Science Fantasy: Difference between revisions

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Robots and wizards, spaceships and dragons, lasers and fireballs. [[Mix and Match|Mix these ingredients]] in your cyborg witch's boiling pot of Dark Matter, and you get [[Title Drop|Science Fantasy]].

[[Science Fiction]] and [[Fantasy]] stories can be difficult to tell apart under normal circumstances, as all but the very [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|hardest]] sci-fi introduces some hypothetical technology that one has to take on faith, like [[FTL Travel]] or [[Humanoid Aliens]]. And at the other end of the scale, even [[High Fantasy]] works have consistency requirements like [[Magic a Is Magic A]], which can blur the line into [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic]].

[[Science Fiction]] and [[Fantasy]] stories can be difficult to tell apart under normal circumstances, as all but the very [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|hardest]] sci-fi introduces some hypothetical technology that one has to take on faith, like [[FTL Travel]] or [[Humanoid Aliens]]. And at the other end of the scale, even [[High Fantasy]] works have consistency requirements like [[Magic A Is Magic A]], which can blur the line into [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic]].

[[Science Fantasy]] works, on the other hand, take traditional Fantasy and Science Fiction tropes and throw them in a blender, purposely creating a setting that has the [[Mix and Match|feel of both]]. Expect to see a lot of classic Fantasy tropes (e.g. [[Sword Fight|warriors with swords]], [[Our Dragons Are Different|dragons]], [[Hermetic Magic|wizards]], [[Bright Castle|castles]], and [[Our Elves Are Different|elves]]) ''and'' a lot of standard Science Fiction tropes (e.g. [[Cool Starship|spaceships]], [[Alien Tropes|aliens]], [[Energy Weapon|lasers]], [[Tropes On Science and Unscience|scientists]], [[Robot|robots]], and [[Time Travel]]).

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== Literature ==

* The ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series by [[Diane Duane]], especially from the third book onwards. What do you do with your [[Magic a Is Magic A]] [[Functional Magic]] that looks suspiciously like programming? Go to Mars. And then explore the rest of the galaxy and meet up with aliens.

* The ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series by [[Diane Duane]], especially from the third book onwards. What do you do with your [[Magic A Is Magic A]] [[Functional Magic]] that looks suspiciously like programming? Go to Mars. And then explore the rest of the galaxy and meet up with aliens.

* In the ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' series, the faeries have both real magic and higher tech than humans.

* Heinlein's ''[[Glory Road (novel)|Glory Road]]'' is a reconstruction of pulp adventure novels with an ordinary modern day man swashbuckling his way across several savage planets inhabited by "dragons" and other such beasties in search of a device that recorded the memories of all the Empresses of the Fifty Universes.

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* ''[[Warcraft]]'' 'verse's technology is roughly at pre-industrial level, where guns are getting common, but swords and bows are still viable. However, the range of technology available is quite large. [[Rock Beats Laser|Rock axes]] can down [[Magitek|demonic]] [[Humongous Mecha]], and [[Death Ray|Death Rays]] can be used against ancient evil gods. And the dimension-hopping giants that ride around in spaceships.

* ''[[Septerra Core]]'' wandered back and forth between the two, blending such elements as [[Steampunk]] technology, magic fueled by the planet itself, genetic engineering and a pantheon of gods.

* The ''[[Ar ~~Tonelico~~]]'' series features girls who [[Magic Music|control magical powers with their songs]] and goddesses who control the giant towers that humanity has been forced to live in after a disaster destroyed the world's land. The [[All There in the Manual|backstory of the series]] reveals that this disaster was caused by the technology of a highly advanced civilization. The towers themselves were built by these civilizations. The villain in the first game invades the tower's systems with viruses that can take physical form and possess many of the tower's robot guardians. The magic wielding girls themselves are actually an [[Artificial Human|artificial race]] designed to use magical powers based on the intricate principles of "wave science."

* The ''[[Ar tonelico]]'' series features girls who [[Magic Music|control magical powers with their songs]] and goddesses who control the giant towers that humanity has been forced to live in after a disaster destroyed the world's land. The [[All There in the Manual|backstory of the series]] reveals that this disaster was caused by the technology of a highly advanced civilization. The towers themselves were built by these civilizations. The villain in the first game invades the tower's systems with viruses that can take physical form and possess many of the tower's robot guardians. The magic wielding girls themselves are actually an [[Artificial Human|artificial race]] designed to use magical powers based on the intricate principles of "wave science."

* ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]]'' features an invasion by demons from hell ... thwarted by a ''space marine'' on ''Mars'' with a ''plasma rifle.''

** Demons with cybernetic implants. One of them is called Cyberdemon.

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* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' is [[Steampunk]] combined with fantasy. Most of the weird stuff can be explained by technology, but not everything. The magic includes stuff like the river Dyne (which is an apparently natural spring the waters of which make the drinker a mad genius, though in most cases it's instantly lethal), Geisterdamen (ghost-like beings), Frankenstein-esque reanimated corpses, Jaegermonsters (non-human beings with superhuman strength and [[Long Lived|lifespans]] who are former humans who drank the [[Super Serum|"Jaegerdraught"]]), multiple cases of [[Brain Uploading]], the [[Genius Loci|castle Heterodyne]]'s seemingly telekinetic ability to move chunks of itself...

* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]''. There are robots and other advanced tech in the Court, while the Gillitie Wood is full of magic-users (including [[Physical God]] Coyote). Transformation to/from forest creatures is an accepted part of the universe, and the Court has students and teachers skilled in "etheric sciences".

* ''[[Quentyn Quinn Space Ranger]]'' is a sequel to ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'' that takes place 700 years later in the interstellar age. At that point most Racconnans rely on [[Magitek|technology]] for most of their Lux use.

* ''[[Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger]]'' is a sequel to ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'' that takes place 700 years later in the interstellar age. At that point most Racconnans rely on [[Magitek|technology]] for most of their Lux use.

* ''[[The Dragon Doctors]]'' make heavy use of magic, but always use it rationally and scientifically (their leader even calls herself a "Magical Scientist"). [[Lego Genetics]] are referenced at one point as being only possible with the use of magic to treat traits as conceptual objects.

* [[Megatokyo]] has both light fantasy elements (mostly [[Magical Girl|MagicalGirls]]) and soft sci-fi (stuff related to the TPCD mostly). A [[Dark Magical Girl]] is best friends with a [[Robot Girl]] and said DMG used to control people's emotions through an MMORPG.