| Re: Discussing Mccaffrey - Was Re: Pratchett on Rowling, again, sort of |
http://terrania.us/liber .. |
| Robotech_Master (robotech@eyrie.org) |
2007/01/04 15:40 |
On Sun, 24 Dec 2006 11:40:15 -0600, The Magic Engineer <> wrote:
"mcv" <mcvmcv@xs4all.nl> wrote in message
news:458e86b3$0$328$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl...
> It's got dragons and it's got magic (telepathy, teleportation). If
> that's not fantasy, then what it?
Soft SF.
You're making a false dichtomy between "hard" science fiction and
fantasy. If only "hard" SF, where everything is scientifically
feasible by what is known at the time, then there would be no need for
the "hard" distinction. This isn't like math, with the fantasy and
science fiction elements cancelling each other out. It's perfectly
legitimate to have a science-fiction story with fantasy elements, or
for that matter a fantasy story with science-fiction elements.
Pern is kind of like Reeses's peanut butter cups ("Hey! You got your
science-fiction in my fantasy!") in that both are blended. And it's
easy to get confused. Science-fiction elements are always present
(the hints in the first two Dragonrider books about technology of the
ancients, for instance), but they don't really come to the forefront
until The White Dragon, Dragonsdawn, and later books. There's a
scientific basis behind almost everything (if you get right down to
it, what is Between except organic hyperdrive?) but it _looks_ like
fantasy. And this was largely intentional.
If you want to see another story that has dragons and yet is
completely hard SF, check out John Ringo's _There Will Be Dragons_.
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10165.phtml
http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/04-DragonsCD/
This is the reason that rec.arts.sf.written will never be split into
science fiction and fantasy groups; the lines between what's SF and
what's fantasy are often just too fuzzy.
--
Chris Meadows aka | WWW: http://www.terrania.us | Somebody
Robotech_Master | ICQ: 5477383 AIM: RoboMastr | help, I'm
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