I watched Dune for the first time last week (remember how I said I’m late to the party on everything?). Rather than getting me excited for Part 2, it made me think about how hard sci-fi and high fantasy are overrated.
Don’t get me wrong; I love Lord of the Rings and Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere. I’ve yet to find hard sci-fi that I like, but I’m sure it’s out there somewhere. Yet, as I watched people fighting amongst sand and giant worms on the screen, what I kept thinking was: I wish I could know more about Paul.
Now, you might say: “Well, movies aren’t great with characters. You should read the book!” I have. And I didn’t like it. Why? Because there was so much technical stuff, so much worldbuilding that I don’t remember hardly anything about the novel except for a general impression of violence and sand. I still felt like I didn’t know Paul. He seemed like an interesting character, but his journey was interrupted and overshadowed by the “hard” in “hard sci-fi.” Maybe he did have a great character arc, but I couldn’t see it through the hazy sandstorm of meticulous worldbuilding.
I know there’s a place for these genres and many people love them. As I said, I love some of these stories, too. But honestly, what I prefer are the stories that focus more on characters than worldbuilding. I may have just committed blasphemy in the world of speculative fiction, but I’m not alone, right? Doesn’t anyone else want to read about cool stuff happening on another world/in another universe, but without all the history and technical stuff to dig through? In sci-fi we call this “soft sci-fi,” but I’m not sure if there’s a term for it in fantasy. “Low fantasy” refers to magical realism/urban fantasy, which isn’t what I’m talking about. I still want the stories to be in a fantasy world…just not as complicated. (If there is a specific genre name for this, please let me know!)
If I’m going to read a story, I want to remember the amazing characters and the way they made me feel. I want to recall the parts of the plot that made me gasp or yell or cry. I enjoy good worldbuilding, but it’s not what I care about most. Even in Brandon Sanderson’s novels, I find myself recounting stories of the characters more than the magic or world itself. And these kinds of stories can still have great worldbuilding—in fact, I’d be disappointed if they didn’t. The point is that the worldbuilding doesn’t overshadow the characters and their journeys.
In today’s world, I think that maybe, just maybe, we’re trying too hard to outdo each other in the spec fiction world—to make the coolest planet, the most intricate magic system, the most horrifying backstory for our world. But what if we just let the characters take over? What if we stopped trying so hard to be bigger and better and instead just let our story do its thing? Our books might not be as thick, but maybe they’d be more meaningful and memorable.
And here’s another thing: sci-fi and fantasy are deemed more and more “inaccessible” because people who aren’t used to the genres are afraid of getting lost in all the technical stuff in the most famous books. And they’d be right. Where are all of the “accessible” speculative fiction books that welcome people into the genre with great plots, great characters, and great worldbuilding that all work together in harmony?
I used to feel out of place when I said I wrote sci-fi/fantasy because everyone would expect some crazy epic novels like Dune or Return of the King. Now I realise that I just have a different calling to write these underrated “less technical” books—because they’re the stories I enjoy. Maybe they’ll simply be introductions to the sci-fi and fantasy genres, or maybe there really are other people out there who enjoy these types of stories as I do.
Whatever the case, I hope that you, dear reader, are encouraged that you don’t have to write the craziest spec fiction story for it to count as “real” sci-fi or fantasy. And if you love writing or reading hard sci-fi and/or high fantasy, that’s wonderful! I hope you continue to enjoy it—but I also hope that you welcome with open arms those who have a preference for the “softer” stories in spec fiction.
If you know any good books in these genres, please let me know in the comments! I have a TBR list that could span the whole state by now but I’m always adding to it anyway. And if you have any thoughts or questions on this topic, please leave a comment or contact me!
Happy writing!
—E.J.
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The Story Canvas 
Whelp. I write fiction. During exploratory immediately upon forced retirement, I worked with genres I was unfamiliar with as a writer. For practice, skill building and to see if maybe I hadn’t somewhere along the line missed something. Spec fiction, twisted fairy tales, odd ET visitations, robots, and such, mildly dark tales, even female-POV [I’m male] and poetry. Some, admittedly in my narrow opinion, not bad. I discovered most “readers” want to be entertained a la Hollywood and television; they do not want to contribute to their enjoyment of a tale, forced to think and explore well-crafted characters, to invest any time at all soaking-up scenic details or minor explanation of manufactured aspects of a future plot. It’s a matter of “Gimme a bag of Cheetos, flash and sparkle, maybe some nudity, and a lot of CGI, but don’t tax me with using my mind.”
You must be one of those exceptional people. People who don’t mind sweating a bit as an audience. You have my condolences.
I’d suggest short forms might be diversionary for you while looking for a longer read to chew on. Gonna have to deal with poorly-written flash, deeply dark fiction, and a boatload of cookie-cutter space sagas, but the beauty of “short” is that you won’t invest too much time and in most cases will know right away you’re dealing with junk.
Good luck to you, other like-minded readers, and to me trying to find a way to expose my better efforts. The ship, for me, I worry, is never going to hit port.
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Thanks so much for your comment! I completely agree; it really saddens me how much people are eating up “cheap” fiction that doesn’t challenge them at all. We are definitely some of the few who care about the heart of storytelling, but I keep writing in the hope that more of those special readers will find my stories. I very much hope that they’ll find yours, too! I really appreciate the recommendation as well; I absolutely need to read more short fiction, especially since I write so much of it. Thanks again for reading and sharing your thoughts; it’s good to be reminded I’m not alone. 😊
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