Science fantasy
Encyclopedia
Science fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction
drawing elements from both science fiction
and fantasy
. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the genres science fiction and supernatural
.
, is that "science fiction makes the implausible possible, while science fantasy makes the impossible plausible." The meaning is that science fiction describes unlikely things that could possibly take place in the real world under certain conditions, while science fantasy gives a veneer of realism to things that simply could not happen in the real world under any circumstances. Another interpretation is that science fiction does not permit the existence of fantasy
or supernatural
elements; science fantasy does. Even the usage of this definition is difficult, however, as some science fiction makes use of apparently supernatural elements such as telepathy
although science fiction can use telepathy or telekinesis because they deal with the mind and such abilities can be accessed or created through scientific means.
For many users of the term, however, "science fantasy" is either a science fiction story that has drifted far enough from reality to "feel" like a fantasy, or a fantasy story that is attempting to be science fiction. While these are in theory classifiable as different approaches, and thus different genres (fantastic science fiction vs. scientific fantasy), the end products are sometimes indistinguishable.
Arthur C. Clarke
's dictum the "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" indicates why this is so: a writer can write a fantasy using magic of various sorts, and yet turn the story into science fiction by positing some highly advanced technology, or as-yet-unknown but ultimately thoroughly provable science, as an explanation for how the magic can occur. Another writer can describe a future world where technologies are so advanced to be invisible, and the effects produced would be classified as magical if they were only described as such. A world might include magic which only some people (or only the reader) know to be in fact technological effects.
There is therefore nothing intrinsic about the effects described in a given story that will tell the reader whether it is science fiction or fantasy. The classification of an effect as "fantastic" or "science fictional" is a matter of convention. Hyperspace, time machines and scientists are conventions of science fiction; flying carpets, magical amulets and wizards are tropes
of fantasy. This is an accident of the historical development of the genre. In some cases they have overlapped: teleportation by matter-transmitter-beam is science fiction, teleportation by incantation is fantasy. A hand-held cloaking device that confers invisibility is science fiction; a hand-held Ring of Power that confers invisibility is fantasy. Mind-to-mind communication can be "psionics", or it can be an ancient elvish art. What matters is not the effect itself (generally scientifically impossible, though not always believed to be so by the authors) but the wider universe it is intended to evoke. If it is one of space travel and proton-pistols, it gets classified as "science fiction", and the appropriate terms (cloaking device, matter-transmitter) are used; if it is one of castles, sailing ships and swords, it gets classified as "fantasy", and we instead speak of magic rings and travel by enchantment. In short, science fiction uses technology to explain impossible phenomena while fantasy employs magic. For the most part, science fiction will attempt to explain its effects using known physical laws or reasonable extensions of them. Science fantasy will generally ignore physical laws (i.e., magic) or invent its own structure of laws which have no necessary connection to known laws. Science fiction is also more likely to take the time to delineate the laws or extensions involved, while fantasy will provide a more meager structure of its invented rules.
Drawing the line between science fiction and fantasy is not made any clearer by the fact that both of them can use invented worlds, non-human intelligent creatures (sometimes, in science fiction as well as fantasy, based on myth: consider C. L. Moore
's Shambleau
and Yvala), and amazing monsters. It is, to a large extent, authorial fiat that tells us that C. S. Lewis
' Narnia books are set in a fantasy world rather than on another planet. An example of this is Star Wars
, a borderline case in which a mystical power known as the Force
lends a strong fantasy element to the science fiction veneer. The main difference between the two is that science fiction is largely based on established scientific theories, while science fantasy is largely implausible.
Even archaism, one of the strongest conventional marks of fantasy, is not an infallible distinguishing characteristic: an archaic world of edged weapons and battlemented fortresses could simply be another planet that has entered a stage of barbarism, or has never emerged from it. Some of Marion Zimmer Bradley
's Darkover
books represent just such a world, complete with technology-indistinguishable-from-magic. (It is this, as much as the "dragons", that leads some readers to perceive McCaffrey's
Pern series
as fantasy, in spite of the science-fictional setting established in the first paragraphs of the first book.)
s, such as Robert A. Heinlein
's Magic, Inc.
and L. Ron Hubbard
's Slaves of Sleep
. Fletcher Pratt
and L. Sprague de Camp
produced the Harold Shea series. All were relatively rationalistic
stories published in John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Unknown
Magazine. These were a deliberate attempt to apply the techniques and attitudes of science fiction to traditional fantasy and legendary subjects. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published, among other things, all but the last of the Operation series, by Poul Anderson
.
Henry Kuttner
and C. L. Moore
published novels in Startling Stories
, alone and together, which were far more romantic
. These were closely related to the work that they and others were doing for outlets like Weird Tales
, such as Moore's Northwest Smith
stories cited above.
Early science fiction book publisher Gnome Press
published Robert E. Howard
's Conan the Conqueror in hardback in 1950 with the book clearly labeled "science fantasy" on the dustjacket.
Ace Books
published a number of books as science fantasy during the 1950s and '60s. Many of them, such as Leigh Brackett
's Mars stories, are still regarded as such. Conan the Conqueror was published as an Ace Double with Brackett's Sword of Rhiannon. Others, such as Andre Norton
's Witch World
books, are now considered outright fantasy. Mercedes Lackey
has discussed this period in her recent introduction to an omnibus edition of the first three Witch World books. In the U.S. at that time, these were almost the only stories which used that label.
's Dying Earth stories are sometimes classed as science fantasy because the cosmology used is not compatible with that conventionally accepted by science fiction. Other stories in the Dying Earth subgenre such as M. John Harrison
's Viriconium
novels or Gene Wolfe
's Book of the New Sun
are usually classed as science fantasy.
The works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and E R Eddison are probably the earliest examples of this genre, especially the John Carter of Mars series. David Lindsay
's A Voyage to Arcturus, published in 1920 is one of the earliest examples of the type, although it differs from most of them in not assuming a science-fictional background of interplanetary or interstellar travel; it is rather a philosophical romance, which uses an alien planet as a background for exploring philosophical themes. C. S. Lewis
' Out of the Silent Planet
(1938) is an example of the same type of story, though in its case the preoccupations are theological. In both cases the magical elements are barely rationalized, and in Lewis' case stand in stark contrast to the pseudo-scientific machinery that frames the story.
Some examples of this type of science fantasy deliberately blur the already vague distinction between science fictional paranormal powers and magic; for instance, Poul Anderson
's The Queen of Air and Darkness, in which aliens use psionic powers of illusion to imitate earthly myths of fairies—who are themselves traditionally regarded as magical illusionists.
's The Worm Ouroboros
, nominally set on the planet Mercury, but a Mercury that is indistinguishable in any way from a fantasy Earth. This work may be considered a borderline case.
In Andre Norton's Witch World series, the fantasy world is excused as a parallel universe
. There are a few science fictional elements in the earlier stories of this series, which are absent from the later novels.
Terry Brooks
' Shannara
books represent a fantasy world as the far future of Earth after supernatural events cause the downfall of civilization.[dubious - discuss]
fall into this category, as well as those of his imitators such as Otis Adelbert Kline
, Kenneth Bulmer
, Lin Carter
, and John Norman
. They are largely classed as "science fantasy" because of the presence of swords and, usually, an archaic aristocratic social system; Burroughs' own novels are, however, skeptical in spirit and almost free of any non-rationalized "fantastic" element (other than the never-explained mechanism by which John Carter gets to Mars). The graphic novel Camelot 3000
is another good example of this. The movie Krull
also falls in this category, since that the movie depicts a story where a near omnipotent alien creature invades a fantasy world and the protagonists must find a way to fight back against the alien.
, in which petrification means danger because turning carbon to silicon results in a radioactive isotope
, and his Operation Chaos, where werewolves and other lycanthropes are the same size in human and animal form, owing to conservation of mass.
Science fantasy is also a popular subject for role-playing games, of both pen-and-paper and computer varieties, the latter most popularly emphasized by games such as Final Fantasy VII
and VIII
, which incorporate fantasy elements such as magic in dystopian, futuristic world settings. One of the earliest pen-and-paper games to reference the term was Gamma World
published by TSR in 1980 (the same company that originated Dungeons and Dragons)., while its predecessor Metamorphosis Alpha
, published in 1976 is classified as science fiction, highlighting some of the confusion between the two genres. The manga Dragon Ball
can be considerated a kind of science fantasy, seeing that science fiction elements like aliens, robots and high technology coexist with supernatural concepts like gods, demons, afterlife and powers based on the manipulation of ki
.
Speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as...
drawing elements from both science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the genres science fiction and supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
.
Science fantasy vs. science fiction
A definition, offered by Rod SerlingRod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...
, is that "science fiction makes the implausible possible, while science fantasy makes the impossible plausible." The meaning is that science fiction describes unlikely things that could possibly take place in the real world under certain conditions, while science fantasy gives a veneer of realism to things that simply could not happen in the real world under any circumstances. Another interpretation is that science fiction does not permit the existence of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
or supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
elements; science fantasy does. Even the usage of this definition is difficult, however, as some science fiction makes use of apparently supernatural elements such as telepathy
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
although science fiction can use telepathy or telekinesis because they deal with the mind and such abilities can be accessed or created through scientific means.
For many users of the term, however, "science fantasy" is either a science fiction story that has drifted far enough from reality to "feel" like a fantasy, or a fantasy story that is attempting to be science fiction. While these are in theory classifiable as different approaches, and thus different genres (fantastic science fiction vs. scientific fantasy), the end products are sometimes indistinguishable.
Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
's dictum the "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" indicates why this is so: a writer can write a fantasy using magic of various sorts, and yet turn the story into science fiction by positing some highly advanced technology, or as-yet-unknown but ultimately thoroughly provable science, as an explanation for how the magic can occur. Another writer can describe a future world where technologies are so advanced to be invisible, and the effects produced would be classified as magical if they were only described as such. A world might include magic which only some people (or only the reader) know to be in fact technological effects.
There is therefore nothing intrinsic about the effects described in a given story that will tell the reader whether it is science fiction or fantasy. The classification of an effect as "fantastic" or "science fictional" is a matter of convention. Hyperspace, time machines and scientists are conventions of science fiction; flying carpets, magical amulets and wizards are tropes
Trope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
of fantasy. This is an accident of the historical development of the genre. In some cases they have overlapped: teleportation by matter-transmitter-beam is science fiction, teleportation by incantation is fantasy. A hand-held cloaking device that confers invisibility is science fiction; a hand-held Ring of Power that confers invisibility is fantasy. Mind-to-mind communication can be "psionics", or it can be an ancient elvish art. What matters is not the effect itself (generally scientifically impossible, though not always believed to be so by the authors) but the wider universe it is intended to evoke. If it is one of space travel and proton-pistols, it gets classified as "science fiction", and the appropriate terms (cloaking device, matter-transmitter) are used; if it is one of castles, sailing ships and swords, it gets classified as "fantasy", and we instead speak of magic rings and travel by enchantment. In short, science fiction uses technology to explain impossible phenomena while fantasy employs magic. For the most part, science fiction will attempt to explain its effects using known physical laws or reasonable extensions of them. Science fantasy will generally ignore physical laws (i.e., magic) or invent its own structure of laws which have no necessary connection to known laws. Science fiction is also more likely to take the time to delineate the laws or extensions involved, while fantasy will provide a more meager structure of its invented rules.
Drawing the line between science fiction and fantasy is not made any clearer by the fact that both of them can use invented worlds, non-human intelligent creatures (sometimes, in science fiction as well as fantasy, based on myth: consider C. L. Moore
C. L. Moore
Catherine Lucille Moore was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, as C. L. Moore. She was one of the first women to write in the genre, and paved the way for many other female writers in speculative fiction....
's Shambleau
Northwest Smith
Northwest Smith is a fictional character, and the hero of a series of stories by science fiction writer C. L. Moore.- Story setting :Smith is a spaceship pilot and smuggler who lives in an undisclosed future time when humanity has colonized the solar system....
and Yvala), and amazing monsters. It is, to a large extent, authorial fiat that tells us that C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
' Narnia books are set in a fantasy world rather than on another planet. An example of this is Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
, a borderline case in which a mystical power known as the Force
Force (Star Wars)
The Force is a binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas. Mentioned in the first film in the series, it is integral to all subsequent incarnations of Star Wars, including the expanded universe of comic books, novels, and...
lends a strong fantasy element to the science fiction veneer. The main difference between the two is that science fiction is largely based on established scientific theories, while science fantasy is largely implausible.
Even archaism, one of the strongest conventional marks of fantasy, is not an infallible distinguishing characteristic: an archaic world of edged weapons and battlemented fortresses could simply be another planet that has entered a stage of barbarism, or has never emerged from it. Some of Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series. Many critics have noted a feminist perspective in her writing. Her first child, David R...
's Darkover
Darkover
Darkover is the focus of the Darkover series of science fiction novels and short stories by Marion Zimmer Bradley and others published since 1958. According to the novels, Darkover is the only human-habitable of seven planets orbiting a fictional red giant star called Cottman...
books represent just such a world, complete with technology-indistinguishable-from-magic. (It is this, as much as the "dragons", that leads some readers to perceive McCaffrey's
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...
Pern series
Dragonriders of Pern
Dragonriders of Pern is a science fiction series written primarily by the late American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series comprises 22 novels and several short...
as fantasy, in spite of the science-fictional setting established in the first paragraphs of the first book.)
Historical view
The label first came into wide use after many science fantasy stories were published in the pulp magazinePulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
s, such as Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's Magic, Inc.
Magic, Inc.
Magic, Inc. is a novella by Robert A. Heinlein. It was originally published in Unknown Fantasy Fiction, for September 1940 under the title "The Devil Makes the Law"....
and L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
's Slaves of Sleep
Slaves of Sleep
Slaves of Sleep is a science fiction novel by author L. Ron Hubbard. It was first published in book form in 1948 by Shasta Publishers; the novel originally appeared in 1939 in an issue of the magazine Unknown. The novel presents a story in which a man travels to a parallel universe ruled by Ifrits...
. Fletcher Pratt
Fletcher Pratt
Murray Fletcher Pratt was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history, particularly noted for his works on naval history and on the American Civil War.- Life and work :...
and L. Sprague de Camp
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...
produced the Harold Shea series. All were relatively rationalistic
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
stories published in John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Unknown
Unknown (magazine)
Unknown was an American pulp fantasy fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1943 by Street & Smith, and edited by John W. Campbell. Unknown was a companion to Street & Smith's science fiction pulp, Astounding Science Fiction, which was also edited by Campbell at the time; many authors and...
Magazine. These were a deliberate attempt to apply the techniques and attitudes of science fiction to traditional fantasy and legendary subjects. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published, among other things, all but the last of the Operation series, by Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
.
Henry Kuttner
Henry Kuttner
Henry Kuttner was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror.-Early life:Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915...
and C. L. Moore
C. L. Moore
Catherine Lucille Moore was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, as C. L. Moore. She was one of the first women to write in the genre, and paved the way for many other female writers in speculative fiction....
published novels in Startling Stories
Startling Stories
Startling Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories, Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue;...
, alone and together, which were far more romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
. These were closely related to the work that they and others were doing for outlets like Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
, such as Moore's Northwest Smith
Northwest Smith
Northwest Smith is a fictional character, and the hero of a series of stories by science fiction writer C. L. Moore.- Story setting :Smith is a spaceship pilot and smuggler who lives in an undisclosed future time when humanity has colonized the solar system....
stories cited above.
Early science fiction book publisher Gnome Press
Gnome Press
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics.The company was founded in 1948 by Martin Greenberg and David A. Kyle. Many of Gnome's titles were reprinted in England by Boardman Books...
published Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
's Conan the Conqueror in hardback in 1950 with the book clearly labeled "science fantasy" on the dustjacket.
Ace Books
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
published a number of books as science fantasy during the 1950s and '60s. Many of them, such as Leigh Brackett
Leigh Brackett
Leigh Douglass Brackett was an American author, particularly of science fiction. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on famous films such as The Big Sleep , Rio Bravo , The Long Goodbye and The Empire Strikes Back .-Life:Leigh Brackett was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California...
's Mars stories, are still regarded as such. Conan the Conqueror was published as an Ace Double with Brackett's Sword of Rhiannon. Others, such as Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
's Witch World
Witch World
The Witch World by Andre Norton is a long series of fantasy novels set in a parallel universe where magic works and, at the beginning of the series, is exclusively performed by women. The series combines many traits of high fantasy and sword and sorcery. It begins with what is now called the...
books, are now considered outright fantasy. Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes "Misty" Lackey is a best-selling American author of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar...
has discussed this period in her recent introduction to an omnibus edition of the first three Witch World books. In the U.S. at that time, these were almost the only stories which used that label.
Dying Earth
Jack VanceJack Vance
John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...
's Dying Earth stories are sometimes classed as science fantasy because the cosmology used is not compatible with that conventionally accepted by science fiction. Other stories in the Dying Earth subgenre such as M. John Harrison
M. John Harrison
M. John Harrison , known as Mike Harrison, is an English author and critic. His work includes the Viriconium sequence of novels and short stories, , Climbers , and the Kefahuchi Tract series which begins with Light . He currently resides in London.-Early years:Harrison was born in Rugby,...
's Viriconium
Viriconium
Viriconium is a fictional city created by M. John Harrison and also the name of the cycle of novels and stories set in and around it.Viriconium is on a future Earth littered with the technological detritus of millennia Viriconium is a fictional city created by M. John Harrison and also the name of...
novels or Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe
Gene Wolfe is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying into the religion. He is a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the...
's Book of the New Sun
The Book of the New Sun
The Book of the New Sun is a novel in four parts written by science fiction and fantasy author Gene Wolfe. It chronicles the journey and ascent to power of Severian, a disgraced journeyman torturer who rises to the position of Autarch, the one ruler of the free world...
are usually classed as science fantasy.
Planetary romance
The planetary romance, a story set primarily or wholly on a single planet and illustrating its scenery, native peoples (if any) and cultures, offers considerable scope for science fantasy, in the sense of fantasy rationalized by reference to science-fictional conventions.The works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and E R Eddison are probably the earliest examples of this genre, especially the John Carter of Mars series. David Lindsay
David Lindsay (novelist)
David Lindsay was a Scottish author now most famous for the philosophical science fiction novel A Voyage to Arcturus .-Biography:...
's A Voyage to Arcturus, published in 1920 is one of the earliest examples of the type, although it differs from most of them in not assuming a science-fictional background of interplanetary or interstellar travel; it is rather a philosophical romance, which uses an alien planet as a background for exploring philosophical themes. C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
' Out of the Silent Planet
Out of the Silent Planet
Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy, Ransom Trilogy or Cosmic Trilogy. The other volumes are Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, and a fragment of a sequel was published posthumously as The...
(1938) is an example of the same type of story, though in its case the preoccupations are theological. In both cases the magical elements are barely rationalized, and in Lewis' case stand in stark contrast to the pseudo-scientific machinery that frames the story.
Some examples of this type of science fantasy deliberately blur the already vague distinction between science fictional paranormal powers and magic; for instance, Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
's The Queen of Air and Darkness, in which aliens use psionic powers of illusion to imitate earthly myths of fairies—who are themselves traditionally regarded as magical illusionists.
SF otherworlds
Some science fantasies use fantasy worlds with the thinnest veneer of science fictional trappings, only distinguishable with difficulty from standard fantasy. An early example of this type is Eric Rücker EddisonEric Rucker Eddison
Eric Rücker Eddison was an English civil servant and author, writing under the name "E.R. Eddison."-Biography:...
's The Worm Ouroboros
The Worm Ouroboros
The Worm Ouroboros is a heroic high fantasy novel by Eric Rücker Eddison, first published in 1922. The book describes the protracted war between the domineering King Gorice of Witchland and the Lords of Demonland in an imaginary world that appears mainly medieval and partly reminiscent of Norse sagas...
, nominally set on the planet Mercury, but a Mercury that is indistinguishable in any way from a fantasy Earth. This work may be considered a borderline case.
In Andre Norton's Witch World series, the fantasy world is excused as a parallel universe
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
. There are a few science fictional elements in the earlier stories of this series, which are absent from the later novels.
Terry Brooks
Terry Brooks
Terence Dean "Terry" Brooks is an American writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly epic fantasy, and has also written two movie novelizations. He has written 23 New York Times bestsellers during his writing career, and has over 21 million copies of his books in print...
' Shannara
Shannara
Shannara is an epic fantasy series of novels written by Terry Brooks, beginning with The Sword of Shannara in 1977 and continuing through Bearers of the Black Staff which was released on August 24, 2010, as well as a prequel, First King of Shannara...
books represent a fantasy world as the far future of Earth after supernatural events cause the downfall of civilization.[dubious - discuss]
Sword and planet
Many works by Edgar Rice BurroughsEdgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
fall into this category, as well as those of his imitators such as Otis Adelbert Kline
Otis Adelbert Kline
Otis Adelbert Kline born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, was an adventure novelist and literary agent during the pulp era. Much of his work first appeared in the magazine Weird Tales. Kline was an amateur orientalist and a student of Arabic, like his friend and sometime collaborator, E...
, Kenneth Bulmer
Kenneth Bulmer
Henry Kenneth Bulmer was a British author, primarily of science fiction.-Life:Born in London, he married Pamela Buckmaster on 7 March 1953. They had one son and two daughters, and were divorced in 1981...
, Lin Carter
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St. Petersburg, Florida...
, and John Norman
John Norman
John Frederick Lange, Jr. , better known under his pen name John Norman, is a professor of philosophy and an author. He is best known for his Gor novel series.-Biography:...
. They are largely classed as "science fantasy" because of the presence of swords and, usually, an archaic aristocratic social system; Burroughs' own novels are, however, skeptical in spirit and almost free of any non-rationalized "fantastic" element (other than the never-explained mechanism by which John Carter gets to Mars). The graphic novel Camelot 3000
Camelot 3000
Camelot 3000 is an American twelve-issue comic book limited series written by Mike W. Barr and penciled by Brian Bolland. It was published by DC Comics from 1982 to 1985 as one of its first direct market projects, and as its first maxi-series.-Plot:...
is another good example of this. The movie Krull
Krull (film)
Krull is a 1983 heroic fantasy film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Ron Silverman. Released by Columbia Pictures, it stars Ken Marshall as Prince Colwyn and Lysette Anthony as Princess Lyssa....
also falls in this category, since that the movie depicts a story where a near omnipotent alien creature invades a fantasy world and the protagonists must find a way to fight back against the alien.
Other subgenres
Science fantasy is sometimes used to refer to a fantasy story in which the fantastic elements are presented as compatible with real-world science, in contrast to fantasies in which the fantastic only needs to have its own internal logic. Classic examples are Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three LionsThree Hearts and Three Lions
Three Hearts and Three Lions is a 1961 fantasy novel by Poul Anderson. It is also a 1953 novella by Poul Anderson which appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction.-Plot:...
, in which petrification means danger because turning carbon to silicon results in a radioactive isotope
Radionuclide
A radionuclide is an atom with an unstable nucleus, which is a nucleus characterized by excess energy available to be imparted either to a newly created radiation particle within the nucleus or to an atomic electron. The radionuclide, in this process, undergoes radioactive decay, and emits gamma...
, and his Operation Chaos, where werewolves and other lycanthropes are the same size in human and animal form, owing to conservation of mass.
Science fantasy is also a popular subject for role-playing games, of both pen-and-paper and computer varieties, the latter most popularly emphasized by games such as Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009...
and VIII
Final Fantasy VIII
is a role-playing video game released for the PlayStation in 1999 and for Windows-based personal computers in 2000. It was developed and published by Square as the Final Fantasy series' eighth title, removing magic point-based spell-casting and the first title to consistently use realistically...
, which incorporate fantasy elements such as magic in dystopian, futuristic world settings. One of the earliest pen-and-paper games to reference the term was Gamma World
Gamma World
Gamma World is a science fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, and first published by TSR in 1978. It borrowed heavily from James M. Ward's earlier product, Metamorphosis Alpha.-Setting:...
published by TSR in 1980 (the same company that originated Dungeons and Dragons)., while its predecessor Metamorphosis Alpha
Metamorphosis Alpha
Metamorphosis Alpha is a science fiction role-playing game. It was created by James M. Ward and originally produced by TSR, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons...
, published in 1976 is classified as science fiction, highlighting some of the confusion between the two genres. The manga Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995; later the 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. Dragon Ball was inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the...
can be considerated a kind of science fantasy, seeing that science fiction elements like aliens, robots and high technology coexist with supernatural concepts like gods, demons, afterlife and powers based on the manipulation of ki
Qi
In traditional Chinese culture, qì is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Qi is frequently translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow. Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts...
.