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I posted this subject a few months ago but never really got what I was looking for. My question is how can one sucessfully mix Sci-Fi and Fantasy together but still stay in the same field? Like im writing ,what I think is, a Fantasy Story but I have "Sky ships". guns, Machines, but I still have swords, magic, etc. But by mixing tech with magic does the story stay Fantasy, or transform into Sci-Fi? Moreover can someone give me a list of novels that are mixed?
Posts: 36 | Registered: Feb 2006
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Since most fantasy stories are set in a parallel past it seems innevitable that eventually they'll develop technologies and come to a parallel present and then future. Unfortunately, I can't think of any examples of this but I see no problem with it.
Posts: 18 | Registered: Jan 2007
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Most of the time when I see tech in fantasy worlds it is in a distant past and the technology is decayed and all but forgotten. Robert Jordan actually does this in Wheel of Time. If I recall correctly, Terry Brooks does this in his Shanara books.
More often, I see magic in science fiction. Star Wars is a classic example of this -- the force is a magical/religious element that brings fantasy into the story. My current WIP is along these lines.
You can do whatever you like. I think that if you throw machines into a parallel-world type fantasy, that it will be better classified as fantasy if for no better reason than that fantasy fans would appreciate it more. (And fans of both, but purists in the scifi genre won't.) If you put magic/religion in an science fiction scape, I think that it will tend to be classified primarily as scifi.
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If in your world magic is somewhat rare, the folks without that advantage are going to inevitably seek to cancel that advantage out - either by wiping out the magic users or evolving their technologies.
Mick Farren mixes sci-fi and fantasy all the time in his books - "Necrom", "Kindling" and "The Last Stand of the DNA Cowboys" come immediately to mind.
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Are any of your science fiction elements particularly "hard" SF?
For instance, does the story revolve around technical details of how you would, in real life, build one of these "Sky ships"?
If that were the case, I'd say that mixing magic (rather "psi" or whatever) in will tend to seem pretty strange to a lot of your natural audience, and th hard-core technical exposition necessary to the SF plot will be hard for a lot of Fantasy readers to follow. But that doesn't mean you can't do it.
If your Sci-Fi elements aren't "hard", then you just have to make sure that the economics of magic relative to technology work out properly. Not that everybody who puts out soft-core science fantasy does that, but it's a good idea. As for generating a list, you need to realize that probably the majority of current Fantasy probably fits into the category you describe, "Sky ships", at least some guns and steampunk machinery, swords and magic and whatall. Where do you draw the line? Is Enchantment on your list? What about Children of the Mind? How about The Two Towers?
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Just make sure you have rules that you obey. both the magic and the tech, as well as their interaction need rules and they have to be consistent. If you do that, you're 90% of the way there.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
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I can't think of any fantasy books with advanced science but The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara books by Terry Brooks use air ships. Their operation is attributed to magic using 'light crystals' and 'draw radians.'(It's been a while since I read them so these terms might not be exact.) Still I see no problem using advanced science if it's properly explained and not just random bits of technology.
[This message has been edited by JasonVaughn (edited January 19, 2007).]
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You can have all sorts of magic in your science fiction world, as long as you have an acceptable cause for it. If it is only on that planet, it could be radiation leaking from an alien installation. If only the locals have the magic, it could be that they have mineral build up in their brains that act like a converter for that energy.
If the magic is through the universe, it could be something like the force (use a different name), or one could use technology to do it, possibly a piece of jewelery that catches mental commands and turns it into magic.
The idea is that if you can explain why it works scientifically, it is science fiction.
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At analog they define SF as significantly relying on science and/or technologies and if you removed the tech the story colapses. They say if the story works without tech then it is not SF.
that's in the Analog submissions section. I have no idea what defines Fantasy
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I've always felt the "hard SF" school tended to produce works of the "have slipstick will travel" variety. A bunch of engineers creating things beyond the easy understanding of laymen like me.
Analog isn't be be-all and end-all of SF (I admit I started there, though). I'll say in SF, the science should be accurate (within reason), but the focus should always remain on the people.
(As for engineers-in-science-fiction...well, I've never run across any in real life that were anything like the ones that usually pop up in SF stories. "Dilbert" is closer to real life than SF...I'm glad I didn't pursue engineering as a career...I'd hate to be doing what Dilbert does.)
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Analog may not be the be-all-end-all for SF, but they are very particular about what they accept. I recenly had a personal rejection from Stan Schmidt which, for all intents an purposes said this: Good story, not hard SF.
He's right. A few minor changes and the story in question could be moved from the moon to an Earth wilderness. Removing the speculative part of my story did not cause it to collapse. The story belongs elsewhere.
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I think a lot of my stories have been science fiction in the details (futuristic technology, far future date, that sort of thing), but falls down in the "hard SF" category. Perhaps I was too drawn to the "colorful adventure" aspects of SF to work out too much in the way of rigorous speculation about what the future might be...mmm...food for thought...maybe I should move over to fantasy or some other genre, after all...
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