As I picked up my thirdhand copy of Dune Messiah I realized something bizarre: I'm much more of a science fiction fan than I am a fantasy fan.
On my bookshelf right now, there are perhaps 5 fantasy books, with two of them being rather large Robert E Howard compilations (one of Conan and one of Kull, respectively). One other is the Rincewind the Wizzard thing which contains the Colour of Magic, the Light Fantastic, and Sourcery. One of them is a book that isn't mind, and I'm not sure where I got it from. The very last is the Jack Vance omnibus thing.
There's something in common with these books, naturally. 1) They're not strictly "fantasy" fantasy. 2) They're all omnibuses because I once had a subscription to Book of the Month Club and you'd be surprised how many giant collection books they make for authors, and 3) They're all very unique in the fantasy world for being the sort of fantasy that science fiction lovers like.
And I'm cool with that.
That's all I have to say this morning.
Thank you, and have a pleasant morning.
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Yeah, I was always a bigger SF fan than fantasy but I have never really enjoyed playing SF RPGs. I think I just like the freedom in the FRPGs.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you.
ReplyDeleteOne of my biggest epiphanies is when I realized that exact same thing- in fantasy, things can happen and you wave away the explanations because it's magic, that's how it works.
But you feel bad doing the same thing to science fiction, because you know there's supposed to be some sort of halfway meaningful answer to why this waterfall is flowing upside down and why these guys are evil and stuff, but it's hard to think of something off the top of one's head.
I agree with all of you.
ReplyDeleteI think part of the problem is preparation (so you don't have to think of it off the top of your head) and the other part is that you have to get the players to buy into your vision before starting, or it all goes to hell. (Not that you don't with fantasy, but it seems easier with fantasy than with sf).