Uncle Figgy's Guide to Good Fantasy, or... Watch Where You're Pointing that Sword!

From the introduction: Fantasy is probably one of the hardest genres to write about. There's Pure Fantasy, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy, Quest Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery. And attempts to define any of those categories are lame at best. Sure, some are pretty easy: Contemporary Fantasy, for instance, is Fantasy that happens in the "here and now." But just what is Science Fantasy? Is it Fantasy where magic is used like technology or is it Science Fiction where the "science" is more like magic - having no real basis in science fact? And what about Dark Fantasy? Fantasy where life is cheap, the world is dirty and gritty, and the heroes die horrible, painful deaths fighting demons against which there is little hope? What about the Horror genre? It has very little "real" science in it. Couldn't it be called a "Dark, Contemporary Fantasy?"