Adult Fantasy. Ships navigate the multiverse (sail through space) but had to use magic vs. science in different regions. Read before mid-2000s.

[Robert]

All I remember is that there was a ship that was sailing through space but as it travelled it passed through regions where there the rules changed so in some regions it had to use magic to keep going and in other regions it had to use science. Got a feeling that the overall shape of the ship was like a sailing ship rather than USS Enterprise!

[Michele]

Was this an adult book, YA, or children's? When did you read it (what year)? Do you recall if it was new at the time, or an older book? Do you remember anything about the cover, or the main character(s)?

[Robert]

Adult (or, at least, not explicitly YA/children). My best guess at when read would be late 90s but could have been any time between late 1980s and mid-2000s.

It feels like it ought to be a Weis & Hickman effort, but I can't see anything that looks right.

No idea about the cover, but I wonder whether my sense that they were inter-galactic sailing ships might have come from that?

[Kris]

I added "adult" to the topic header. Feel free to edit it.

[Andrew]

Spelljammer? A series by David Cook that interweaves with Forgotten Realms

[Robert]

Not that, I'm afraid.

[Kris]

Robert, what's the tone or theme of this fantasy novel - e.g., adventure, war, politics, thriller, mystery, some romance?

Are there human and alien/fantasy species?

I added a few details to the header/title at the top of the page, so your book might be recognized from that description alone. Many members only read the headers.

You can update it by clicking the small "edit" link after the header. This only works on the full Desktop website - not the Mobile website or app. (On the Mobile website, there's a "Desktop version" link at the bottom of the page.)

[SBC]

I’m not sure what the original publication date is, but maybe Starship’s Mage by Glynn Stewart?

[beichst]

Possibly The Two-Space War by Dave Grossman and Leo Frankowski?

It definitely has a mix of 'magic' sailing and 'technology'. Publication was in 2004 so that also is right about the time you noted. Description below.

"It is six hundred years in the future and mankind has learned to move between the stars . . . by going into Two-Space, the vast realm where sentient wooden ships travel beneath canvas sails in a universe that is corrosive to technology. As they charged headlong into the galaxy, humans discovered others who were already there"

[Kell I Am]

Wasn't that part of Ready Player One?

** Edited to add, they didn't put this part in the movie.

[Kris]

Here's the Google Books preview of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - kelgar01's suggestion:

https://books.google.com/books?id=J8a... There are different cover images.

Traveling around inside the OASIS wasn't just costly - it was dangerous. Each sector was divided up into many different zones that varied in size and shape. Some zones were so large that they encompassed several planets, while others covered only a few kilometers on the surface of a single world. Each zone had a unique combination of rules and parameters. Magic would function in some zones and not in others. The same was true of technology.

(I totally forgot that detail.)

Here is Wikipedia's plot summary - with Spoilers - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_P...

[Robert]

Thanks kelgar01, fairly sure it's not the one I'm remembering but I'll give it a go.

(The TBR pile is pretty high at the moment, though, so it may take me a while to get round to it!)

[Robert]

Bump.

Any other suggestions?

[Michele]

Embassytown? It features ships that move through the "Manchmal" (from the German word for "sometimes"),

[Andrew]

Concentrating more on the fact that space changes I found two series:

Mageworlds by Deborah Doyle & James D. MacDonald

And:

Roads of Heaven series by Melissa Scott

[Robert]

Not those... but thanks for the recommendations!

[Robert]

Bump