“Read in your genre” is one of the most general, but solid and useful pieces of advice given to writers and aspiring writers. I have always been absolutely obsessed with (what to my best description) is mythic science fiction/ post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy. Specifically, I am working on creating the world and narrative set after an apocalypse that involves both magic/paranormal themes as well as high science fiction themes.
The closest I’ve come to recently isn’t even a book, it’s a game. But I want more, I need more. So if you can, you have any recommendations that fit within that criteria? Thank you so much!
I’ve been working on the setting of a fantasy world with magic but with future tech like AIs, firearms, etc as the pre-collapse setting. Cause historically you know people who have so much more power than the masses, the masses equal the playing field.
So I’m more curious what other people have done like that. What if an AI met a mind/entity outside the physical realm or dimension? What if after ages of magic users always having the upper hand, technologies developed to level the playing field?
I have some thoughts, but I am struggling a little since it seems a bit of a niche topics when trends are either Fantasy or Sci-Fi.
Destiny, specifically the lore from D1, gets close but is a bit in the high side of both, and obviously isn’t a complete work but more of an anthology imo. And it’s a game so not exactly ideal for my purposes.
I’ve been dabbling in old serials, but is their anything a little more modern?
by ghostvinyl143
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I’m getting very strong vibes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke. The spaceship in question is run by an AI, and without giving the plot away, some weird stuff happens. Also the sequels expand on the AI aspect of HAL, his nature WRT humans, and well, more of that weird stuff I mentioned.
The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin plays with a lot of those themes. You don’t have the ai, but you do have a a strong clash of magic and technology and it’s repercussions for society
The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kiersten is an unfinished series that explores some of these themes and is just an incredible book. It’s not exactly what you’re talking about but I think the way it approaches magic and technology is worth reading for anyone interested in that. Highly recommended.
It’s a YA book and not dystopian it the Bartimaeus Sequence has really fun magic/technology and is just a great set of books.
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (he also wrote a great little novella called Tracking Song) and Engine Summer by John Crowley are essential reads
/r/printSF may be able to help as well, though it’s a far smaller and less active subreddit than this one.
>mythic science fiction/ post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy
* **Rocannon’s World** by Ursula K. Le Guin. This author has written both sci fi and fantasy, but this was her debut novel. It’s solidly sci fi, but told in the style of fantasy as it follows an anthropologist visiting a low tech planet where people fight with swords and believe in magic. It does a great job of showing the way ordinary events can be seen as an epic tale.
* **Dreamsnake** by Vonda N. McIntyre. Also no magic, this is a solidly sci fi setting. But it looks on the surface like fantasy. This is a post apocalyptic Earth, so the tech level is fairly low but there’s a lot of advanced things, such as genetically engineered snakes whose venom sacs manufacture medicines as needed.
>So I’m more curious what other people have done like that. What if an AI met a mind/entity outside the physical realm or dimension? What if after ages of magic users always having the upper hand, technologies developed to level the playing field?
* **Excession** by Iain M. Banks is exactly this. AIs encounter an extradimensional thing they do not understand. It is part of the Culture series by Iain M. Banks, where each book stands alone and can be read in any order. However, to me it seems like it expects the reader to already be familiar with the Culture universe. You may have better luck starting with **Matter**. I usually recommend people start with The Player of Games, but that book doesn’t have what you describe here.
* The **Hyperion** Cantos by Dan Simmons is a 4 book series. I only read the first two, but the AIs, their plans, and what they do about the planet Hyperion which threw a wrench in their plans sounds like what you seek.
* **A Thousand Words for Stranger**, first in the Trade Pact Trilogy by Julie E. Czerneda, is about a magic-wielding species in an otherwise nonmagical sci fi universe filled with tons of different aliens. These are relatively soft sci fi, though the author is a biologist and incorporates some real world science into the alien design. Not mythological at all, though there is technology made to counter magic.
{{Dies the Fire, by Stirling}}
{{Running with the Demon, by Brooks}}
{{Battle Circle, by Anthony}}
Arguably, {{The Eye of the World, by Jordan}}
{{Son of the Black Sword, by Corriea}}