Fantasy vs. Science Fiction

Fantasy (from English "fantasy") is a genre of fantastic literature based on the use of mythological and fairy-tale motifs. In its modern form, it took shape in the early 20th century. Fantasy works most often resemble historical adventure novels, set in a fictional world close to the real Middle Ages, where the characters encounter supernatural phenomena and creatures. Fantasy is often based on archetypal plots. Unlike science fiction, fantasy does not seek to explain the world in which the story takes place from a scientific point of view. This world exists as a kind of assumption (most often, its location relative to our reality is not specified at all: either it is a parallel world or another planet), and its physical laws differ from the realities of our world. In such a world, the existence of gods, magic, mythical creatures (dragons, gnomes, trolls), ghosts, and any other fantastic entities can be real. At the same time, the fundamental difference between the "miracles" of fantasy and their fairy-tale counterparts is that they are the norm of the described world and operate systematically, like the laws of nature. Today, fantasy is also a genre in cinema, painting, computer games, and board games. This genre universality is especially characteristic of Chinese fantasy with elements of Eastern martial arts.

Science fiction (SF) (from Greek "phantastike" - the art of imagining) is a genre in literature and cinema where events take place in a world that differs from modern or historical reality in at least one significant way. The difference can be technological, physical, historical, sociological, etc., but not magical.