Due to a scheduling mix up at Fantasycon2024, I didn't get chance to answer this question on a panel so I've decided to post my research here. My appearance on the panel was down to the kind of books I write - which qualify as Science Fantasy. So what exactly is it?
The historical context
The term "science fantasy" was coined in 1935 by critic Forrest J. Ackerman as a synonym for science fiction. In 1948, writer Marion Zimmer Bradley called "science fantasy" a mixture of science fiction and fantasy in Startling Stories magazine. Critic Judith Murry considered science fantasy as works of fantasy in which magic has a natural scientific basis.
The label first came into wide use after many science fantasy stories were published in the American pulp magazines, such as Robert A. Heinlein's Magic, Inc., L. Ron Hubbard's Slaves of Sleep, and Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp's Harold Shea series.
Distinguishing between pure science fiction and pure fantasy, Rod Serling (creator of The Twilight Zone) argued that the former was "the improbable made possible" while the latter was "the impossible made probable". The Star Trek franchise created by Gene Roddenberry is sometimes cited as an example of science fantasy. Writer James F. Broderick describes Star Trek as science fantasy because it includes semi-futuristic as well as supernatural/fantasy elements such as The Q. The status of Star Wars as a science fantasy franchise has also been debated. In 2015, George Lucas stated that "Star Wars isn't a science-fiction film, it's a fantasy film and a space opera."
It could be argued that science fantasy came first. Look at Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as an example. A tale of scientific exploration which imagines the impossible, reanimating the dead. That theme must have echoed in the rooms of the Villa Diodati where she, Lord Byron and his doctor John Polidori challenged each other to write stories that matched the dark weather outside. Polidori would pen his own story, Vampyre, BEFORE Bram Stoker set out creating Dracula! That was in 1816. Half a century later, Jules Verne would write about people going to the moon, to the centre of the earth and travelling under the oceans. Another half century and HG Wells would imagine our planet being invaded by Martians, about science making invisibility possible as well as time travel. All these stories include a scientific premise which is developed into a story using fantastical ideas.
Definition
Carl D Malmgren from the University of New Orleans writes here that, "A science-fantasy world is one in which the characters or settings or events presuppose at least one clear violation of natural law or scientific necessity, but which explicitly provides an organized or scientific explanation for that violation and which grounds its discourse in a scientific episteme." This definition follows on from my earlier point referencing Shelley, Verne and Wells. The science exists but a 'violation' occurs which takes the idea into the realms of the unknown.
That said, a better approach might be to list authors who have helped to define this sub-genre, which is what Brian Attebery does in Dictionary of Literary Biography: Volume Eight: Twentieth-Century American Science-Fiction Writers: Part 2: M-Z (1981) edited by David Cowart and Thomas L Wymer. His list includes Marion Zimmer Bradley, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Samuel R Delany, Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Jack Vance, John Varley, Roger Zelazny. This definition resonates for me, as someone who grew up reading these authors. It's only now, seeing their names here, that I begin to wonder if they are the ones who shaped my writing into the form it now takes.
This list can be found in the Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction - where it enhances this definition of science fantasy by including typical tropes. They include, interdimensional portals (which may include parallel worlds and alternate dimensions), people with 'enhanced abilities' such as psychic powers and monsters which may have scientific links (you could include Frankenstein here).
These tropes define my stories; they all include interdimensional portals for two reasons. Such things offer the writer access to other beings/creatures and worlds. More importantly for me, they feature in so many stories in folklore - see my post referencing this here.
Science Fantasy and Writing Stories
If you contend a central premise of fantasy includes magical systems, in various forms, then science fantasy must differ in the way that magic is explained. For me, it's not about using runes, spells and wands. I've just mentioned the idea of other worlds and the people that come from them, they are aliens! Not little green men in spaceships, put simply, they are not US! Therefore, we can have them do whatever we want in our stories, they can perform magical feats because it's in their DNA. Let me give you two examples from my own work: Frida in The Valkyrie of Vanaheim is half human, half fae. Her psychic powers and ability to manipulate energy are down to her fae ancestry. In The Bastard from Fairyland, the twins possess similar abilities for the same reason - they are hybrids. In both instances, I make the point that these qualities exist in the natural world, we have animals with these abilities - so what's to stop these qualities transferring to people? In this way you don't need to create complex and restrictive magic systems.
I'd add one more factor to this: when these qualities exist in your DNA, how does it change you as a person? All my stories are about broken and damaged people. Invariably, the damage comes from being different. As a hybrid, living among human beings, hiding abilities that make you a freak - you're bound to suffer. How could you not? As kids especially, who need to conform, it is especially traumatic. For me, a story begins with Character (with a capital C!). This precept goes beyond making magic important - by being different - there's your story!
The idea of the portal is another science fantasy element that helps make the subgenre unique. For me, it's why Deep Space Nine is the best series in the Star Trek franchise. The portal achieved several goals for the writers of the series. It allowed travel into 'strange new worlds' that could exist in a single episode and involve very little travel. More than that, the wormhole aliens generated a religious significance that defined the culture of Bajor. This cultural reference prompted stories that had not just religious overtones but political and social ones too. They defined characters by their beliefs - look at Kira Nerys, her beliefs place her odds quite often with people like Sisko and other Starfleet personnel. All this because of a wormhole.
If we remain in the world of television, the Stargate franchise did the same thing, to an even greater extent in terms of opening up stories to all kinds of species that possessed abilities humans don't possess. Some of them scientific, others mystical. Yet again, the portal facilitates the characters who feature in the stories too, as defined by their individual cultures.
To explore literature for portal fiction, you have the Narnia stories by CS Lewis of course. The great thing to remember is that portals can exist anywhere, even in wardrobes. You can argue the case for Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland being a portal fiction too. The same is true for L. Frank Baum's Oz stories. There's a Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle too. I'd also have to mention some personal favourites, like Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, War of the Flowers by Tad Williams, The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kaye, The Magician's Trilogy by Lev Grossman.
The Writer's Takeaway
For too long, science fantasy appears to have been subsumed into that broad genre of Fantasy, to a lesser extent, science fiction. Yet, I'd contend, it is neither. It is distinct in the way science MUST play a role in the world building AND the impact on characterisation in fantasy stories. All the novels and TV series I've listed here prove this assertion. For anyone who makes the claim that fantasy takes place in worlds other than our own, that is true. Tolkien is fantasy because scientific references don't exist in his stories.
My assertion about the impact of portals and people with non-human abilities on a story, defines how science fantasy can generate tales that are noticeably different. Travel between worlds, encountering people from different worlds, dealing with the abilities such people present, is what this genre is all about.
I'd like to wind up this post with one more factor which I've not mentioned until now. As evidence, I'm going to highlight Faerie Tale by Raymond Feist. This is portal fiction but it goes beyond that. It takes our folklore and makes it real. Science can bring credibility to a story. This novel provoked my career-long fascination with the idea of encouraging readers to question how possible folklore might be. Feist presents theories that have justification in science, such that it made me start to question what we're meant to believe. I love that idea! I set out to do the same in The Bastard from Fairyland by referencing Glastonbury (in Somerset, England) folklore. A town filled with myth that includes King Arthur and fairies!
This is what makes science fantasy different and exciting. The inclusion of science encourages us to ask - could this be real?
Phil Parker writes fantasy novels. Click the image to find out more.
