: Re: Do Epic Fantasy and Sci-Fi books have inherently more descriptive language? For example the book Eragon by Paolini, and Magic Kingdom by Terry Brooks. These both have lots of description.

@Angie602

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Fantasy and science fiction books have a major additional task that other genres can avoid if they wish: worldbuilding.

A story of any genre can devote a lot of attention to description and detail, but it isn't a necessity dictated by the choice of genre. But SF and fantasy, as a rule, need to establish a new world. They need to explain how their setting works, how the world functions, how their premise has made the story's reality different from our own.

Even if 99% of the world is mundane, and exactly like our own, the fact that it's in the SF/fantasy genre means readers are coming without assuming that most aspects of the real world carry over to the story. You need to give the readers grounding, let them know where they're landed.

All that being said, there are incredible varieties in style. Plenty of genres, like romance and thrillers and certainly travelogues, will leap at the opportunity to explore a strange or unusual location. And plenty of SF/fantasy writers are sparse and lean, establishing the setting in a very minimal way and leaving it at that.

Bottom line is, yes, there's good reason for fantasy and science fiction to devote extra attention to description. But, if you look, you'll find that pretty much any combination imaginable can be done.

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