NPR Science Fiction list (or, nerd up!)

[Spaced Cowboy]

43, but I eliminate almost half the books as I am not much into fantasy and tend to avoid them.

47, have the same problem with fantasy.

[snoopy369]

Fantasy nerdism and science fiction nerdism are not the same. Science Fiction nerdism belongs to science feeks, while fantasy nerdism engulfs liberal arts types and schizophrenics.

Erm, what? I mean, lots of people only read one or the other, but lots and lots of people read both. "Speculative fiction". I in particular don't think your fantasy nerdism is in any way representative of fantasy nerds; I'd guess history buffs are the first chair fantasy nerds, for example (which may or may not be "liberal arts" but is certainly different enough from Humanities/Social Science/whatnot that it merits its own term).

[The Mad Monk]

A lot of science fiction is fantasy for people who don't want to admit that they like fantasy.

[Dinner]

The "Force" is just another name for magic.

[Donegeal]

And that's why I consider Star Wars to be Science Fantasy which I also generally avoid (same goes for Star Trek, but not nearly as much).

[Imran Siddiqui]

Fantasy nerdism and science fiction nerdism are not the same. Science Fiction nerdism belongs to science feeks, while fantasy nerdism engulfs liberal arts types and schizophrenics.

It's only liberal arts types that enjoyed Lord of the Rings

[snoopy369]

Star wars is fantasy, not science fantasy or anything else. Just plain old fantasy.

[/runs]

[Lorizael]

If Star Wars is fantasy, there must be a subgenre for it that differentiates it from things like LOTR. Star Wars has lasers and spaceships, however fantastical their presentation may be, and most of what we call fantasy doesn't have that. Call it space fantasy if you don't want science in there.

[snoopy369]

Space fantasy is acceptable if you like, but it's a subgenre of Fantasy, not of Science Fiction. Space Opera (not Space Fantasy) is where Star Trek falls, and is a subgenre of Science Fiction (but could be considered also in the Fantasy realm in some ways). The important thing to me is that Star Trek focuses to some extent on how space travel (/etc) changes how society works and on how we interact; Star Wars doesn't care about that in the slightest.

LotR and Star Wars are basically the same story with different kinds of magic. Honestly, the space ships and such aren't really any different from another kind of magic (insert mandatory reference to Clarke here). At some point the technology isn't important, when it's irrelevant to the story (except for a few throwaway references in Episode 1 and 4, nobody cares at all about how anything actually works); lots of historical fantasy share more in common with SF in terms of focus on the technology (even if it's the ships they sail the seas in rather than space ships) than something like Star Wars.

[-Jrabbit]

snoop, totally nerding up!

[PLATO]

snoop, totally nerding up!

Yep...nerdiest Apolytoner for sure!

[Lorizael]

Space fantasy is acceptable if you like, but it's a subgenre of Fantasy, not of Science Fiction. Space Opera (not Space Fantasy) is where Star Trek falls, and is a subgenre of Science Fiction (but could be considered also in the Fantasy realm in some ways). The important thing to me is that Star Trek focuses to some extent on how space travel (/etc) changes how society works and on how we interact; Star Wars doesn't care about that in the slightest.

LotR and Star Wars are basically the same story with different kinds of magic. Honestly, the space ships and such aren't really any different from another kind of magic (insert mandatory reference to Clarke here). At some point the technology isn't important, when it's irrelevant to the story (except for a few throwaway references in Episode 1 and 4, nobody cares at all about how anything actually works); lots of historical fantasy share more in common with SF in terms of focus on the technology (even if it's the ships they sail the seas in rather than space ships) than something like Star Wars.

I don't disagree with this at all. I just don't think Star Wars is plain old fantasy. If paranormal teen romance gets its own ****ing shelf at B&N, then Star Wars can be categorized by a term more precise than fantasy.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I don't like Asimov much.

You have disqualified yourself from any further serious literary consideration.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

A better nerd question is who would win in a fight of Elminster vs Mordenkainen vs Raistlin?

Elminster. Mystra would cut the other two off from the weave.

[snoopy369]

You have disqualified yourself from any further serious literary consideration.

Eh, he's young. He doesn't understand the world Asimov lived in nor the struggle SF of Asimov's time had to be recognized as literature. Someday when he's 50ish he'll grab an Asimov book because it's the only thing in the rental condo in Florida he can stand, read it in one sitting, and then kill himself out of grief for having wasted his entire life denying himself the pleasure that is a good Asimov short story.