Quote:
Originally Posted by DDHarriman
Yes I can!
Before going on, let me say one thing: I do not believe it's your way, this lecturer position "Please classify the following"...
Now to what you ask, I will just indulge the first:
Anne McCaffrey's Pern stories? Science Fiction all the way!!!
|
I agree with that. But the Pern stories are one of the edge cases I think of. They have the fantasy tropes - feudal social structure, medieval level of technology, fire breathing dragons - so that folks coming to the series part way through can decide (and have decided) that it's fantasy. They haven't seen the setup described in early stories that makes Pern a lost colony whose inhabitants got there by starship, and that the dragons are products of genetic engineering on the indigenous fire lizards.
For the rest:
Randall Garrett's "Lord Darcy" stories:
Alternate history based in a world where Ricahrd the Lionhearted settled down after ebing wounded in the Crusades to become a very good King, and founded a Plantagenet dynasty that still exists. That society developed magic instead of science. Darcy is a criminal investigator, and his partner is a master sorcerer using forensic sorcery to gather evidence that Darcy can use to solve crimes. The stores were first published in Analog magazine by the late John W. Campbell.
Melissa Campbell's "Silence Leigh" stories:
Silence is a sorceress in a civilization that has developed alchemy instead of science, and travels the stars with her two husbands in a ship powered by mystic forces. Science and magic are
both valid paradigms in Silence's universe, but mutually exclusive. If you use one, you
can't use the other.
Suzette Hayden Elgin's "Ozark Trilogy":
Elgin's characters are colonists in a distant system originally settled by people from the Ozarks, and use both science and magic on a daily basis.
Patricia Kenneally's "Celts in Space" series:
Kenneally transforms St, Brendan the Navigator of Celtic lore into Brendan the Astrogator, who led the Tuatha De Danaan into space, and a Celtic space empire is locked in combat with their ancient enemies the Fomorians. Kenneally has computer controlled starships delivering naked, blue painted Fian warriors to battlefields where they will wield broadswords in mano a mano combat with their enemies, while sorcerers cast spells in support. Both magic and science work in Kenneally's universe.
Are the above SF, fantasy, or both?
My point is simply that it's really hard to draw a sharp line dividing the two. They are different on the ends but tend to meet and overlap in the middle.
I like the late Sf critic Damion Knight's definition: "SF is what I'm pointing at when I say the words!"
______
Dennis