Science fantasy

Cover of the April/May 1931 issue of Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories. Artwork is by Elliott Dold.

Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy.[1] In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scientifically logical, while a conventional fantasy story contains mostly supernatural and artistic elements that disregard the scientific laws of the real world. The world of science fantasy, however, is laid out to be scientifically logical and often supplied with hard science-like explanations of any supernatural elements.[2][3]

During the Golden Age of Science Fiction, science fantasy stories were seen in sharp contrast to the terse, scientifically plausible material that came to dominate mainstream science fiction, typified by the magazine Astounding Science Fiction. Although science fantasy stories at that time were often relegated to the status of children's entertainment, their freedom of imagination and romance proved to be an early major influence on the "New Wave" writers of the 1960s, who became exasperated by the limitations of "Hard Science Fiction".[4]

  1. ^ Slusser, George Edgar; Rabkin, Eric S., eds. (1987). Intersections: Fantasy and Science Fiction. SIU Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-1374-7.
  2. ^ Malmgren, Carl D. (1988). "Towards a Definition of Science Fantasy (Vers une définition de la fantaisie scientifique)". Science Fiction Studies. 15 (3): 259–281. JSTOR 4239897.
  3. ^ Eric R. Williams, The Screenwriters Taxonomy: A Collaborative Approach to Creative Storytelling, p. 121
  4. ^ Moorcock, Michael (13 June 2002). "Queen of the Martian Mysteries: An Appreciation of Leigh Brackett". Fantastic Metropolis. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2017.