Was anyone else upset upon discovering that science-fiction had been merged into one genre with fantasy? Does the shortage of science in science-fiction bother you? And since when did horror alone qualify as science-fiction?
Fine—interject a little horror into your sci-fi tale (there is a morsel in my own book), but don’t make it primarily about zombies and call it science-fiction, unless, of course, it’s about how the zombies were created in the first place, or how the zombies were brought from mars, etc.
And forgive me, but despite the strong case that can be made that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic (thank you, Mr. Clarke), elvish parlor tricks do not constitute science—you cannot reverse the saying. Our modern word, “science,” stems from older words meaning “knowledge” or “learning.” Fantasy is, well, fantasy. There’s not much about learning or knowledge there, now, is there—except the generic learning that accompanies the reading of any genre. Of course, well-written fantasy can be a great thing–I’m not knocking it by any stretch—I enjoy it myself. But why must we so adulterate the great genre of science fiction that it is now indistinguishable from the phantasmagorical?
