Through the process of writing my novel, I've found that I really don't know where it fits in the written realm. I believe I should have a clear understanding to identify what genre my book belongs in.
Fantasy is about things that cannot occur and has no logical explanation; about alien planets and magic and monsters. Science fiction has logical explanations to all things occurring in the work and often takes place in a futuristic time setting.
Or, pulled straight from a dictionary:
Science fiction: Fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and alien life on other planets.
Fantasy: A genre of imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure, esp. in a setting other than the real world.
But for novels that are completely rooted in logic and playing out on different planets with inhabitants who greatly resemble humans and have no powers, what then? Is it filed in a completely different category than these two?
I really need a healthy dose of clarification on the matter.
Answer
To me, the difference is not whether the story has a logical explanation, but whether it could have an explanation in this universe. Another way to say it: Fantasy may violate what we know to be true of the universe. Science fiction may not.
A monster, an alien planet, or "magic" could be either fantastical or science fictional, depending on whether it violates the known laws of the universe.
Now, even that line is fuzzy, because "known" is fuzzy and to some extent changeable. And different readers know different things. A quirk of physics that most readers would accept might violate the knowledge of a scientist who specializes in that aspect of physics.
And sometimes an explanation will make the difference. A given monster, planet, or magic might, with sufficient explanation, shift from fantasy to science fiction. What seems like magic may be "merely" technology sufficiently advanced.
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