Science fiction and fantasy hybrids

[limyaael]

Once again, I want to define some terms. I’m talking here about books with the “equipment” of both fantasy and science fiction: elves and lasers, for example, or magic and anti-gravity. I wouldn’t consider it a hybrid if there were a few machines that resembled magical artifacts but were fully explainable by any scientific laws and in any case were

Comments

[frenchpony]

Ooo. Now you've inspired me to go and finally read Titus Alone.

[limyaael]

Hope you enjoy it. I found the Gormenghast books hard going because of the style, and never did finish them.

[frenchpony]

I've found that listening to them on CD makes them easier for me.

[yamamanama]

You should try M. John Harrison's Viriconium and China Miéville's Bas-Lag series. Vandermeer's stuff too.

I have Gormenghast on the recommendation of a member of my forum, but I want to read The Great and Secret Show and Shriek: An Afterword first.

[dsgood]

Terms for this kind of mixture that I know of: "Science fantasy." "Starship and sorcery."

Tangent: There are stories in which science turns out to actually be magic, and ones in which magic turns out to actually be science. So far, I haven't seen stories in which both are true.

[limyaael]

"Science fantasy" is more familiar to me (and the Green book was actually printed with that on the spine, the only one I've ever seen).

And I haven't seen a story like that, either. Something like it would be interesting to write, however.

[42_23]

Assuming I'm reading you correctly

[syntaxus]

Ahh thank you Limyaael, that last paragraph just gave me a good idea... *starts writing again after a several-day lull*

[kadharonon]

As silly as they can be, the Artemis Fowl books seem to do a fairly good job of mixing high technology and magic; the fairies have to perform a ritual every so often in order to keep their magic, they can lose their magic through many ways, and although the technology of the fairies tries to do what the magic does, it never quite manages to.

They're one of my favorite fluff books series.

[limyaael]

Those I haven't read. They sound interesting, though.

[ciage]

Heh, one of my pet peeves is when the series totally jars you with the sudden impact of science (or magic out of nowhere after the first few hundred pages) when there's been no hint of it whatsoever prior (I wasn't a big fan of the Wayfarer Redemption series by Sarah Douglass, but I thought I'd get into the next series just to see the continuation but then I heard that it really jars from the first. I haven't read, but it annoys me for some reason). I'm fine for hybrids, but the hints have to be there, so maybe I don't see it at first, but a second read-through it's something. Usually though, low fantasy/science fiction hybrids work the best for me, but that's more of a personal taste. Then again, I kinda get bored with most stories involving magic being cast in a pseedo-medieval era just because it's been done to death. Historical earth I can understand, but in original worlds, I kinda like to see different countries/areas at completely different technological abilities.

[limyaael]

Ugh, me too (which is why I'm grateful that in one of the "fantasy world was really founded by people from outer space" series I read, the magic is magic, with the "scientific" explanations sounding just as magical, and there's also undead, different kinds of magic, things like pisonic powers that can be either/or, and so on to counterbalance it).

I'm also bored of the pseudo-medieval era. All my favorite fantasies lately have been a version of historical Earth, pseudo-Victorian, or in a different place entirely. (I'm writing in a South American kind of setting with a varying technological level right now).

[jordan179]

Heh, one of my pet peeves is when the series totally jars you with the sudden impact of science (or magic out of nowhere after the first few hundred pages) when there's been no hint of it whatsoever prior ...

The Birthgrave, by Tanith Lee? Or was that series good enough in other respects to avoid annoying you? I liked it because she demonstrated that she wsa one of the few fantasy authors to really grasp the concept of cultural succession -- most of her worlds have a "deep history." Much like Tolkien in that regard, though her deep histories are generally darker in displayed tone (*)

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(*) Tolkien's world is actually quite dark if you consider the details of its history, but it is rarely perceived as being dark, perhaps because of his focus on Hobbits in his most popular work.