What do you guys think of supernatural and usual fantasy things like magic and dragons and such appearing in science fiction worlds of high and often impossible technology. In other words the blending of both typical high and soft fantasy into high and soft science fiction and space opera?
Magic is simply doing things that are not logically possible. There's no reason that it cannot be the same thing as hi-tech gadgets in the future, in the eyes of a modern reader. It is easy to explain. But it has to have a purpose.
Star Wars with the Force, yes... but also Dr. Who and Star Trek (and probably lots of other Sci Fi type productions) have always done this. Anne McAffrey's (sp?) Pern novels started having fire breathing dragons that teleport, and later blended more sci-fi into the mix, explaining to an extent the origins of the dragons.
genres are mixed often with great results, the most common examples being sci-fi/horrors mix it up as much as you like, after all there are no set rules , something set in the future could be classed as sci -fi but it could be about flying mutant bears fighting off a zombie apocalypse with laserguns if that is the story you want to write
Star wars turned from fantasy to sci-fi with the whole midichlorians gunk (which is sad and unfortunate). Dune may be somewhere to look. People often debate whether or not that is fantasy or sci-fi. I think as long as you write it well, it doesn't matter what's there.
Generally I don't like them mixing, sometimes I even resent it, but art is art. Sometimes writers have to rely on something pseudoscientific sounding in SF for the sake of story. Sometimes they use stale old cliches when they lack enough imgination. It can go either way, I'm not saying that hard SF is the best, but there is a point where there is so much fantasy involved that it ceases to even to seem like SF any longer, and at that point you might as well be writing Fantasy instead.
It can be good or bad really. More depends on how it's portrayed than what is portrayed in this situation. It's not exactly a new concept and I've seen it work and fail.
Have you ever played any Final Fantasy game? They're all a mix of High Magic and Technology. Sword play and Rocket launchers are on an equal setting too.
In Alan Dean Foster's Spellsinger series, the alternate universe to which the protagonist is whisked treats magic as science and science as magic. As a model for differing treatments of magic and science....
Read Piers Anthony's Split Infinity series, in which the two aspects of the same world (tecnological Proton and magical Phaze) are accessible to some people by crossing through a barrier.
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville has just about everything you could ever imagine. And it's hella fun to read, too.
I'd think that if it adds to the plot, then use whatever you like. Just do not add it because you think it is cool or because it one or two scenes really awesome. if the story needs it, then do it.
Supernatural forces in science fiction can be very interesting, as long as they hold the same futuristic atmosphere as the rest of the story, or whatever other atmosphere. But if you take a future industrial setting and put elves and dragons and warlocks in there, it's gonna end up looking downright ridiculous.
Aeschylus- actually, a future industrial setting with elves and dragons (and trolls and shamans etc...) will look a lot like Shadowrun. Which is a great rp game and has many successful novelizations as well Anything is possible with good writing and good story. The story is the key.
I'm sure some writers could pull that off very well, Izanobu. But I can't warm up to the concept myself. And I hate to be skeptical, but RPs often have somewhat ridiculous stories, and novelizations about them often are even more ridiculous. I've never heard of Shadowrun, though, so I can't judge it.
