i.e do you prefer:

  • technically grounded and plausible science elements (e.g The Martian)

or

  • stuff so fantastical that it doesn’t even warrant trying to explain it (Dr Who, some Marvel/DC stuff, Star Wars)

Another way to look at this would be Sci-Fi versus Science Fantasy, perhaps.

  • Old-School Sci-Fi like HG Wells centers around a core scientific idea and the consequences arising from that,

whereas

  • Science Fantasy (more prevalent nowadays) only looks to science - or the impression of some science - to serve the fantasy devices it uses.

So which is better?

  • Berttheduck@lemmy.ml
    3·
    11 days ago

    I enjoy both. I switch between fiction/fantasy heavy and science heavy. Sometimes I’ll do a run or a series of one and get a hankering for the other. Usually I prefer my sci-fi more science than fiction. I love the expanse and the martian for example. But I also enjoy the culture and the Polity books which are more fiction than hard sci-fi.