Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24596
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24596
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The only caveat I would offer to mixing SF and fantasy is not to scramble the level of technology.

We are all steeped in Papa Tolkien's example of _fantasy,_ which is Middle Ages technology and pastoral Merrie Olde England settings. This level of industrial advancement doesn't mix well with _Star Trek_ spaceships.

So there are a few things you could do to make the combination not so weird:

- _Urban fantasy_ is magic in a contemporary setting. Most of today's vampire/werewolf/witch YA lit is urban fantasy. Push it another 100 years forward and you can reasonably add sci-fi tech to the setting.
- Set your story in a sci-fi setting (in space, another planet, far in the future) and establish that magical creatures also exist. There may be elves, but they aren't Legolas the archer, and if Merlin is still waiting for Arthur, the mighty sorcerer might be a professor or a researcher, or a sentient computer, not sporting a pointy hat and the latest Gandalf Lauren robes.
- Go in the other direction and deliberately play on the contrast. Have a spaceship crash-land in Middle Earth. How are the Sindarin going to get along with Vulcans? Would the dwarves pose a reasonable fighting challenge for Klingons whose disrupters are magically disabled? (I'm using shorthand, but you get the idea.)
- To lean on a different franchise, Jedi using the Force are referred to in-universe as magic and mysticism, but Star Wars is pretty clearly sci-fi (however soft). So you're starting with SF but adding in magical elements which aren't classic elves and dwarves but are absolutely beyond the explanation of science (midichlorians, _oh please_).

Original score: 20