Charles Stross on Sci Fi and Fantasy

Loosely speaking, if Science Fiction is often a literature of disruption (in which change is, if not good, at least embraced), Fantasy is frequently a literature of consolation: a warm feather-bed of social conservativism disguised as nostalgic escapism, a longing for feudal certainties.

Sounds about right.

P.S. He is the author of Singularity Sky.