It's interesting, I don't really think to label entire works as "fantasy" or "sci-fi" or "steampunk" or whatever, but I definitely label various /tropes/ as "fantasy" or "sci-fi" or whatever, probably because a lot of stuff I like is very mash-up-y. For example, if you've got the classic "Humans-dwarves-elves" sorts of races, that's a fantasy trope, but if your elves are really good computer hackers or gene-splicers or whatever then there's your sci-fi trope. In general, tropes that look backwards, specifically to the pre-Enlightenment era (including mythology/folktales, and this is where belief in magic comes in) is fantasy, but stuff that looks forward in speculation is fantasy. Steampunk kind of fits in but not exactly, I guess it doesn't really feel like a solidly-developed genre to me yet.
I think it's interesting that you mentioned political maneuvering as significant to the plot as a sci-fi trope, though, since I find it a pretty genre-neutral trope. In any sufficiently well-built world where major characters are in positions of power, there should be lots of political maneuvering. I don't think anyone would argue that David Eddings writes pretty pure classic medieval high fantasy, and there is tons of political maneuvering (palace coups and vote-rigging and all).
As for blending, I think any time your magic operates by reasonably clearly defined rules, it will mesh just fine with science, a la Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic") and its converse ("Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from technology" - Girl Genius).
Off the top of my head, the biggest sci-fi-fantasy blender I can think of is probably Warhammer 40,000, but there's plenty of others. Urban fantasy roleplaying games (NightLife, for example) seem to really like to raid cyberpunk tropes for story fodder and character traits while keeping a sort of classic fantasy backstory-history, so that the hidden society seems like it has evolved right along with modern society.
For the reverse situation, Trinity Blood is one of my favorite anime/manga, and while it's aesthetically fantasy (Vampires! Catholicism! Magic! The Byzantine Empire WITH Vampires!) with steampunk touches (Airships and clockwork and Victoriana) the backstory and a lot of the world-building is very sci-fi; it's a post-apocalyptic (nuclear armageddon variety) world with a history of genetic engineering and elaborate technological inventions, so it has its share of Schizo Tech.
...be glad LJ doesn't make it easy to put links in comments, or this would be full of TVTropes links.
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Date: 2011-10-19 05:23 pm (UTC)I think it's interesting that you mentioned political maneuvering as significant to the plot as a sci-fi trope, though, since I find it a pretty genre-neutral trope. In any sufficiently well-built world where major characters are in positions of power, there should be lots of political maneuvering. I don't think anyone would argue that David Eddings writes pretty pure classic medieval high fantasy, and there is tons of political maneuvering (palace coups and vote-rigging and all).
As for blending, I think any time your magic operates by reasonably clearly defined rules, it will mesh just fine with science, a la Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic") and its converse ("Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from technology" - Girl Genius).
Off the top of my head, the biggest sci-fi-fantasy blender I can think of is probably Warhammer 40,000, but there's plenty of others.
Urban fantasy roleplaying games (NightLife, for example) seem to really like to raid cyberpunk tropes for story fodder and character traits while keeping a sort of classic fantasy backstory-history, so that the hidden society seems like it has evolved right along with modern society.
For the reverse situation, Trinity Blood is one of my favorite anime/manga, and while it's aesthetically fantasy (Vampires! Catholicism! Magic! The Byzantine Empire WITH Vampires!) with steampunk touches (Airships and clockwork and Victoriana) the backstory and a lot of the world-building is very sci-fi; it's a post-apocalyptic (nuclear armageddon variety) world with a history of genetic engineering and elaborate technological inventions, so it has its share of Schizo Tech.
...be glad LJ doesn't make it easy to put links in comments, or this would be full of TVTropes links.