Changing my fantasy ms into space opera

Emissarius

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Hello,

My YA WIP is currently undergoing a rapid shift from high fantasy to light sci-fi. Somewhere along the way it just kept screaming "space opera!" at me, so I ditched the fantasy genre, which I've been writing in for the past six years. Since I'm nowhere near as experienced in sci-fi, I'm having some problems "transposing" the story's map from a fantasy realm to outer space. My original fantasy setting consisted of four continents, each with 3-5 kingdoms. For the space opera makeover, these continents became star systems, each with 3-5 planets. I plan for the four star systems to have no prior contact with one another. Each system is governed by a monarchy that rules all the planets within that system. Most space opera books I've come across feature some sort of Federation or/and interplanetary alliance and especially, an Empire. Would it be too unconventional for mine to be completely devoid of words like "Alliance" and "Empire?" and "Federation?"

Also, will I need to employ "sectors," "quadrants," and FTL travel if it's only going to be four star systems within a single galaxy rather than multiple galaxies?
 
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Kjbartolotta

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I like Federations enough to be a fully-paid member of Starfleet, but no, you don't need any of that noise. I've seen plenty of YA science-fantasy using space kingdoms and the like, I expect readers will want some good SF crunch but that doesn't mean it needs to be utilitarian and techno-rationalist.
 

Emissarius

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Most science fantasy I've come across are classics (Rocannon's World, Darkover Landfall, Lilith: a Snake in the Grass). The only recent example I can think of where there's wizardry in space is Once & Future, a space opera Arthurian retelling. I haven't read that book yet, it feels more of a parody than a solid work. Can you name some titles?
 

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I think the joy of specific is that you don’t *have* to include anything! For me the joy of space opera is in scale and discovery and space drama, not governmental labels. No Federations necessary. And I think you can use any space lingo you want so long as it is clear to the audience what you mean. No need to get caught up in the surface level details! Imho, you shouldn’t ignore the problems posed by space, distance, physics etc. (otherwise why set the book in space?) but you can handle them in your own way.

That said, if you have dozens of planets across literal galaxies, I would side-eye pretty hard if all of them were monarchies. Especially if they had no prior communication. They really all developed the same type of government independently despite being in totally different parts of space? No democracies, theocracies, confederations, republics, oligarchies? All planets/star systems are singular political entities? Obviously it’s your world! But I offer it as something to consider.
 

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Most science fantasy I've come across are classics (Rocannon's World, Darkover Landfall, Lilith: a Snake in the Grass). The only recent example I can think of where there's wizardry in space is Once & Future, a space opera Arthurian retelling. I haven't read that book yet, it feels more of a parody than a solid work. Can you name some titles?

Space fantasy seems fairly popular right now, actually. A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe (Alex White) is space fantasy where almost everyone is born with a glyph mark giving them some form of magic. Empress of Forever (Max Gladstone) is space fantasy where the laws of physics seem to be mere suggestions at best, and godlike characters folding reality are practically a dime a dozen. Yoon Ha Lee's middle grade Dragon Pearl translates Asian mythology into an interstellar civilization, with tiger-people and fox shapeshifters and ghosts haunting starships. Then there are the alt-reality ones that bend physics to different rules but have no actual magic per se - David D. Levine's Arabella of Mars trilogy, where sailing ships ply the solar winds and space has a very thin but mostly breathable atmosphere, for instance.

To the OP: Yes, there are monarchies (and pretty much every kind of imaginable governance) in space opera. If you're feeling uncomfortable with the genre, though, you might want to read a little - there's far more to it than Star Wars, and a range from hard to soft, from strict science to essentially fantasy. A lot is going to depend on your method(s) of transport. How easy is it for a single ruler to zip between worlds? How hard is it to travel or trade (or wage war) between different star systems? You are probably going to need some sort of FTL (or wormhole/stargate/Macguffin drive) to get between star systems in a single human lifetime, but that doesn't mean it has to be easy (or cheap, or fast) to do so.
 
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Emissarius

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Thanks for the recs and the writing prompts. I've yet to decide how easy or difficult it'd be for a monarch to travel from system to system. In the real world, the distance between earth and the sun is a single AU. There's approx 63,000 AUs in a single light year. Since there's gonna be no travel between galaxies in my work (only between four solar systems in one galaxy), will I even need to use the term "light years?"
 

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Thanks for the recs and the writing prompts. I've yet to decide how easy or difficult it'd be for a monarch to travel from system to system. In the real world, the distance between earth and the sun is a single AU. There's approx 63,000 AUs in a single light year. Since there's gonna be no travel between galaxies in my work (only between four solar systems in one galaxy), will I even need to use the term "light years?"

In the words of Douglas Adams, space is big. Really, really big. The closest star to our own sun is just over 4 light years away. (Source: Sky and Telescope) Unless you want to crowd your stars close together (astronomically speaking), you're going to likely need some manner of light year or equivalent measurement for the distances between them. Light years aren't just for intergalactic travel... just sticking within the Milky Way alone, that's about 100,000 light years across. (Source: NASA) But don't worry: most readers aren't going to micromeasure your distances. They know that light year is "a very, very long way", and that's enough to rough-sketch in how far apart every thing, and since you're making up your worlds you don't need to adhere to existing stars or distances anyway. (In-system travel, of course, you won't need light years, but beyond...)
 

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And, the monarch doesn't have to travel from planet to planet, just because there are political ties. Most Terrestrial empires run on the basis of representatives, sent out from HQ. The British Empire used Governors-General, the Persians, I believe, used satraps.
Neither had high-tech communications, but even if they had, the idea of a man on the ground, locally, was a good one.
Maybe the monarch makes the occasional tour of the planets, but it's infrequent and a big deal.
 

neandermagnon

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Thanks for the recs and the writing prompts. I've yet to decide how easy or difficult it'd be for a monarch to travel from system to system. In the real world, the distance between earth and the sun is a single AU. There's approx 63,000 AUs in a single light year. Since there's gonna be no travel between galaxies in my work (only between four solar systems in one galaxy), will I even need to use the term "light years?"

Echoing what Brightdreamer said - space is really big. If they are different solar systems within the same galaxy they will still be lightyears apart.

Even for planets really close together (like Earth and Mars, a mere 54-400 million km away, source: google (the distance varies depending on where they are in their orbits)) you still need to factor in light minutes if you have radio communications between the planets. I'd recommend The Martian by Andy Weir to illustrate the practical applications of this. For example there's one point in the story where Earth and Mars are about 19* light minutes apart. This means it takes 19* minutes for a message to get to Earth, then 19* more minutes for the reply to get back to Mars. Instantaneous conversation isn't a thing under those circumstances. There literally is no faster way to communicate between planets as nothing travels faster than light. (Radio waves move at light speed as it's all electromagnetic radiation.) If they are 10 lightyears away the message will take 10 years to get there. Also note that you have to send the radio signals in the right direction so it actually hits the planet (where the planet will be when the signals get there, not where it is now). The further away you are the harder that is to do.

Have you considered transposing your 3-5 kingdoms per continent to being 3-5 kingdoms per planet and all the planets being in the same star system? The advantages of this are as follows:

- easy communication between the kingdoms on the same planet. Like they could have proper conversations. And kings can easily travel between the different countries.
- it's not plausible that each planet would only have one single culture and country on it. Look at Earth. Some planets may even have more than one technologically advanced species on it. Like if the whales developed their own under sea civilisation and technology while the humans have the land. Or something. But single cultures on each planet? I know that's a thing in a lot of sci fi but I've always found it implausible. Or at least if you're going to go with a single dominant culture on each planet (like if the USA was the only country that left Earth and interacted with other planets) then put something in about other cultures (maybe they're pissed off with the USA equivalent for dominating the hell out of everyone else).
- there would be travel-able distances between the different planets and radio communication would be possible, even if it takes all day to have a conversation.

I'm not sure where you're going with the different galaxies thing never interacting with each other - are you writing several separate stories that aren't connected? If so then maybe have them as life-containing planets in separate galaxies. Having too many life-containing planets too close to each other in the same galaxy is a little implausible. As long as they never have to communicate with each other, this could work.

If you want the planets closer together I'd find it more plausible that they're all around the same star, and all in the goldilocks zone. Or even better, all on moons orbiting the same planet so they're in the same place in the goldilocks zone, so that would explain why life evolved at roughly the same time on each. It's a bit of a stretch, but I'd be fine with it as long as you don't stretch it too much. Like maybe there's life on a planet and its 3 largest moons and it's all in about the same stage of evolution so there's at least one sapient species on each.

Anyway, just throwing some ideas out there, in case it helps. If you're not writing hard science fiction then you don't need to worry too much about probability of intelligent life evolving in various locations. However if planets are several lightyears apart and they're carrying on a radio conversation like they're in the same city (not even the satellite lag that you get from speaking to someone in another country on Earth) I'd probably not be able to take it seriously. Note: there could be some magical explanation (magic in space is cool) or some future techy way of getting around this, but you'd have to set that up before the intergalactic conversation takes place.
 

Kjbartolotta

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However if planets are several lightyears apart and they're carrying on a radio conversation like they're in the same city (not even the satellite lag that you get from speaking to someone in another country on Earth) I'd probably not be able to take it seriously. Note: there could be some magical explanation (magic in space is cool) or some future techy way of getting around this, but you'd have to set that up before the intergalactic conversation takes place.

Potentially some kind of quantum entanglement or ansible network could solve that; I did a story a while back where I made it a useful, if expensive and potentially dangerous form of communication. Or a network of psychics like in the Warhammer 40K settings. Another instance where I like stories that consider and find workarounds to these issues, even if the workarounds are pure handwavium.
 

Emissarius

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Echoing what Brightdreamer said - space is really big. If they are different solar systems within the same galaxy they will still be lightyears apart.

Even for planets really close together (like Earth and Mars, a mere 54-400 million km away, source: google (the distance varies depending on where they are in their orbits)) you still need to factor in light minutes if you have radio communications between the planets. I'd recommend The Martian by Andy Weir to illustrate the practical applications of this. For example there's one point in the story where Earth and Mars are about 19* light minutes apart. This means it takes 19* minutes for a message to get to Earth, then 19* more minutes for the reply to get back to Mars. Instantaneous conversation isn't a thing under those circumstances. There literally is no faster way to communicate between planets as nothing travels faster than light. (Radio waves move at light speed as it's all electromagnetic radiation.) If they are 10 lightyears away the message will take 10 years to get there. Also note that you have to send the radio signals in the right direction so it actually hits the planet (where the planet will be when the signals get there, not where it is now). The further away you are the harder that is to do.

Have you considered transposing your 3-5 kingdoms per continent to being 3-5 kingdoms per planet and all the planets being in the same star system? The advantages of this are as follows:

- easy communication between the kingdoms on the same planet. Like they could have proper conversations. And kings can easily travel between the different countries.
- it's not plausible that each planet would only have one single culture and country on it. Look at Earth. Some planets may even have more than one technologically advanced species on it. Like if the whales developed their own under sea civilisation and technology while the humans have the land. Or something. But single cultures on each planet? I know that's a thing in a lot of sci fi but I've always found it implausible. Or at least if you're going to go with a single dominant culture on each planet (like if the USA was the only country that left Earth and interacted with other planets) then put something in about other cultures (maybe they're pissed off with the USA equivalent for dominating the hell out of everyone else).
- there would be travel-able distances between the different planets and radio communication would be possible, even if it takes all day to have a conversation.
I neglected to mention that my work is aimed at young readers, the younger side of YA that could easily become upper middle grade. I'm therefore hoping to make it devoid of stuff like Alliance, Empire, Federation, Interplanetary Corporations, or intergalactic warfare. It's more about there being one big Sauron/ Thanos-like figure who subjugates numerous star systems and has a handful of powerful minions stationed in each. The hero and his friends aim to liberate these planets/ systems by defeating those underlings until they reach the big bad himself. The story's a lot deeper than that, of course, but I had to describe in this manner to get my point across.


there could be some magical explanation (magic in space is cool) or some future techy way of getting around this, but you'd have to set that up before the intergalactic conversation takes place.


Magic in space is my biggest problem right now. I don't know how much magic should remain in the story. As I mentioned before, it started out as a high fantasy and I've invested so much in its magic system. Unfortunately, there's just no talking me out of converting it into a space opera because I've been writing fantasy for the past seven years and I got a little tired of forests, medieval villages, castles, and mountains; these elements of the story I'm more than happy to part with, but I do feel bad about losing the magic system. Dozens of unique spells and rules! Darn thing is, I haven't seen many recent space fantasy books with blatant use of witchcraft (I'm talking Tamora Pierce and Diana Wynne Jones-style witchcraft, as wizardish as you can get). Apart from Yoo Han Lee's Dragon Pearl, most other titles I've come across with actual wizards and spell-casting in space were self-published books with obvious disregard for industry standards and even age-appropriateness.
Any suggestions for keeping all the wizardry and yet cloaking it in a more psychic form?
 

Debbie V

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Don't underestimate your readers. Geeks read. And upper MG geeks may even read Stephen Hawking or watch his Genius series on PBS. Mine did. (He is now 15 but has watched Genius twice.) I think Neandermagnon hit the answer here. Put your societies closer together to avoid the need for FTL travel and make communication easier. After all, your characters are going to have to get to the big bad eventually.

Make sure your witchcraft, or whatever your magic is, is self consistent and fits the societies and worlds it is in. You might Google worldbuilding for novels to get some help with this. Of course, this would be equally necessary in a fantasy realm. Good luck.
 

Bing Z

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Depending on how technical you want your book be, a simple solution is that your monarch traverses the space by FTL travel. The beauty of FTL is that it can be 110% the speed of light, or completely instantaneous. Just create an unpronounceable name for that magical engine.

And if needed, make them use Ansible (device/system that allows instantaneous or superluminal communication) and it does not matter if the kingdoms are on the same planet or star systems or even galaxies apart.
 
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Emissarius

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I'm beginning to think part of my issue is a matter of aesthetics (not being able to imagine wizards with staffs boarding space ships as we know them in sci-fi). I'm wondering if anyone's come across a work where space travel is made through ships without computers or any other tech-elements. Like a primitive kind of ship that works with magic or through an obscure technology that's got nothing to do with electronics. If I can somehow get that part done, I may be able to retain my magic system and all the wizardry because then the story won't really feel like sci-fi. Think the early books of the Dragonriders of Pern series. They're classified as sci-fi only because the stories take place on a planet other than earth, but there's no technology or electronics involved. It's technically a fantasy within a planet other than earth. It'll be trickier in my case cause of all the space travel between star systems, but if I can somehow make the ships non-technological whatsoever, the aesthetic problem might be overcome.
 

neandermagnon

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I neglected to mention that my work is aimed at young readers, the younger side of YA that could easily become upper middle grade. I'm therefore hoping to make it devoid of stuff like Alliance, Empire, Federation, Interplanetary Corporations, or intergalactic warfare. It's more about there being one big Sauron/ Thanos-like figure who subjugates numerous star systems and has a handful of powerful minions stationed in each. The hero and his friends aim to liberate these planets/ systems by defeating those underlings until they reach the big bad himself. The story's a lot deeper than that, of course, but I had to describe in this manner to get my point across.

If you;re writing sci fi, even for kids, bear in mind that nerdy kids tend to read it and also will know the physics. As a nerd (and former nerdy kid) trust me on this. If you're going for a sort of Thanos/Guardians of the Galaxy kind of feel, you can get away with breaking the laws of physics if you have an in-story explanation, even if it's technological handwavium (that's probably your best bet actually as if you try to go into too much details with the physics, someone will find all the holes - that's why hyperspace drives are so popular. They don't explain how they work, everyone just accepts that it's a future tech way of travelling faster than lightspeed). I like Kjbartolotta's suggestion for getting around the radio communications issue. Again, future tech handwavium is fine for this genre, but you need to have some explanation.

Magic in space is my biggest problem right now. I don't know how much magic should remain in the story. As I mentioned before, it started out as a high fantasy and I've invested so much in its magic system. Unfortunately, there's just no talking me out of converting it into a space opera because I've been writing fantasy for the past seven years and I got a little tired of forests, medieval villages, castles, and mountains; these elements of the story I'm more than happy to part with, but I do feel bad about losing the magic system. Dozens of unique spells and rules! Darn thing is, I haven't seen many recent space fantasy books with blatant use of witchcraft (I'm talking Tamora Pierce and Diana Wynne Jones-style witchcraft, as wizardish as you can get). Apart from Yoo Han Lee's Dragon Pearl, most other titles I've come across with actual wizards and spell-casting in space were self-published books with obvious disregard for industry standards and even age-appropriateness.
Any suggestions for keeping all the wizardry and yet cloaking it in a more psychic form?

Star Wars is magic in space. It doesn't have to be witchy/wizardy wand wavey kind of magic (really I didn't mean to make that all alliterate lol). Obviously you can't call it The Force or make it too much like The Force but you can still use more psychic/controlling some kind of supernatural or spiritual force/energy type ideas for how magic works in your world. I was thinking of Star Wars when I said that magic in space is cool.

In Guardians of the Galaxy, magic and high tech are kind of indistinguishable. I get the impression it's meant to be technology, but it's handled in a way that it looks like magic. Or if you had technology that was powered by some kind of supernatural-seeming force/energy type thing, then you're literally blending both.

There's also Thor from the Avengers. That's technically magic because he's a god with a magic hammer. Or maybe it's supposed to be advanced alien tech (in the Avengers films, as opposed to the original myths), but it works just like a magic hammer. Granted it's not like your classic space opera type thing, but it's still another way to do magic. And if you consider that The Avengers combines Thor with Iron Man - tech genius, nothing supernatural - you've got another blend of tech and magic. And in practice, there's not much difference. The difference comes in the backstory and explanation for what they can do.
Can you tell that my kids are making me watch the whole of Marvel Cinematic Universe while we're in lockdown? :ROFL: But it's aimed at your target age range. Granted it's comic books made into films but there's no reason why similar kinds of concepts can't work in novels.
 

neandermagnon

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I'm beginning to think part of my issue is a matter of aesthetics (not being able to imagine wizards with staffs boarding space ships as we know them in sci-fi). I'm wondering if anyone's come across a work where space travel is made through ships without computers or any other tech-elements. Like a primitive kind of ship that works with magic or through an obscure technology that's got nothing to do with electronics. If I can somehow get that part done, I may be able to retain my magic system and all the wizardry because then the story won't really feel like sci-fi.

That sounds really intriguing. And a really good idea. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that's like it, but that's okay, because it'll be more original. If there's magic in your universe and someone's managed to use that to travel faster than lightspeed, I'd be fine with that. Sounds like the sort of thing I'd want to read. If you want to use tech that isn't electronics, go for it. There's no rule that says alien species have to invent the same things Earth cultures do. Especially if there's magic.

You can have wizards with staffs aboard spaceships. Why ever not? Thor's a Norse god and he hangs around with Iron Man. Just do it. Future cultures will still have religion and traditions. Clothes aren't going to suddenly just become functional and not decorative and representative of status or power. It's not all going to be like Star Trek with the Federations - obviously you don't want that but there's loads of sci fi that doesn't have that. So don't. Sounds like you've got some really good ideas. Don't get hung up on trying to make it too much like existing sci-fi

Have you seen Ulysses 31? It's ancient Greek myths in space.

Think the early books of the Dragonriders of Pern series. They're classified as sci-fi only because the stories take place on a planet other than earth, but there's no technology or electronics involved. It's technically a fantasy within a planet other than earth. It'll be trickier in my case cause of all the space travel between star systems, but if I can somehow make the ships non-technological whatsoever, the aesthetic problem might be overcome.

Don't try too hard to make it fit a genre or what exists already. Original is good. Most people I know who read sci fi also read fantasy and a lot of bookshops and libraries shelf them together. Probably because a lot of sci fi is just fantasy set in space with tech instead of magic (or a blend of tech and magic).

Make sure whatever magical or magic-tech blend type system is internally consistent. Make up the rules about how it works, and make the explanations fit that. Honestly it sounds like a really great idea and something I'd want to read.
 

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I'm beginning to think part of my issue is a matter of aesthetics (not being able to imagine wizards with staffs boarding space ships as we know them in sci-fi). I'm wondering if anyone's come across a work where space travel is made through ships without computers or any other tech-elements. Like a primitive kind of ship that works with magic or through an obscure technology that's got nothing to do with electronics. If I can somehow get that part done, I may be able to retain my magic system and all the wizardry because then the story won't really feel like sci-fi. Think the early books of the Dragonriders of Pern series. They're classified as sci-fi only because the stories take place on a planet other than earth, but there's no technology or electronics involved. It's technically a fantasy within a planet other than earth. It'll be trickier in my case cause of all the space travel between star systems, but if I can somehow make the ships non-technological whatsoever, the aesthetic problem might be overcome.

The prologue in Dragonriders of Pern makes it pretty explicit that Pern was founded by human colonists, the Thread is from another planet in irregular orbit, and the dragons were genetically engineered from native life forms, so there is a fair bit of SF in it from the get-go. The dragons even require limestone/"fire rock" to exhale Thread-burning flames, a chemical reaction. (And IIRC McCaffrey herself was rather adamant about it not being fantasy.)

And a spaceship that runs on magic instead of tech... would that be primitive? In their world, that would be the bleeding edge of technology. (Heck, you can even skip the spaceships altogether if your magic allows for portals... unless you need some sort of spaceship to build the gate/portal/"bridge" in the first place.)

I think you might need to read some non-traditional/Tolkienian fantasy, to get an idea of what magic can look like without staff-wielding wizards; many just need to scribble a rune or cast a gesture or even just think/will a spell into being. For existing space/magic... as neandermagnon pointed out, Star Wars is basically space fantasy (midichlorians notwithstanding, the Force is basically magic.) Max Gladstone's Empress of Forever raises tech to the level of godlike magic; characters randomly sprout extra limbs as needed, or just bypass reality, and they even fold up a spaceship like a blanket when not needed (one character is too primitive to be able to travel without such primitive means.) Alex White's A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe has space travel and other tech entirely dependent on magic; almost everyone is born with a glyph that gives them control over a type of magical skill that enables them to (among other things) operate spaceships, and those without magic are seen as handicapped or crippled. And there is magic of a sort in Jeffrey A. Carver's Dragons in the Stars duet; his Star Rigger universe uses lucid dream imagery to navigate ships through the "Flux" of hyperspace, and this stand-alone duet has life forms evolved to live in hyperspace and use its properties as a sort of magic.
 

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I appreciate the suggestions. My research has also turned up a 1992 sci-fi novel by Vernor Vinge called A Fire Upon the Deep that has characters with superhuman abilities. I'm also gonna read Empress of Forever, Brightdreamer, cause a couple of veteran Amazon reviewers go as far as saying it's got a bit of Dragon Ball Z in it! Weird considering it starts out with a rich inventor throwing a party.


Don't try too hard to make it fit a genre or what exists already. Original is good.
I agree, but I'm kinda scared my work would fall apart if I go through with the genre mashup. Before considering outer space as a setting, my WIP had so much Dianna Wynne Jones/ Eva Ibbotson wizardish-ness and a bit of Susan Cooper-esque Light/ Dark conflict (those are three of my all-time favorite authors) in its high fantasy setting. With this in mind, I wonder how these gaslight fantasy/ Edwardian England witchy themes could be converted into sci-fi. I've no idea why I considered a change of theme/ setting in the first place, other than the fact that the characters were getting very overpowered and the scope of the story kinda transcended an earth setting with a hidden society of magic users and their minor conflicts.
I sometimes wonder if maybe I'm trying to write two separate stories, one a fantasy, the other a sci-fi. Of course it'll take a lot of doing to separate all the elements into two stories now, especially since many of them fall somewhere in between. Worse, there's a chance that the sci-fi story would be compromised when I remove all the magic from it. You know, "if you're going to ride in the Kentucky derby, you don't leave your prized stallion in the stable." - Bones McCoy.
 
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I appreciate the suggestions. My research has also turned up a 1992 sci-fi novel by Vernor Vinge called A Fire Upon the Deep that has characters with superhuman abilities.

The concept behind A Fire Upon the Deep is more along the lines of "zones" in the galaxy; the further away from the galactic center, the more technology (and intellectual capacity) is available, until those at the very edges are essentially gods - for good or ill. It's apparently rooted in a concept from the ancient world that godhood and mortality are tied to distance from the ground, hence why gods lived on Mount Olympus. There is no magic per se, more technology that approaches something like magic the closer one gets to the god-level zone, though Vinge does create a very original alien species with the Tines, which have a collective intelligence that shifts with the composition of the pack.
 

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Another issue I'm facing is how much technology should remain once the MC enters the magical world.

If u think of Percy Jackson, Mortal Instruments, or Harry Potter, they all feature an MC being plucked from the mundane world and dropped into an ancient, magical one. They all work very well precisely because the MC leaves a mundane world that we all know very well, meaning us as readers won't miss anything from it as we're transported to the world of magic. In my case, doing the same poses a serious problem: if I pluck my MC from his normal every-day-life in which space travel and technology are the norm and take him to a magical world without these elements, many readers, especially those who love sci-fi more than fantasy, might feel cheated. It's one thing for an MC going to a magical world to leave behind stuff like cars, cell phones, and public schools (no one's gonna miss these), it's another for him to leave behind space ships and technology. What I'm trying to say is, I can't just put my MC on a spaceship and take him to another planet and as soon as he gets there, he's gonna say goodbye to all technology and the world is gonna become pure fantasy and the sci-fi elements won't be revisited until he needs to get off planet. Readers are gonna feel cheated. One solution might be to make space travel itself so mundane so that the magical elements, once introduced, would completely offset it. Dune kinda does that in book 1. I vividly remember how we were told that Paul traveled from Caladan to Arrakis by spaceship, but there was no scene dedicated to him boarding the ship or making the trip. One chapter ends with him on Caladan and the next begins with his mom unpacking their stuff on Arrakis. In other words, space travel is sooo not a big deal that the true wonder of the story lies in Paul experiencing the desert planet and its people. But the thing is, even on such a desert planet, Dune does have a bit of technology ('thopters, shields...etc) employed there, not to mention that the "magic" in Dune is more psychic than anything approaching shooting spells from staffs and transfiguring objects. Besides, my work kinda necessitates that the MC hasn't gone to outer space before his virgin trip. There's no way he could shrug off the experience of space travel as something normal like Paul did.
 
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Brightdreamer

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In fantasies, the magic is often the technology.

Take Harry Potter, for instance. It wasn't exactly an "ancient" world he was dropped into, just a modern one with different rules. No, they did not use cell phones in the wizarding world - but they didn't need cell phones. They had other, even better means of communication, so the wizard world was just as connected as our own. They didn't need cars because they could Apparate. They weren't ignorant of the existence of tech, even if it didn't make sense to them: to wizards and witches, muggles were the backwards ones, struggling to adapt to a magicless existence with imperfect mechanical imitations.

Another, possibly better example would be the Artemis Fowl series. The Fairy races had ancient magic, true, but they were also far more technologically advanced than humans, being a much older race, the magic and the tech often bleeding together.

Maybe it would help to think less in terms of "my magical world doesn't have rocketships, so it's primitive" and think more in terms of "they may not have rocketships, but they have doorstones, which get you from Point A to Point B in three heartbeats - even if Point B is across the solar system - so really, why would they bother with a rocketship?" Your MC could compare the magic he encounters to tech he knows, to keep the SF connection there through the story.
 

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In fantasies, the magic is often the technology.

Take Harry Potter, for instance. It wasn't exactly an "ancient" world he was dropped into, just a modern one with different rules. No, they did not use cell phones in the wizarding world - but they didn't need cell phones. They had other, even better means of communication, so the wizard world was just as connected as our own. They didn't need cars because they could Apparate. They weren't ignorant of the existence of tech, even if it didn't make sense to them: to wizards and witches, muggles were the backwards ones, struggling to adapt to a magicless existence with imperfect mechanical imitations.

Another, possibly better example would be the Artemis Fowl series. The Fairy races had ancient magic, true, but they were also far more technologically advanced than humans, being a much older race, the magic and the tech often bleeding together.

Maybe it would help to think less in terms of "my magical world doesn't have rocketships, so it's primitive" and think more in terms of "they may not have rocketships, but they have doorstones, which get you from Point A to Point B in three heartbeats - even if Point B is across the solar system - so really, why would they bother with a rocketship?" Your MC could compare the magic he encounters to tech he knows, to keep the SF connection there through the story.

That would still require making all the tech stuff seem mundane in order for the MC to see the novelty in all the magic he encounters on the new planet. It's easy to get away with making cars or cellphones seem mundane cause that's what all of us readers encounter every day. But there are millions of readers who love sci-fi and I'm not sure how they'd feel about starships being mundane compared to magic. I did consider Artemis Fowl and how magic and tech are kinda mixed. It's gonna be one hell of a job trying to balance the two elements out.
 
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neandermagnon

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That would still require making all the tech stuff seem mundane in order for the MC to see the novelty in all the magic he encounters on the new planet. It's easy to get away with making cars or cellphones seem mundane cause that's what all of us readers encounter every day. But there are millions of readers who love sci-fi and I'm not sure how they'd feel about starships being mundane compared to magic. I did consider Artemis Fowl and how magic and tech are kinda mixed. It's gonna be one hell of a job trying to balance the two elements out.

Honestly as someone who reads sci fi (and watches, etc), I don't expect future tech to be all flashy and perfect and lovely. Quite the opposite. I like it when technologically advanced societies are shown as imperfect. I like seeing the gritty side of life in a society with advanced technology in things like Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy. A lot of future tech sci fi is dystopian. Or if not dystopian, something in the middle where life is ordinary and difficult for many people - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline springs to mind. Yeah there's also stuff like Star Trek where future societies are portrayed as well organised and just and things like poverty don't seem to exist at all. However there are vast amounts of sci fi that show what life is like for those not wealthy enough to access all the amazing technology. Just as how in our world I drive a small car that's several years old and don't own my own private jet. There are are great many difficulties people could have in a high technology society.

Also I'd advise not getting too hung up on the difference between magic and technology. I watched another Avenger's film with my kids last night (Age of Ultron). Honestly I can't tell what's magic and what's technology. And it actually doesn't matter. The characters all have very powerful magic and/or technology, which has rules about what it can and can't do. To get around the characters being overpowered, they need an equally overpowered adversary. Like Ultron. Or Loki as an adversary to Thor. Or Winter Soldier as an adversary to Captain America, etc.

I think you need to create your worlds the way you see them in your mind. If you want interplanetary wizards with staffs, go for it. I'd read that. Figure out what they can do with their magic/technology and what the limits are. Make sure that the adversaries are powerful enough to give your characters a real challenge and put them in danger - enough that the reader doesn't know how they'll overcome the adversary. You don't need to explain how the magic/technology works, it only needs a superficial reason so it doesn't look like your characters are just randomly breaking all the laws of physics. Make it all work from a plot point of view and the details don't matter so much. Like what's the actual difference between a magic hammer wielded by a god of mythology and a magic hammer wielded by a member of an alien race with very advanced technology who was worshipped as a god by humans back in the day? Either way it's a magic hammer. What it can do is a lot more important to the plot than how it actually does it, and is the same whether it's magic or technology.
 

Emissarius

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Also I'd advise not getting too hung up on the difference between magic and technology. I watched another Avenger's film with my kids last night (Age of Ultron). Honestly I can't tell what's magic and what's technology. And it actually doesn't matter. The characters all have very powerful magic and/or technology, which has rules about what it can and can't do. To get around the characters being overpowered, they need an equally overpowered adversary. Like Ultron. Or Loki as an adversary to Thor. Or Winter Soldier as an adversary to Captain America, etc.
I'm arriving at the same conclusion, thanks to everyone's help here. In Avengers, the Tessaract alone creates endless possibilites for both magic and tech. That'll be the key to my work, an element to explain all the magic as part of some technology, and seriously, who's to say how far we can go?

With regards to my story's universe. I'm still wondering how to employ sectors/ quadrants in a four star-system galaxy. Or, for that matter, whether I really need those terms. But suppose I do: should each star system be located in one sector/ quadrant of the galaxy? Or should each star system consist of its own sectors/ quadrants with the planets distributed among them? A few suggestions on this would be most welcome.
 
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Lots of examples of magic/wizards/fantasy in space. I'll add a couple more.

Babylon 5, which is at least partially based on Lord of the Rings, had a bunch of wizard-like things happening in space. While they were technology- or alien-ability-based, they still appeared as magic.

She-Ra (come on, I had to) is all tech vs. magic. She-Ra herself gets her magic from technology (at least in the first four seasons), but the other princesses have true magic, and the Horde is completely sci-fi.

I love the idea of a spaceship driven through magic.

And don't forget: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”