What Would You Call This?

**Riothamus** · August 12th, 2012, 07:05 PM

Let's say you write a novel or story set in a world that that neither contains a large amount of futuristic technology or apparent magic and it's not a parallel universe and it's on another planet in another universe what would you call it? Science fiction? Fantasy? How would you describe it?

**kshRox** · August 12th, 2012, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by Riothamus

Let's say you write a novel or story set in a world that that neither contains a large amount of futuristic technology or apparent magic and it's not a parallel universe and it's on another planet in another universe what would you call it? Science fiction? Fantasy? How would you describe it?

Science Fiction.
That's what I 'd call it, dont' know about anybody else.

My reasoning is you are speculating on the possibility of life on another planet and extrapolating from this premise what their physiology, culture, society, technology etc. would be.

C.J. Cherryh does this a lot although mostly from a human perspective.
Her latest series examines the idea of a human colony stranded on an alien planet where human technology initially far exceeds the indeigenous people. Their brains however are hard-wired for math so once they catch up with humans the stage is set for them to outstrip human technology fairly quickly.

**Riothamus** · August 12th, 2012, 11:06 PM

I probably should have stated I was actually thinking specifically about humans, but I'm still not entirely sure. I suppose one could call it a variant of science fiction, but I'm not entirely certain.

**JimF** · August 13th, 2012, 04:55 PM

Depending on the plot you might call it a techno thriller, but from what you described I thought of the great movie Charly, based on the play Flowers for Algernon. Basically a mentally challenged person undergoes a radical operation and becomes a supergenius.

Not much is changed from the everyday world, but the existence of the operation is pivital, and I think that makes it Science fiction.

Jim

**HeclaBull** · August 18th, 2012, 06:05 PM

I've seen some people use the term "speculative fiction" for concepts like the one described, but I think most people would describe it as science fiction.

**steve12553** · August 26th, 2012, 08:28 AM

Based on our current inability to travel to or observe that planet closely, it would be Science Fiction. Any Fantasy element would override that but otherwise it's SF. We don't have direct evidence of planets in other galaxies (universes) so even though it's a fair bet, it is still scientific speculation.

**Santaria** · October 19th, 2012, 08:25 PM

I think that speculative fiction is a generic term that encapsulates sci fi, fantasy, horror.

**CarlAlves** · October 30th, 2012, 02:00 PM

For me, if it's technological advances it's science fiction. If it's magic, then it's fantasy. A combination - sci fi fantasy.
Carl Alves

**Steven L Jordan** · November 9th, 2012, 11:15 AM

The concept of humans living on a planet other than Earth (past, present or future) is a science fiction concept. Whatever they're doing there, your story is by definition SF simply because of the setting.

**DurzoBlint** · December 22nd, 2012, 10:57 PM

Originally Posted by Steven L Jordan

The concept of humans living on a planet other than Earth (past, present or future) is a science fiction concept. Whatever they're doing there, your story is by definition SF simply because of the setting.

But isn't Star Wars technically fantasy, as opposed to science fiction. I realise that you could argue for either case as I am playing devil's advocate, but there are people who say Star Wars is more Fantasy than Science Fiction, but the opposite also holds true as well. I don't care either way but would lean towards science fiction.

**Rosy Red Sun** · May 16th, 2013, 04:59 PM

I would go with fantasy, unless you have a history of humanity that tracks back to us here and now. It doesn't have to be explained or known to the characters (a la Foundation), but if your idea is that, in the far future, humans (the ones that evolved on Earth) eventually come to live on that planet, then it sounds like sci-fi.

If, however, you are talking about another world that also has humans, that sounds like fantasy in the same way that ASOIAF is Fantasy. Even if they had a futuristic laser gun, it is a world that isn't Earth and the characters are not distant descendants of Earthlings, even though they are human.

It sounds to me like you want to tell a regular story about regular people, but you want to world-build without the constraints of our real governments, histories, and biases.