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Mixing Sci-fi and Fantasy

Isasi

New Member
Not in the star wars way, which has always struck me as a fantasy tropes with a sci-fi cover (though I'm not here to talk about that!).

I mean more of a cross-over, in my case high technology falling into a mid-fantasy world and creating all sort of consequences. Though I also mean, high fantasy characters ending up in a high-technology setting, dimension traveling, etc...

I'll put the backstory for the idea I'm working with right now below, and would welcome any thoughts about it, but I'm also interested in any ideas others have had similar to this, or any resources or media that might work as inspiration or guidance while working on something like this.

Thanks!


~~~~

I started recently working on a world that's still very early in the development of it's ~human~ race, basically right out of the cradle of civilizaiton who naturally form into eight differing civilizations based on theological disputes about a celestial body that orbits their planet which many revere as godly and use for measurements like calendar keeping, etc... In reality, this celestial body is a space station sent by an unknown race to watch the planet develop. After a few generations of development, there is an unknown disaster (the race and disaster will be developed by me at some later point, but don't factor much into the story I'm currently hoping to write in this world) on the space station, which leaves the space station unharmed but leaves it uninhabited, one ship leaving the station makes it's way towards the planet and makes a rocky landing on its surface. The pilot dies but the ship is for the most part undamaged and operational. The people in the different kingdoms see it as a divine sign or at the very least something to be sought after, and go to war over it. In the end, a more sensible and benevolent kingdom wins it and begins to study it and eventually through luck or fate learns to pilot it. They fly it towards the space station (their deity) and happen upon it, the ship lands them inside and they become convinced they are in heaven, essentially. As an act to keep peace between other nations, they get 7 other ships and take them down and give one to each kingdom, along with the knowledge of how to fly it, asking only that they each fly to find new homelands, and never go to war again.

That's a very preliminary outline of the backstory of the world. The actual story I want to write would take place 1 thousand or so years later, taking place in a setting where all sorts of bizarre things have happened to the different kingdoms, but they have begun to expand back into each (Their concept of "far" was obviously very skewed from essentially horseback to space travel) other and conflict has begun to arise again.
 

Malik

Auror
It's a good idea, and it isn't done enough, IMO. It's an old-school trope that I haven't seen in a while.

My series is built on this premise; not nearly as high-tech, though. Modern technology (particularly metallurgy in the first book, but also other things I won't mention because of spoilers) and current knowledge (philosophy, economics, political theory, history, ethics) transported into a fantasy realm.

The first book happens because of the "boy from earth finds out he's secretly a lost prince who can do magic, wins back his father's throne, fulfills a prophecy" cliche. Ten years on, the neighboring kingdom is losing its mind at the power and knowledge of this guy, and hires advisers from Earth. That's where my book starts. (Although I still have the first one about the lost prince, which I'll eventually release as a prequel once I rewrite it.)

As the series progresses, travelers from our world are considered as "superweapons" and they kick off an arms race that in turn sparks a global war.

There's also a whole other thing about having leaders with a disparate and alien intellectual history from the people they're responsible for, but that's more of a subtext.
 

Gryphos

Auror
I'm writing a novel set in a world with medieval-level technology, in which the villain is a traveller from another dimension who has 21st century firearms at his disposal. The inciting incident of the novel is when he rocks up to an earl's castle during a feast, whips out a sub-machine gun and starts mowing people down. Everyone thinks he's some kind of witch, with his 'doom-spitter'.

I love throwing this kind of stuff into fantasy worlds. This same story also has as one of the protagonists an ogre-like creature who also came from another world and has all this crazy scientific knowledge, explaining concepts such as DNA to the primitive humans.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
> high technology falling into a mid-fantasy world

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

You are in good company.
 
My current project is...uh, I think it's a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy. Sort of. The world is fictional, I think...Anyway, it's fantasy, but it incorporates a little sci-fi technology, most notably genetic engineering, which was used to create a number of human-animal hybrids used for different jobs, which have no rights as beings.
 

Isasi

New Member
It's a good idea, and it isn't done enough, IMO. It's an old-school trope that I haven't seen in a while.

My series is built on this premise; not nearly as high-tech, though. Modern technology (particularly metallurgy in the first book, but also other things I won't mention because of spoilers) and current knowledge (philosophy, economics, political theory, history, ethics) transported into a fantasy realm.

The first book happens because of the "boy from earth finds out he's secretly a lost prince who can do magic, wins back his father's throne, fulfills a prophecy" cliche. Ten years on, the neighboring kingdom is losing its mind at the power and knowledge of this guy, and hires advisers from Earth. That's where my book starts. (Although I still have the first one about the lost prince, which I'll eventually release as a prequel once I rewrite it.)

As the series progresses, travelers from our world are considered as "superweapons" and they kick off an arms race that in turn sparks a global war.

There's also a whole other thing about having leaders with a disparate and alien intellectual history from the people they're responsible for, but that's more of a subtext.

I'm writing a novel set in a world with medieval-level technology, in which the villain is a traveller from another dimension who has 21st century firearms at his disposal. The inciting incident of the novel is when he rocks up to an earl's castle during a feast, whips out a sub-machine gun and starts mowing people down. Everyone thinks he's some kind of witch, with his 'doom-spitter'.

I love throwing this kind of stuff into fantasy worlds. This same story also has as one of the protagonists an ogre-like creature who also came from another world and has all this crazy scientific knowledge, explaining concepts such as DNA to the primitive humans.



> high technology falling into a mid-fantasy world

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

You are in good company.

Ahhg, I really like this idea. Modern man finds himself in a fantasy/ medieval world and takes advantage of it. Kind of makes me want to write a little short story! Also, Malik, you mentioned it was an old-school trope, was wondering where I might find something like it, maybe an old movie or comic. Thanks!
 

Malik

Auror
Books:

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Gulliver's Travels
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Golden Compass
The Chronicles of Amber
The Fall of Ile-Rien
Trilogy
Glory Road
The Outlander series
(time-travel romance, not my thing, but still)
Three Hearts and Three Lions
Through the Looking Glass
Coraline
Guardians of the Flame
Harry Potter
The Wizard of Oz
Mordant's Need
Elidor
The Land of Stories
The Secret of Droon


To do this the other way -- ancient man using what he knows to kick ass in modern times -- look for a book called The Far Arena, about a Roman gladiator frozen in ice who wakes up in the 1970's.

Movies: I have no idea. I don't watch many. They're out there, but they're mostly stylized crap that misses the larger point. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, Jumanji, Timeline, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Back to the Future.

Also, I wouldn't write a book after just watching a movie. If you only watch movies and don't read and deconstruct books you like, it will show in your writing and you don't want that. It's one thing to study screenwriting; it's another to watch a movie and then write a book like it. If you don't understand why not to do this, I have a blog post about it right here.

Reading is breathing in, writing is breathing out.
 

Queshire

Auror
Well, I think it's important to differentiate between stories that just have somebody from our world wind up in a fantasy world and then winding up relying on the fantasy world's tech or magic such as in Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia and stories where the guy from our world uses his real world knowledge to get a significant benefit such as in a Connecticut Yankee. The first is much more common than the second.
 
Literature has to evolve. Mixing sci fi and fantasy is an inevitable baby step forward.

After all, how many more zombie, vampire, chick lit, cozy mystery, YA urban fantasies can be produced? Aren't these themes already overdone? As volumes and volumes are churned out in the these so-called popular genres, I think it's only natural that we'll be seeing concepts shaken and stirred more and more resulting in exotic hybrids.

What kind of literary chimera will author's come up with? It's just a matter of juggling and creatively mixing genres that already exist. Maybe we'll soon be seeing some of the following thematic cocktails --

-- western, chick lit, sci-fi
-- sci-fi, cross-dressing, historical novel
-- humor, fantasy in iambic pentameter
-- zombie, cozy mystery, fantasy, humor pop-up book
-- detective, pre-school, film noir, graphic novel

The sky's the limit. Let's start creating something new. Isn't that the job of an artist?

I've been a proponent of this notion for awhile. My book combines fantasy, sci-fi, humor, fairy tale and sheet music. If I could make it a pop-up book I would . . . but, so far, pop-up books aren't available on Kindle. (Now THAT would be an innovation.)
 

Malik

Auror
-- western, chick lit, sci-fi
-- sci-fi, cross-dressing, historical novel
-- humor, fantasy in iambic pentameter
-- zombie, cozy mystery, fantasy, humor pop-up book
-- detective, pre-school, film noir, graphic novel

The sky's the limit. Let's start creating something new. Isn't that the job of an artist?

I've been a proponent of this notion for awhile. My book combines fantasy, sci-fi, humor, fairy tale and sheet music.

Right there with ya. I wrote a crossworlds epic fantasy espionage thriller.
 
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