I've heard many people say that they just don't like sci-fi. I never understood why, but I think I do now. To some people, sci-fi means Star Wars and Star Trek. To others, it means Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. To some, it means Jules Verne and HG Wells. To others (I'm dead serious), it means Tolkein and CS Lewis (give them some slack, they may not know sci-fi from fantasy, but they're still nice people). Most people see sci-fi as a distinct genre that is totally different from anything else, but the truth is that sci-fi can be quite un"sci-fi"ish.

To start, Star Wars is technically fantasy. Why? There's a very clear way to differentiate. You can do this at home. Show it off to your friends. Regular fiction (romance, historical, literary, etc.) is anything that takes place today or yesterday and is completely possible with how the world works today. It doesn't even have to be science or technology that's changed. 1984, by George Orwell, is totally possible with today's technology and science, but it's still sci-fi because the government it describes is totally different.

Now, why is Star Wars fantasy? Doesn't it have aliens and space ships? Aren't those sci-fi themes? Yes, but you've got to know the whole definition of fantasy is to make a decision. Fantasy is anything that isn't possible whatsoever. Magic, ghosts (impossible by popular belief), centaurs, The One Ring To Rule Them All, pigs building houses, wolves disguised as old women, and what? The Force. The force does not exist (at least I don't think it does).

So, what's sci-fi? Anything that's theoretically possible, but is currently nonexistant (spaceships, aliens, other dimensions (for all we know), Rama, the Overlords, the Inner Party, etc.). So, couldn't Star Wars fit in the sci-fi genre as well? Yes, to an extent. If you removed the force, it would be a classic example of sci-fi. "Sci-fi/fantasy" is a better way to categorize it. In fact, you could make any genre into sci-fi. There's a computer game called "Battlezone" (the newer one) that takes place during the cold war, but is set on the moon and various other planets. Historical sci-fi in action. If you took any regular fiction book or movie you can make it sci-fi. Take the movie "You've Got Mail" for instance. All you've got to do is change the setting. Give them hovercars and you've got a sci-fi film. But it's still romance isn't it? Yes. It only has a sci-fi setting. So, what good is a sci-fi setting if you're not going to have a sci-fi theme? Maybe you want to have a story that can't be done without a sci-fi element. Or maybe the sci-fi isn't science at all. Maybe it's merely a situation that isn't possible in today's world.

So, what's an example of a book that uses a sci-fi setting only to make the story possible? Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Yes, it does appeal to sci-fi fans in the usual way to an extent, but OSC doesn't have pages of scientific info. He uses sci-fi as the background, the setting. He concentrates more on the character in the story: Ender Wiggin, a child. The book is about what Ender goes through psychologically while training to be a commander of a space fleet against invading aliens. It's not a kids book. In fact, there's no space battle in the book. Better yet, you never really even see an alien. So, why did the author go through all the trouble of setting up a space battle against aliens and never even show a battle or an alien? Like I said, the book is about what Ender goes through in the training. And that's what makes the book fascinating. The sci-fi can be ignored.

So, what can we learn from this? That sci-fi can be no more than a setting sometimes. Sometimes, a sci-fi book can be a black sheep to the genre and be really good in a totally different respect. Time and Again, by Jack Finney, is a sci-fi romance. Not that I like romance, but romance buffs like that book and don't generally like sci-fi. So, there's now two rules to choosing books to read. 1) Don't judge a book by its cover (yes, it applies to books as well as people), and 2) Don't judge a book by its genre.