An Official Guest Post by J.V. Hilliard, author of the most excellent Warminster Series:
What if Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Other Genres Collided?
Fantasy is one of the more expansive, all-encompassing genres, offering tell-tale signs in the media it shows up in. It can blend with horror to create movies like Pan’s Labyrinth, or it can mix with romance for the ever popular “romantasy” genre as seen in A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) by Sarah J. Maas. Even more, fantasy can contribute to steampunk and appear in Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld or Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.
Throughout it all, there are certain staples of the fantasy genre. These include: magic, an epic quest, and cryptids to name a few. Magic goes hand-in-hand with fantasy books and movies, appearing in fairytales and mythology, with spells, sorcery, grimoires, and totems featured prominently. Where sci-fi has technology, fantasy has magic, and sometimes, they combine to create your favorite media. We see sci-fi and fantasy blend together in Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the season six villains known as “the trio.” They utilize a freeze ray, jet packs, invisible ray, time loop tech, and more to terrorize Buffy and her friends. We also see sci-fi fantasy in Star Wars and Star Trek where technology is hyper-advanced and stands in for magic
One other sign of a fantasy story is an epic journey or quest, which is also called a “hero’s journey.” There’s a theme of a “chosen one” with an overall goal of conquering evil or fulfilling a prophecy. We see the chosen one trope with Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien as Frodo sets out to carry the One Ring to Mordor. In the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, the trope shows up with Harry himself being the only one who can defeat Lord Voldemort.
The final indicator of a fantasy tale is the presence of cryptids. Where sci-fi has aliens or robots, fantasy has all kinds of species, like dragons, hobbits, elves, wizards, vampires, demons, etc. If a story has something other than humans or your occasional cat or dog, it may be a safe bet that what you’re reading is fantasy.
Dystopias are a fantastical blend of “what ifs” that feature exciting technology & oftentimes a futuristic world. Think The Maze Runner with its chosen one trope, cryptids in the form of grievers, technology like the maze, and a grim future. Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games series is another example, with Katniss Everdeen as the chosen one and mockingjays, the Hunger Games, and a future of twelve districts in a country called Panem.
Throughout the fantasy genre, though it may blend with others and take on new forms, what remains true is its elements of escapism. Most of the time, fantasy media is created to satisfy a need to escape to other worlds, whether more technologically advanced or more fantastical and magical. Characters thrive in places like Abacus in my Warminster Saga, which is a scientific/scholarly city named after Abacus Athobasca, who was “a renowned inventor, using his wizardry to enhance his peculiar devices and inventions.” In similar form, there is the Citadel in Game of Thrones with the Order of Maesters: an order of intellectuals (scholars, healers, and other learned men).
As with most media, the sense of escapism and worldbuilding is rich and ever present in the realm of fantasy. The genre is highly adaptable, able to work with sci-fi, dystopian, romance, horror, and more in order to create the works we all know and love. It is a genre that is here to stay and just may be the most popular for decades to come.
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Want to see your own writing published online? I am listening. In short, I have gotten some emails addressed to "the Stars Uncounted team" asking about Content Writing and I respond by saying that the team consists of me, myself, and I, and that all one of us is willing to post your content. The only rule is that such a Guest Post would have to be within the context of the blog – meaning that it must relate to the Fantasy genre or be about self-publishing Fantasy. If you are interested, feel free to send me one for approval.Just remember that any and all Guest Posts must adhere to the high moral spirit of my mostly humble blog. This does not mean that I have to agree with everything you say; it merely must be well-written and thought-out.