I’ve never understood why these two genres are so often conflated. The connection between them seems tenuous to the extreme. They have a similar fanbase, to be sure. But does that fanbase like both genres because they’re always placed together, or is it the other way round?

I have a stronger emotional connection with science fiction. It’s because science fiction has the potential to be true, whereas fantasy is exactly that; deliberately fantastical. Aren’t science and fantasy actually diametrically opposed?

I enjoy fantasy, greatly. But I don’t connect with it with the same depth of feeling. Science fiction is naturally aspirational about the potential for (usually) humanity. It investigates possible paths to our future, however unlikely. Fantasy doesn’t make any such attempt.