn't exist in the real world, so it's another world.

Though logically it can't exist in any world... hmmm!

....but come to think of it, since when did SW follow our logic--the stormtrooper effect, anyone?

Well, historical fiction often contains people not from the real word, it's still history, right? If those were our parameters for sci-fi, it technically couldn't exist, since all science-fiction contains elements not real in our world.

But sci-fi is feasible. Right? It's all based in science.

Characters are different, I say. That's an aspect of fiction, not genre, and all the historical fiction books that I read dealt with characters that could have been there.

What are the parameters for sci-fi, anyway? What are the parameters for fantasy? Besides the inside our universe/outside our universe one? (I am pretty positive - I can't name them - but I am pretty positive that there are sci-fi books & movies out there that do not exist in our universe but are officially sci-fi)

(I am not giving up my idea that SW is a cross-over story very easily, lol)

Now that I look at the definitions, space opera (The niche market of SW) is really fantasy, disguised under vaguely "scientific" plot mechanics. So, I'll concede that SW is fantasy. It's just my least favorite kind of fantasy. (Although I've warmed up a little to space opera, lately.)

Space opera is a strange subgenre. We were talking about it on CF.org once and a couple screenwriter-type people were talking about how the core plot of the original SW movie could've (and apparently has, though I forget what examples they cited) been done in any other setting and it still would have essentially worked.

Maybe space opera isn't fantasy or sci-fi -- maybe it's just a plot that you can stick anything onto? (I'm typing this w/o internet access, I'll check out the genre of space opera more later when I can access wikipedia. )

Genres are so much fun to puzzle over.