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techstepgenr8tion
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10 Jan 2012, 2:32 pm

For the avid readers here, does anyone have any recommendations for Science Fantasy? I haven't read this genre in years and I'm curious on what's out there and what's changed.


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10 Jan 2012, 4:05 pm

Try dune series, star wars trilogies, the matrix, Enders game. Ursula Leguine and disc planet series I forget the full name but it's really good. Also try c.s. Lewis. He has a good science fantasy series. I am going to write a science fantasy book.



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10 Jan 2012, 4:34 pm

Science Fantasy? Is that something like Lord Of The Rings mixed into War Of The Worlds? That's like being in the middle of fighting Sauron and suddenly out of nowhere massive alien invasion, tripods everywhere, everything gets wiped out, end of story! Talk about getting in the wrong time on the wrong place.

Edit: sorry for the trolling, I don't know what Science Fantasy is, my apologies...



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10 Jan 2012, 5:06 pm

Uprising wrote:
Science Fantasy? Is that something like Lord Of The Rings mixed into War Of The Worlds? That's like being in the middle of fighting Sauron and suddenly out of nowhere massive alien invasion, tripods everywhere, everything gets wiped out, end of story! Talk about getting in the wrong time on the wrong place.

Edit: sorry for the trolling, I don't know what Science Fantasy is, my apologies...


It's synonymous with "sci-fi" to the extent that most skiffy is second-rate fantasy dressed up in "science!" clothes. But as a specific subgenre, then yeah, it's something like what you suggest. When done right it's very good. (Incidentally, Sauron personally would have little trouble with Wells' Martians - he'd probably get on very well with them. From a certain point of view the Legendarium is science fantasy, especially when it comes to the likes of Sauron and Feanor.)

OP: I very highly recommend The Iron Dragon's Daughter (Michael Swanwick) and Inversions by Iain M Banks.

Also worth a look:
Orthe (Mary Gentle) <-- I don't like it but it's pretty much the archetype of science fantasy
The Adventures of Alyx (Joanna Russ)
A Nomad of the Time Streams (Michael Moorcock)
Foreigner (CJ Cherryh) <- which is seriously ripped off of Orthe I think
A Voyage to Arcturus (David Lindsay)
The Mars novels starting with A Princess of Mars (Edgar Rice Burroughs) <-- available on Project Gutenberg
The Cosmic trilogy (CS Lewis)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (comic)
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (G.W. Dahlquist)

Can provide you with more if you want.


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techstepgenr8tion
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10 Jan 2012, 5:57 pm

nm - fail on my part.

I meant fantasy.


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11 Jan 2012, 5:04 pm

Hehe. Any particular kind of fantasy? Here's some randoms:

The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear (Walter Moers) <- batshit insane children's book
Perdido Street Station (China Mieville) <- weird fiction
Lud-in-the-Mist (Hope Mirlees) <- "classic" fantasy, quite restrained
The Once and Future King (TH White) <- King of the Oo?
The Last Unicorn (Peter Beagle) <- very good
A Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula K. Pen Guin) <- young wizard goes to wizard school, fights his dark and shadowy counterpart, that sorta thing.
The Worm Ouroboros (ER Eddison) <- also counts as science fantasy :)
The King of Elfland's Daughter (Plunkett Drax Doodah Dunsany) <- "classic" fantasy


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techstepgenr8tion
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11 Jan 2012, 5:46 pm

Ambivalence wrote:
Hehe. Any particular kind of fantasy? Here's some randoms:


Well, particularly of the more traditional vein - ie. LOTR, Dragonlance, but stuff that takes these kinds of explorations deeper.

What initially roused my curiousity was that I was trying to figure out if they had any plans for making a movie series, the way they did with LOTR, off of Dragonlance Chronicles, and I didn't see that, but what was more interesting - when I went further to see what the top 10 or top 25 fantasy series were, Dragonlance seemed to be excluded from all of them. I couldn't tell whether it was simply marking a broad distaste in the fantasy community for what they felt labeled them as an AD&D genre or whether the other stuff out there was just that much far and away better (for all the people I've known who've read Tracy & Margaret's stuff, as well as what I remember of it, its difficult to really diss it as bad or flat writing). I did see many people mention, maybe halfway down their lists - David Eddings - who I liked but still, I'd put him perhaps close to Margaret and Tracy, not miles past.

On the other hand I did see a couple names keep coming to the top - G. R. R. Martin and Erik Stevenson. I'd be interested in maybe checking out some of their stuff but I'd be curious if anyone else knew of some other stuff that they think rivals or passes their stuff. I get that critics can have agendas at times or develop certain odd hypersensitivities when they read a certain genre of book (or review a certain genre of anything) ad nauseum and my only thing with G. R. R. Martin is just verifying that his books do go somewhere, are interesting, and you feel like you're actually getting something aside from darkness and political motivation/deceit for its own sake without anything particularly fascinating for a plot or direction.


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11 Jan 2012, 9:06 pm

I would recommend M.A.R. Barker's works. I am just finishing up his first book, "The Man of Gold" and it was great.

M.A.R. Barker's world is based strongly on Mesoamerican, Islamic and other Middle Eastern mythology. Also unlike Tolkien, Mr. Barker's world is much more scientific, though Tékumel is roughly like the Medieval Desi Subcontinent mixed with Classic Period Mesoamerica in terms of technology, and M.A.R. Barker is much less didactic and simplistic with his Islam than Tolkien was with his Christianity.


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Ambivalence
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12 Jan 2012, 3:50 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
On the other hand I did see a couple names keep coming to the top - G. R. R. Martin and Erik Stevenson. I'd be interested in maybe checking out some of their stuff but I'd be curious if anyone else knew of some other stuff that they think rivals or passes their stuff.

GRRM - I suppose it's still too early to say, but so far what I've read hasn't gone anywhere or done anything particularly interesting. They're more like a medieval take on "Lost" - loads and loads of obscure hinting and vague meanderings. You can tell he's a TV scriptwriter. It's a shame, because there are certainly good moments and interesting characters in the books, but they're hidden behind padding and dross.
Stevenson I don't know, he's the Malazan guy? I should get that myself, been meaning to read it for ages.

Leaving them aside one of my favourite fantasy series is Glen Cook's "Chronicles of the Black Company" - lots of anti-heroes and cool wizards and they're written in a plain and readable style. My kind of trash. :)

Another good series is Michael Scott Rohan's "Winter of the World" trilogy - he's a master imitator and loves doing the Big Reveal. And without giving too much away the last book of the Winter of the World has the biggest "wait, WTF?!" moment in any fantasy book I've seen. :wink: I fear they're out of print but if you can get them, do! :)


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