[Alucard]

If you had to choose only one of the two genres(out of sci-fi and fantasy), which would it be?

For me personally, I would have to go with fantasy.

Not to say that I don't enjoy sci-fi novels, but I am much more picky. For me to enjoy the book, I need less science and more fiction. I simply can't get into sci-fi novels that are chocked full of theories on black holes and such. Science, altough at times very thought provoking, doesn't usually perk my interest.

Also, I find some of the sci-fi genre to feel a bit cheesy, which doesn't seem to occur with fantasy nearly as often. And even if a fantasy book is a little cheesy, I usually just shrug it off and keep reading. Where as with sci-fi, it's usually all it will take for me to put down the book and never look back.

It's all just a question of personal tastes, but if you had to choose(and do without the other), which would you prefer?

[Bardos]

Fantasy, definatly.
Actually, for the same reasons.

[FitzChivalry]

Fantasy.

[Erebus]

Well...I guess my reading preference is towards hard science fiction, though my own books, whilst a mixture of both genres, probably tend to be a little more fantasy than SF.

[James Barclay]

For me, fantasy.

I feel there's a larger proportion of quality fantasy among the raft of books available than in Sci-Fi. Too, often, I read a Sci-Fi book that gets lost in its own technology and forgets it should be tellng a story, if you see what I mean.

[azaz]

FANTASY

[Lani]

I prefer fantasy as well. Technology just doesn't interest me too much. Though there are several sci-fi books I enjoyed alot, the majority of books I like is fantasy.
I'd also expect that most of people who visit fantasy forum vs. visiting sci-fi one, would probably prefer fantasy to sci-fi.

[Rhaegar]

Just look at the post count on the sffworld message boards. Fantasy is by far a more popular topic than sci-fi around here. I generally prefer fantasy as well.

[JohnH]

Just to add my 'me too'. In fact even those works that I like in SciFi seem to have a 'fantasy' kind of approach. Cherryh's work tends to focus on alien cultures that could easily have swords,armor etc, in place of hyperdrives and laser weapons. I think Cyteen is the only real SciFi novel of hers that I really like. And even that could be interchangeable with fantasy with little effort.

David Wingrove's Chung Kuo is another series that reads as fantasy in many ways. And then rather horrifically inthe end it kind of does. But that is another horror story to be told over te campfire another time.

[Bardos]

I think this should have been posted in the General Discussion Forum, 'cause some Scifi fans won't even enter the Fantasy Forum...