[Kyleran]

Hello, I just happened to stumble in here on a random search of the internet. I knew there were tons of sites devoted to Sci-Fi & Fantasy but this one looks pretty good. I have only been involved in a handful of forums so it takes a lot to draw me in. For some reason I felt compelled.

I have a lifelong interest in science fiction and medieval fantasy. Actually I'm interested in the fusing of both. What do you think are some great examples of melding magic and technology? The best examples that come to mind are Star Wars & Dune.

Another interest of mine is bridging the gap between Science & Religion. There is a current trend in philosophy that that the highest levels of physics bears a startling correspondance with Eastern Mysticism. I often like to think of it as Quantum Spirituality or Relience where religion and science come together to form a new spirituality and way of life.

Kyleran

[Barbarossa]

Welcome Kyleran, I hope we will see more of you in the future.

[FitzChivalry]

Well, i tend to believe that if there's magic in our world, it's just physical phenomena that science can't explain YET.
It's hard to really define what magic is, especially now that the highest levels of physics are starting to look like magic... (Quantum Mechanics experiments)

About books, a lot of books of Roger Zelazny have a comination of fantasy and sci fi, try Lord of Light, it's about the hindu mythology being recreated with technology, in a way...
Jack of Shadows by the same author, dealing with a future earth that stopped spinning, the dark side became a realm of magic while the lighted side became a realm of technology.
Also by the same author, the books Isle of The Dead and To Die in Italbar, about a man who is the avatar of a god in a futuristc settings of space travel and aliens...

C.S. Friedman is another author that has elements of sci fi in her fantasy books or of fantasy in her sci fi books, The Cold Fire Trilogy and The Madenss Season are excellent books with both those elements.

The Dark Sword Trilogy by Weis&Hickman and The Lon Tobyn Chronicle by David B. Coe deal with a confrontation between technology using societies and magic using societies, i found the Lon Tobyn Chronicle incredibly boring though.

There is also the whole Urban Fantasy sub-genre, authors like Jane Lindskold and Laurell K. Hamilton, fantasy stories in urban modern settings, you could say it has technology and fantasy.

Hope some of those suggestions triggered your curiosity.

[Cadfael]

A very good book of this type is The Warlock In Spite of Himself, by Christoper Stasheff. The plot reveolves around our hero crash landing upon a planet that has a mediaeval livestyle... at first he thinks their believe in magic is 'quaint', but soon finds out it actually exist. Not only that... he soon becomes very good at it, which he is not to happy about. The book does have its humour, but it is a good story never-the-less...

... there are other books in the 'Warlord' series... cannot remember them yet though

It appears the inhabitant of the planet were left to colonise the planet hundreds of years before... and then forgotten about.

[Caly]

You may want to try His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. The books are Golden Compass (Northern Lights in the UK), Subtle Knife, and Amber Spyglass. They seem to me to combine fantasy and sci-fi. Sort of. More fantasy, but definite physics concepts. You may have to get them out of the YA section, but they are definetly not YA.

Also, even though this is not fantasy or sci-fi, you might want to try From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz. It deals with that whole physics/alternate universe type thing quite well. Timeline by Micheal Crichton does the same thing, but not nearly as well as the Koontz book. It could almost be classified as sci-fan. It is sci-fi that goes back in time to the medival times.

I also want to second the nomination for C. S. Freidman. Very, very good stuff.

I guess those are the kinds of books you are talking about.

Caleyna http://www.fantasyfreaks.org

[FitzChivalry]

Time travel books are just as sci fi as space operas, for some reason people think that only when there are spaceships or laser guns in a book it's sci fi.

[Kyleran]

Thanks for your responses everyone, I'll try to look into those referrences. Certainly a common observation about sci-fi/fantasy can best be summed up by arthur C. Clarke who said that a technology sufficiently advanced enough would appear to be magic.

I would like to know what everyone feels is the major difference between technology and magic. Do you think they're essentially the same or do each have their own unique properties? Also, if you had a war between a magical mystical world and an advanced technologically scientific world who would win? Lets say you had a battle between the Borg and the elves, who would win? Or the Star Trek Universe VS The Lord of the Rings.
Some things to ponder.

Kyleran

[FitzChivalry]

Basically, high technology is usally used in Sci Fi like magic is used in Fantasy, although the difference should be that sci fi is based on our reality, a lot of times the high technology isn't explained and just given as something that was achived in a future time. In this regard it is indeed like magic.
What isn't like magic is the feeling it gives to the reader, i'm having a totally different feeling reading about phaser wielding Federation Volcans or magic staffs wielding elves, and the feeling the reader gets is the most important thing when reading a book, so in that regard, the effect on the reader, high technology and magic are different.
And of course, sometimes authors have a good enough background in science to actually explain the technologies they throw in their book, then it gets even farther from magic.

About the Technology vs. Magic scenario, in the scenarios you gave as example the technology worlds win... but any other scenario is possible, against Jordan's Aes Sedai and Ashamen most technological societies will beat the dust.
Or against Raistlin by himself...


[This message has been edited by FitzChivlary (edited September 06, 2001).]

[Eventine]

As far as the whole technology fighting magic bit, it seems to me that technology is based upon the rules and laws of our universe (eg laws of physics) where as magic is about the circumvention of these rules.
Kind of like Morpheus describing the Matrix to Neo.

[Kyleran]

I gotta agree with Fitzchivlary, Raistilin Majere would kick anybody's ass hands down!

Kyleran

P.S. Care for a game of Fizban?