To decide on the exact nature of a genre work, a lot of rigorous looking at the content ‘evidence’ of a individual novel or story is necessary. Once you have eliminated the improbable (advanced science), then only the impossible (the supernatural) remains. Try my definition against any story or novel that is a Romance (the term we should use for fantastic literature generally, as it can encompass SF and Fantasy) as opposed to Realism, and see if the content that makes it a Romance is explained ‘scientifically’ by the author – do they use extrapolation of biology, physics, sociology to explain thier novelty ? Or do they rely on involing the supernatural?

Arthur C Clarke once said that to a less advanced civlisation, a highly advanced technology looks like magic. Some have seen this as muddying the waters, suggesting that magic (if it exists) is simply science we don’t understand yet. Once magic (if it exists) is explained scientifically, it will cease to be supernatural and become science…in which case all Fantasy will become SF.

Stephen E. Andrews