I have had some difficulty classifying The Halcyon Dislocation as Science Fiction or as Fantasy. On the one hand the University of Halcyon, consistent with a Science Fiction story, comes from a time and technological culture that’s slightly in advance of our own, yet when the people of the university are dislocated to a new world, they encounter inhabitants which are much more reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings than they are of Star Trek. Consistent with this ambiguity I characterize The Halcyon Dislocation as SciFi/Fantasy on my Facebook page.

I asked a friend of mine who is an avid reader of both genres “What is the difference between Fantasy and Science Fiction?” He answered: “Science Fiction talks about things that could happen. Fantasy does not. That’s why I like Science Fiction better.” So is this really the essential difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy?

At first blush this seems to be the case. Science Fiction asks: “what if …?” where the “what if” is a plausible scientific or technological development that dramatically changes the fictional world for the reader. On the other hand, The Lord of the Rings and other books in this genre deal with magic and dragons in a world before gunpowder. In SciFi one has blasters, beam weapons, and shields while in Fantasy combat is by sword and bow with prophecy and special abilities thrown in for good measure. So is the one plausible while the other is not?

I think it was C. S. Lewis who said that if you can imagine a different world, then it must be possible for it to exist somewhere. In his books The Chronicles of Narnia, the visitors from our world tell Prince Caspian that our earth is a globe hanging in space. Since Narnia is flat like a plate and surrounded by very, very high mountains this idea of a spherical world surprised Caspian but on reflection he remarks (and I paraphrase) “Yes, we have had people who have imagined worlds like that and you actually come from one.”

For my part I like both genres, but prefer Fantasy. I think much of Science Fiction is two dimensional because it is predicated on materialism, that is to say, a world in which the supernatural does not and indeed in the mind of the author cannot exist. Fantasy leaves much more scope for the imagination and I am much more at home in those worlds than in the austere, materialistic SF story.

So what did my friend conclude about The Halcyon Dislocation? He concluded it was Science Fiction because it could happen.

Thanks for reading,

Peter

Http://peterkazmaier.com/