Quote:
Originally Posted by RosemaryKirstein
Even professional critics can get murky on this. For example, there's an Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, and an Encyclopedia of Fantasy. And I'm listed in the Encyclopedia of Fantasy. Because (and I find this interesting), even though there's no magic, the plot of the book operates entirely in within the classic fantasy mode, and to the editors of the Encyclopedia of Fantasy, that was the most important thing.
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I can certainly understand that position. The Steerswoman, even after spoiling it for myself and knowing I was wrong, still had me fooled. It just never felt like a science fiction book. In the vote thread one person went as far as "this is fantasy, not science fiction, we need a do-over!" And that was after being ensured that it was SF. I really liked that slightly confused feeling, not many books can completely fool you as to what genre they are. Especially not after being told what it is.
The largest "science fiction masquerading as fantasy" series that I can think of is the Pern series. They have fire-breathing dragons and a low tech society but when the reveal about their beginnings came and we find out that it is science fiction rather than fantasy it wasn't that surprising. I felt more relief than anything. "Oh, that's why this hasn't felt like fantasy. It isn't!"
With The Steerswoman, even though I spoiled it for myself and the dragons feel a little mechanical (glass eyes breaking?) and there is obviously a lot of high-technology being hidden by the wizards, the story always felt like a fantasy. I know in my head that it is science fiction but the writing style says THIS IS FANTASY and I just can't get my heart to believe anything else. Wonderful feeling really.