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Science Fiction & Fantasy Mashups

Science fiction and fantasy, in my experience, are rarely all one thing.  Sometimes – often! – SFF blends elements of other genres of fiction into it.  For instance, I think just about every Philip K. Dick novel I’ve read is either transgressive fiction or a detective/crime novel.

Sometimes those elements seem so weird that not only does the mainstream reject them, but the SFF world does as well.  But every once in a while, a few successful novels in one of these “blended genres” creates a whole new market of science fiction and fantasy.

Take, for instance, urban fantasy. Until relatively recently, fantasy was all Tolkein and fairytales.  But with the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Sookie Stackhouse novels, Tanya Huff’s Blood Books series, and The Dresden Files, suddenly urban fantasy went from a curiosity to a main event in the genre.

They even spawned a secondary sub-genre: Paranormal Romance.  It’s become so mainstream that Hollywood and the small screen have even begun to pick it up.  All three of those book series became TV series, and recently, there was even an attempt at blending high fantasy and urban fantasy in the form of Bright.

Space Westerns might be viewed as another one of these SFF mashups that made it big.  The 1970s were full of space western B-movies, and Firefly was certainly a popular revival of the concept, although it was slow enough to catch on that it was cancelled before it had a chance to break into the popular consciousness.

Steampunk could also be viewed in this light, since it began as a blend of Victorian science fiction and cyberpunk.

Naomi Novik has achieved success and recognition with her Temeraire novels, a blend of high fantasy and alternate history.  Stephen King’s Dark Tower series blends elements of Western, post-apocalypse, Lovecraftian horror, cyberpunk, and high and portal fantasy.  William Gibson pioneered cyberpunk, which was originally a blend of science fiction and film noir.  And arguably, the Harry Potter books almost single-handedly revived the YA market with its combination of YA fantasy and juvenile boarding school novels.

Here’s a quick run-down of some lesser-known SFF genre mashups, in case you’d like to check them out.  Who knows?  Maybe one of them will be the next Urban Fantasy success story!

Cattlepunk: a mashup of Western and Steampunk (another mashup genre that became its own thing). Examples: Wild Wild West, Hexslinger series.

Grimdark Fantasy: a mashup of horror and fantasy.  (We already had forms of Grimdark Sci-fi that became their own genres; like cyberpunk, dystopian, post-apocalyptic horror, and space horror.)  Examples: A Song of Ice and Fire, Black Company series, Dark Tower series (about 75% of what Stephen King writes, actually,) Joe Abercrombie

Historical Fantasy: fantasy specifically set in a historical era, with many of the same traits as historical fiction.  If the fantastical elements are subtle or could be explained by the perspectives of the characters, they can sometimes be found in the Historical Fiction section rather than the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section.  Examples: Jane Auel, Guy Gavriel Kay, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Temeraire novels.

Magical Realism: a story that takes place in the contemporary world, where the fantastical elements are treated like part of the background; described as having an essentially “realistic” view of the world even though the fantastical elements are present.  Usually they are found in the General Fiction section rather than the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section.  Examples: American Gods & related Neal Gaiman novels, Isabel Allende, Salman Rushdie, Alice Hoffman, Kafka.

Post-Apocalyptic Western: a post-apocalyptic story that relies heavily on Western tropes and often graphic violence.  Examples: Mad Max, Deathlands series, Barstow.

Science Fantasy: a story in which elements of science fiction and fantasy are seamlessly blended.  Many classic planetary romances, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom books, or Andre Norton’s Witch World series, might be considered to be part of this category.  Examples: Star Wars, Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels (science fiction that reads like fantasy,) Treasure Planet.

SFF Parody: parody in a science fiction or fantasy setting.  The classics are, of course, Discworld, Red Dwarf, The Princess Bride, and The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

SFF Romance: sci-fi or fantasy meets romance.  Examples: several books and stories in the Vorkosigan Saga, the entire Paranormal Romance genre.

SFF Thriller: a thriller with science fiction or fantasy elements, often classified on the General Fiction bookshelf as “men’s fiction.”  Examples: Clive Cussler, Dan Brown.

Technofantasy: a blend of high-tech elements and clearly fantastical ones, like mages who use computers, or fairies with nanotech.  Examples: Artemis Fowl series, Webmage series, Otherland series, Dark Tower again.

Weird Western: a Western with supernatural elements (zombies, witches, vampires, elves, etc.)  Examples: Deadlands series, Werewolf: The Wild West, the Hexslinger series again, Jonas Hex, and – Dark Tower again.

What genre mashups can you think of that I might not have considered?  Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments!

Just sayin’: The Wyrd West Chronicles and the Toy Soldier Saga are both SFF mashups.  The Wyrd West is a dystopian post-apocalyptic cattlepunk Weird Western.  The Toy Soldier Saga is a military science fantasy planetary romance space opera. You can check them out at the links above, or on my About page.

Kameron Hurley: Making Excuses for Science Fiction

From the December 2013 issue of Locus Magazine

Telling people who don’t read science fiction and fantasy that I write it is still awkward. My mom used to tell people I wrote ‘‘novels like Stephen King,’’ even though I can’t watch a movie more supernaturally terrify­ing than Ghostbusters without enduring fierce nightmares, insomnia, and night sweats. I prefer corporeal, knife-wielding villains I can hit in the face.

But as a kid, I let it slide. I didn’t want the attention anyway. I felt incredibly embarrassed that I was writing about fake rebellions in made-up countries while my friends were studying to be architects. They were going to build real, adult things. I was going to write about trolls’ hair and dragons’ gold.

When I published my first novel 20 years later, I found myself faced with the same challenge: how do I talk about this book to people whose entire conception of science fiction and fantasy are built around Star Wars and The Hobbit? How do I convince folks that stories about the dissolution of a marriage in Montreal in 2155 are just as serious an endeavor as writing about the dis­solution of a marriage in Montreal 1955?

Read the full article at Locus.

Photo of a Single Atom with an Ordinary Camera

A student at the University of Oxford is being celebrated in the world of science photography for capturing a single, floating atom with an ordinary camera.

Using long exposure, PhD candidate David Nadlinger took a photo of a glowing atom in an intricate web of laboratory machinery. In it, the single strontium atom is illuminated by a laser while suspended in the air by two electrodes. For a sense of scale, those two electrodes on each side of the tiny dot are only two millimeters apart.

Read the full article at Quartz.

SURPRISE! A Viruslike Protein is Important for Cognition and Memory

Holy actual sh*t! This changes everything!

A protein involved in cognition and storing long-term memories looks and acts like a protein from viruses. The protein, called Arc, has properties similar to those that viruses use for infecting host cells, and originated from a chance evolutionary event that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago.

The prospect that virus-like proteins could be the basis for a novel form of cell-to-cell communication in the brain could change our understanding of how memories are made, according to Jason Shepherd, a neuroscientist at University of Utah Health and senior author of the study publishing in the journal Cell on Jan. 11.

Read the full article at Unews Utah.

Related papers:

The Neuronal Gene Arc Encodes a Repurposed Retrotransposon Gag Protein that Mediates Intercellular RNA Transfer

A Viral (Arc)hive for Metazoan Memory

Amazon Ebook Reviews Are US Biased

By Derek Haines

Why are Amazon ebook reviews from US readers more important than reviews from international readers?

Have you noticed that reviews from Amazon.com are aggregated across all other international Amazon sites, but that the reverse is not true?

If someone kindly posts a review of a book on Amazon.co.uk, it is stuck there, and not aggregated to Amazon.com. Why?

Is a UK review less valuable than a US review? Are reviews from Canadians, Australians or India inferior to US reviews?

Amazon, like many US tech companies, still really has a problem when it comes to internationalising themselves.

Read the full article at Just Publishing Advice.

Fighting Erasure: Women SF Writers of the 1970s, Part II

By James Davis Nicoll

Once more into the past, this time armed with a more comprehensive list of women who debuted in the 1970s¹. In fact, my list has become long enough that I am going have to tackle the authors letter by letter, moving forward. In this case, I am looking at women authors who debuted between 1970 and 1979 and whose surnames begin with G.

Read the full article at Tor.com.

Man Spots Dangerous ‘Square Waves’ In Ocean

By Kristi Shinfuku

The Earth can be a truly magnificent place. It’s power and its strength draw our attention and it’s power is always a reminder that this planet is not just ours. Despite all of that, sometimes, its beauty can mean something downright dangerous ahead. In the popular tourist destination of Isle of Rhe in France, which is a small island strip just 19 miles long and three miles wide, there are a specific set of waves that beautifully display the force of nature at its most powerful.

Unlike waters near other islands, the waves showcase a strange pattern in this isle. It’s strangely shaped into a square pattern, looking like a chessboard that is perfectly displayed on the surface of the ocean around this small slip of land. The resulting pattern is so mesmerizing and beautiful that tourists will go to the lighthouse to take a look at the amazing display at the highest elevation!

Read the full article at Shareably.net.

Luke Skywalker: A Hero of Peace and Purpose

By Brendan Myers

Luke Skywalker was my childhood hero. Back then, I admired him for his adventurousness, bravery, and victory. Now as an adult, I admire him for his philosophical integrity. Here’s why.

Read the full article at BrendanMyers.net.

D&D is for Boys: Or, Why I’m Always the DM

It was 1984 when I received my first Dungeons & Dragons boxed set for my birthday.  Veteran gamers will remember this red-book set with its dice that had to be coloured in with a crayon to see the numbers.  I was so excited!  I had heard about this game and as a fantasy/sci-fi reader, there was nothing I wanted to play more.  I convinced my little brother to do some of the pre-made adventures with me.  It was fun, but he wasn’t really into it.

When I learned that other kids in my neighbourhood had a D&D gaming group, I was even more excited.  I asked them if I could play with them as soon as I had the chance.

“D&D is for boys,” said Kevin, Tony and J.J.

So I was sixteen before I had a chance to try again.  This time, my boyfriend had gotten involved in an AD&D group.  He was just telling me what he was doing on Sunday afternoon.  He was surprised as hell when I badgered and cajoled him into taking me with him.

The DM, a large man, made everyone roll for random body size.  I get that he wanted some fat representation, but I was frustrated.  This was my first real character; why couldn’t I play whatever I wanted?

The kicker was that he made us roll randomly for breast and penis size too.  Naturally my character ended up with thunder tits.

I learned from the experience.  As soon as that character was killed off, I rolled up a male rogue who had all the same abilities as the female character I’d been playing.  Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, I thought.

But then they argued about whether or not a female player should be allowed to play a male character, because it was “confusing.”  But I stuck to my guns.  “Deal with it,” I said.

When the DM went away for work, I joined another game with a different friend of my boyfriend.  This one was a Rifts game.  Not knowing the new system, I made up a Palladium mage as a point of familiarity.  I ended up in a party with a Glitterboy Pilot, a Robotech Pilot, and the DM’s girlfriend.

Yeah.  Did my character ever get to do anything except get slaughtered?  No.

When my boyfriend moved away that game ended, so I found another game with some kids I chummed around with in high school.  I was the tomboy type, so many of my friends were boys: it wasn’t hard.  It was another Rifts game.  Knowing the system better now, I excitedly made up a Blind Atlantean Warrior Woman, one of the biggest badasses I could think of . . .

. . . who was introduced to the party by the DM having her locked in a closet, tied and gagged (with mere rope, no less!) having to be rescued by the rest of the party.

Yeah; fuck that noise.  I never went back.

In the meantime, I was now still going to high school but living on my own, and I moved in with a friend named Donnie, who was also running a game.  This game was largely forgettable.  I remember being talked over a lot.  I got into a screaming argument over the rules with the man who would become my future husband.

When I graduated high school, my boyfriend moved back to the area and stayed with his friends and another friend of ours named Kevin (not my childhood neighbour).  They started up a game.  To Kevin’s credit, I actually felt listened to and taken seriously, and I wasn’t the only girl there; there were two others who were part of our social circle.  My character was the male rogue I’d originally written up for that ill-fated game at sixteen, and he ended up the party leader.

There was a lot of sex in that game.  I don’t object.  I trusted everyone there, we were good friends, and we were all new adults, exploring our sexuality in a safe, theoretical setting.  We’d have done well with The Book of Erotic Fantasy, if it had existed at that time.

When that game ended, and my boyfriend and I got our own place, he started up a game.  My future husband joined this game too, and was considerably less aggressive than he had been in the first game we’d played together.  For a while we had a great time.

Then this one friend of a friend joined the group, and he was one of those people who has to be as contradictory as possible in every way.  He played mean-spirited jokes, and created as much discord as possible.  Many of those jokes were horribly sexist.  Finally I got extremely angry.  I said that either he would have to go, or I was quitting.

I am gratified that they chose me; at least I wasn’t trying to disturb shit all the time.  But I kept getting into arguments with my boyfriend about the rules, who was nasty about it.

Fine, I thought.  I’ll make my own game, and I’ll be the DM.

I had discovered Spelljammer, which is a love I maintain to this day.  It had the added benefit of an in-system strategy game element with ship figures and a hex board, and this was something I was good at.  Naturally I tried to give the benefit of the doubt to the characters though.  Some DMs set out to murder their characters, but I think that’s all too easy when you control the conditions of the world.  I would rather they would wish they were dead.

I created my own campaign world.  Now that male rogue from my first game was a significant NPC.  They loved it.  We still play in it from time to time.  I may write books about it someday.

When the Storyteller system crossed our path I started a Werewolf: the Apocalypse game that eventually ran for fifteen years, and remains a legend among my friends.  I also started a Vampire: the Masquerade game not long after; that one ran for twelve years.

I love it.  I love being a DM and a Storyteller.  But eventually, I wanted to play too.

I would try different games from time to time.  Twilight 2000, for example.  That was a bad choice; apparently men innately disrespect women in all matters military.  Robotech.  Also a bad choice; they wanted me to be Minmei, while I wanted to be a Robotech Pilot.

Once I made the mistake of joining my now-boyfriend’s (and future husband’s) old gaming group.  He assured me his cousin Ted was an awesome DM, this was an epic level gaming group, and they were even playing in the Storyteller world.  I now had a 7th rank werewolf (male) character and a Methuselah (female) vampire character who hunted other vampires (out of ethical opposition, not for food) so he figured my characters were perfect for the campaign.

Ha.  The female vampire was immediately marginalized.  They told me that in-character, their party had dealt with a lot of idiot women (generally, I understand, played by girlfriends of the all-male core gaming group) and so any woman had to prove she wasn’t an idiot.  Not that they ever gave her the chance.  I finally had her challenge one of the characters, who was continually insulting her knightly honour, to a duel.  She won.  The player stopped playing.

The male werewolf was taking offense at the rest of the party, but as a Philodox he tried to negotiate.  They were all, apparently, members of some intergalactic policing group, and they figured they were just going to come to Earth and police his people.  I told them that his group did not acknowledge their authority, and if they wanted the help of the werewolves against the agents of the Wyrm, they were going to have to stop trying to boss them around like they were a bunch of savages.  They claimed their high technology gave them the right to command, and I reminded them werewolves had all sorts of spiritual powers that would fuck their technology royally and blow their fancy spaceships right out of the sky.

Another player decided he was going on a killing spree in response to this, and assassinated a bunch of my character’s friends.  Yeah, I gave up after that.  Fuck it; let them have their stupid little boys club.  They were all rude to me out of game as well as in game anyway, except my future husband and the DM, and he (the DM) was the one who’d explained to me that all previous women characters had been idiots.

Ultimately I learned that if I or my husband were not the DM, I was going to get the bullshit sexist treatment.  So I stopped playing games unless I was running them.

My point, folks, is that this has been going on for a very long time.  I’m fucking tired of it.  You would think that in this day and age this wouldn’t be a problem, especially when gaming companies have been working to make those of us who feel marginalized less so, rightfully assuming they won’t grow their market unless they get their shit together on this.  But no.  We still get this shit at cons and in our local gaming groups, as the two articles I’ve posted over the past couple of days prove.

I won’t say it’s always been like this.  There have been exceptions, and they’re worth mentioning.  For instance, I never felt marginalized when I was part of the Fantaseum website staff, which was the official AD&D Core Rules website.  Most of the staff were Gulf War veterans, and it was run by a (heterosexual) couple who were highly respected in the community.  Maybe being soldiers gave them more respect for women, as much as the stereotype suggests otherwise.

I also never felt marginalized as part of the Spelljammer fan community, although I have been mansplained to a few times, and I’ve also had to correct some masculine-oriented language from a guy whom I know was otherwise well-intentioned.  I genuinely believe he just didn’t know any better.

But why are these the exceptions?

You want to talk about “real gamers?”  Bitches, I have played Basic D&D, 1st edition D&D, AD&D, D&D 3rd edition, D&D 5th edition, Rifts, Palladium, a plethora of related games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Twilight 2000, Call of Cthulu, every Storyteller game they ever invented, Star Wars d6 and Star Wars d20, Battletech, Heavy Gear, DC Heroes, Marvel, Shadowrun, Gamma World, and Pathfinder.  I have played sci-fi settings, fantasy settings, modern contemporary settings.  I have DMed or GMed or Storytold just about every single one of those systems too.  I’ve been here for longer than most of you have lived.

And I’m tired of your shit.  I’m tired of you ruining my favourite hobby.  So if you can’t adapt to the fact that women, and non-binary people, and PoC, are here and always have been, GTFO.  I’m done being the Philodox and trying to negotiate.  It’s Ahroun lay-a-beatin’ time.