When you go into a bookstore anytime in the last decade you have probably seen the “FANTASY/SCI-FI” section and it is all lumped together.
Aren’t those two things different you ask? Does it bug you that they don’t get treated differently?
After all, just a few years ago you could walk into a bookstore and see a section called “Teenage paranormal romance” where young people would fall in love with vampires and werewolves or be torn between those two.
So why is it that teenage paranormal romance gets to be off by itself and these two genres get lumped?
First, maybe we want to readers of that paranormal stuff to not be in the mix with anyone else. Maybe it is just better that way. They probably don’t want to mingle with sci-fi readers, and perhaps vice versa.
Second, Fantasy and Science Fiction do overlap in ways. They are books or series of books that create a world that differs greatly from the one we live in. One were characters aren’t bound by the laws of physics or even magic or lack thereof that we have in our daily lives.
These genres offer a specific type of escape that some readers (like me) are craving. I don’t care if it “isn’t believable” that someone can cast a fireball spell or travel faster than light. I just want a compelling story. If I wanted “believable” I’d head over to action thriller, or pure fiction. I’m here for the fantastical, that that’s why those two get put together in my opinion. And honestly, I hope it stays that way!
Check out the cover, and one of the interior photos of my personal copy of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks for AD&D written by Gary Gygax himself.
Maybe someday at a Con I can run this adventure as a DM and convince Luke Gygax to participate!
