> What is the main difference between science fiction, and fantasy writing? Is there a distinction that seperates the two? I am wondering, because it just always seems to me that the two genres are grouped together. Anyone have any ideas?

I would define Science Fiction as: any story which describes the impact of technology or applied science(s) upon a society, and which depicts the individuals who are gripped by the consequences of using that science. In this statement you can define "science" as any type of 'described logic' that is internally consistent within the story. In other words, it has to follow a consistent scientific framework to describe the story's plot elements, even if those elements are fantastical.

Basically, this definition means that you don't have to depend on the plot elements to define what is, and is not, SF. It's obvious today that Futurism and spaceships do not necessarily mean SF, and a medieval setting with dragons and magic doesn't automatically mean Fantasy. Many novels have both. As Speedball mentioned, you can have, for example, humans of the far technofuture sent back into the far Pliocene past, where they discover a decadent, feudal alien race enslaving humans by a power which you'd have to call a "psychic magic". That's the scenario, anyway, as presented in Julian May's "The Many-Colored Land". You could comfortably call it both Science Fiction and Fantasy (Science Fantasy). And as Sam mentioned, the original Star Wars trilogy had more elements in common with nostalgic Fantasy, with respect to describing The Force as a spiritualized magic scheme. However with the introduction of the midi-chlorian description in The Phantom Menace, concurrently with a whole society of Jedi Knights (in their heyday) dedicated to studying the intricacies of The Force, the Star Wars universe has now taken on much more hard-core SF overtones.

There are a number of similar tales where magic and the paranormal are actually interpreted as 'science' within their context. For example, my second-favorite SF story of all time is "Convergent Series" by Larry Niven... It deals with an unbelieving young man who shocks himself by scientifically summoning a demon, thus damning his own soul. He uses pure science to solve his dilemma -- and faith to tie up the loose ends. Niven also has another great series called "The Magic Goes Away" which deliberately has barbarian swordsmen and scientist-warlocks and talking skulls and Atlantis and Norse gods and dragons (and a whole lot of other similar elements). In Magic Goes Away, the fantasy setting is decaying and is on the verge of collapse (hence the title). Then there is David Brin's novella "The Practice Effect", where the hero finds himself in a backwards society having a very curious mixture of medieval and superadvanced technologies. He finds out that objects have a mystical ability to be greatly "improved" in their function, when the user continually "practices" their functionality; and this Practice Effect seems to be a law of nature in that world. So I think I would define both of those books as Science Fiction due to their unique approach to describing the normally elusive element of "magic".

Wolfspirit