Fantasy or something else?

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Persei

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I am not sure either the story I'm planning right now is a Fantasy story or not.

The setting is a fictional world. Basically, a kind called X (didn't think of a name) comitts genocide against the people living in the land they desire. All the Onyxes are wipped off by the X's. Thing is the Onyxes are magical people, who are able to canalize the powers of the gods they believe in by a stone attached to the skin of the back of their hand when they are young.

The X's realize this and simply cut off their arms before killing them in concentration camps. MC #2 is the only Onyx who escaped (with a arm missing, therefore she can't use her magic), because she wasn't as dependent of her magic.

Fast forwarding to the beginning of the story, all the Onyxes are dead for five years and the weather grows colder. MC #1 is a Doctor who is struggling with the beggining of what seems to be a plague. The Xs believe in a god too, and all MC# 1 does is pray for the sick and clean corpses.

The story is basically MC# 1 and MC# 2 meeting and discovering what is the embryo of science in their world. There are no gods, only the power of the stone the Onyxes used. Somewhere in the story MC #1 receives the power of the Onyxes by carving a stone to his arm, btw.

So it is fantasy because of the stone, right? Even though the story revolves around science?

...

S.O.S?
 

Persei

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Also not sure if "carving" is the right verb. They attach the stone to their flesh by a ritual surgery-like. Just to clarify.
 

lbender

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Agreed - fantasy. Sci fi doesn't have actual magic, other than the sense of 'advanced technology seeming like magic'.
 

Tezzirax

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Sounds like fantasy to me...I think what really seals the deal is that the characters believe its magic and gods, at least until they begin defining the actual science. Even magic can have a science behind it, and vice versa.
 

jjdebenedictis

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It's fantasy, although you might be able to call it science fantasy, which is a hybrid of science fiction and fantasy. However, it's a better fit to call it just plain ol' fantasy.
 

Whistle_White

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I'm with jjdebenedictis - you can have both fantasy and science and still lean more toward fantasy.

Think Star Wars! It's perfectly sci-fi with ships and space and light-speed travel... but the basis (at least for the three original ones) is this power that is pretty much magic and unexplained.

Your case sounds similar except with less overt science. SO, if you're introducing it to anyone, I'd definitely say fantasy - if you want to be more specific, science fantasy is a definite conversation starter.
 

Buffysquirrel

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Never have the "Star Wars is Science Fantasy" debate with an ardent fan.
 

jjdebenedictis

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Never have the "Star Wars is Science Fantasy" debate with an ardent fan.
Without getting too specific on who the culprit was, I once saw a talk given by a rather famous science fiction writer who spent about ten minutes arguing that point to the audience, even though no one had asked, and it didn't have anything to do with what his talk was supposed to be about.

And then he went off on a tangent about the superiority of the old Star Trek movies, because the new movie had apparently messed up his pet theory for why Spock's father married Spock's mother. Which was also not what his talk was supposed to be about.

I finally just gave up and snuck out.
 

veinglory

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If it is correct in your world that there are no gods and the stones work by physical means not metaphysical/magic, it could go either way. AU (fantasy) or alien world (SF).
 

MattW

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Never have the "Star Wars is Science Fantasy" debate with an ardent fan.

One of the classic blunders.

Also - Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line.
 
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