As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

High Tech Vs. High Fantasy

see317see317 Registered User regular
edited July 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
I'm looking for a new book, figured someone here would be able to point me in the right direction.
I'm looking for something where a high tech sci-fi world runs into a stereo typical high fantasy world.

I've read Blade of Tyshalle by Stover and the only other book I can think of along these lines off the top of my head is the second (or third?) book in the Darksword Trilogy by Weiss and Hickman which I haven't read for a while.

I figure there's got to be more out there along these lines, so point me in the right direction. Elves getting blown to bits by tanks, dragons immolating vast swaths of elite marines, gryphons tangling with attack choppers...

Help me H/A-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.

see317 on

Posts

  • zeenyzeeny Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    When you say Blade of Tyshalle, do yo you mean all 3 books in the Cain Black Knife (so far) trilogy? If not, you should go get them all.

    zeeny on
  • Bryse EayoBryse Eayo Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Another Weis and HicKman story that does that is the Death Gate Cycle series. Though you only get to see the end result of a fallen hightech/modern age. But it's a great story nonetheless.

    Bryse Eayo on
  • EshEsh Tending bar. FFXIV. Motorcycles. Portland, ORRegistered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Any of the Shadowrun novels will help with that. It's been years since I've read them, but I remember the earlier series not being that bad.

    Never Deal With A Dragon

    Esh on
  • JHunzJHunz Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    While not exactly what you're looking for, the Multiverse series by David Weber and Linda Evans (Hell's Gate, Hell Hath no Fury) features an expansionist technological (at the level of trains and guns) society with psychics, encountering an expansionist magic-dependent society. Unfortunately there don't seem to be any plans I can find to continue the series past the second book.

    Also by David Weber is the novella Sword Brother, which involves a few soldiers from the modern world being transported into the high fantasy realm his War God series was based in.

    JHunz on
    bunny.gif Gamertag: JHunz. R.I.P. Mygamercard.net bunny.gif
  • WiseManTobesWiseManTobes Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Esh wrote: »
    Any of the Shadowrun novels will help with that. It's been years since I've read them, but I remember the earlier series not being that bad.

    Never Deal With A Dragon

    Shadowrun fits your description perfectly, and there are multiple author's working within the shadowrun universe.
    So if one of the author's doesn't tickle your fancy can try another, and any of the titles will give you a good overview of the world.
    (And the one I'm reading right now has a party of 2 elves and an Ork, driving a Transport Tank, down the highway, with a Magic VS Laser Rifle Vs Tech Bows battle going on as they whip down the highway at high speed.)

    WiseManTobes on
    Steam! Battlenet:Wisemantobes#1508
  • FallingmanFallingman Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    The Void Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton may scratch that itch? Though in most of the story, they fantasy and sci-fi are separated. And the third book is still to arrive, but early here.

    Fallingman on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • naporeonnaporeon Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited July 2010
    David B. Coe's LonTobyn Chronicle involves interaction between high fantasy and high-tech societies.

    naporeon on
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Zeeny, yeah I've read the three books that are out and am eagerly awaiting the fourth. Only listed BoT because it's the only book in the series to show direct interaction between the high fantasy Overworld and the Sci-Fi future earth (excepting the last chapter or so of C:BK).

    WiseManTobes, I've read a few Shadowrun books but it's been a while. May pick some up next time I hit the library or a used book store (if I can track one down).

    FallingMan, The Void trilogy is good so far, but there isn't much interaction between the high tech and the magic. With the ending of the second book, it doesn't seem likely that the high tech world will have a chance to interact with the Waterwalker's world without screwing with the timeline to such an extent that Hamilton would have to rewrite the entire series.

    see317 on
  • DarksierDarksier Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Not really a book, but if you have the patience for an adventure game. The Longest Journey fits the description well.

    Darksier on
  • OrganichuOrganichu poops peesRegistered User, Moderator mod
    edited July 2010
    for something of a twist, have you read the entirely forgettable apprentice adept series by piers anthony? it features two juxtaposed realms- one technologically advanced and sort of 'tech singularity' esque, and one high fantasy with dwarves and magic flutes and such. they rarely collide, but it does sort of scratch the itch it seems like you're describing.

    Organichu on
  • Dropping LoadsDropping Loads Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    There's another Piers Anthony series called The Incarnations of Immortality that is very much Sci-Fi + Fantasy, with a very heavy dose of Christian mythology.

    Fair warning: A lot of Piers Anthony work has a strong subtheme of sexual deviance.

    Dropping Loads on
    Sceptre: Penny Arcade, where you get starcraft AND marriage advice.
    3clipse: The key to any successful marriage is a good mid-game transition.
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    There's another Piers Anthony series called The Incarnations of Immortality that is very much Sci-Fi + Fantasy, with a very heavy dose of Christian mythology.

    Fair warning: A lot of Piers Anthony work has a strong subtheme of sexual deviance.

    Man, I'm posting on the Penny-Arcade forums. I'm no stranger to sexual deviance.

    see317 on
  • ArthArth Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    It's not really high tech, but Hell's Gate by David Weber is a magical society running into a roughly World War 1 technological society and the two factions throwing down. It's also stupendously long, awesome, and there's 2 books with the 2nd leaving off for a third that hasn't been written yet.

    Arth on
    Artheleron.png
  • Dropping LoadsDropping Loads Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    see317 wrote: »
    There's another Piers Anthony series called The Incarnations of Immortality that is very much Sci-Fi + Fantasy, with a very heavy dose of Christian mythology.

    Fair warning: A lot of Piers Anthony work has a strong subtheme of sexual deviance.

    Man, I'm posting on the Penny-Arcade forums. I'm no stranger to sexual deviance.

    Glad to hear it =P. I'd have felt bad if you'd come back here and said "Why the fuck did you recommend this?"

    Dropping Loads on
    Sceptre: Penny Arcade, where you get starcraft AND marriage advice.
    3clipse: The key to any successful marriage is a good mid-game transition.
  • GrizzledGrizzled Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    There's a book called the Cyborg and the Sorceror by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Battle cyborg in his nuclear-armed ship is forced to land on a world that has regressed to a medieval-style society. Not a great book but not a bad one; a quick weekend read.

    Grizzled on
  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    As a long-time player and fan of Shadowrun, I can say that most of the Shadowrun novels are crap. However, there are some gems that I really liked. Oddly enough, two of them were short story collections.

    "Into the Shadows" is a collection of Short Stories written by several different authors, but all of them are related to each other in some way. It is quite interesting how the individual stories weave together to form a bigger story.

    "Wolf and Raven" is a collection of Short Stories about two of the characters in "Into the Shadows", and the author really does a good job of rounding out Wolfgang Kies. The story about Baseball and how chipped players changed the game is particularly interesting. It keeps the spell-chuckers on the lowdown, too, so it doesn't feel like there are spellslinging mages around every corner.

    "Burning Bright" details, through the eyes of a private detective, the events that happen before one of the biggest disasters in the Shadowrun universe, the fall of downtown Chicago. It keeps up the action and suspense, and although it is mage-centric, it's a pretty good read.

    Hahnsoo1 on
    8i1dt37buh2m.png
  • Page-Page- Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    This is going to drive me nuts because I can't remember the name of the book, the series, or the author, having read it years ago. But it might be perfect for the OP and someone else might remember the name.

    This book was mid way through a series, and I think was a sort of side-story or prequel, so I'm not sure how it reflects exactly on the rest of the series.

    The book starts out with a very advanced setting, a spaceship heading toward some sort of battle against who is not entirely clear, but I think they were calling them demons. However, during the battle something happens and the ship is sent far away and crashes on an unknown planet. Many people die, and the ship is too badly damaged to ever fix, so they decide they'll have to stay. Thing is, the surviving crew is almost all female. The main character is a guy, and there may be a couple others, but everyone else is female. On top of that, they're not normal humans. The most distinct feature I remember is that they stay up in the mountains where they crashed not only because it's obscure and they won't be bothered, but because they're more acclimated to the cold. All the chapters dealing with the crashed survivors are past tense.

    Meanwhile, the planet they've crashed on is in the middle of a full-blown fantasy backstabbery war for ascension, with various nations fighting it out and lots of scheming. There is magic, which is used for warfare in a very systematic way, mostly magic users who throw fireballs in battle. All the chapters told from the fantasy perspective, which I believe is primarily the viewpoint of the main villain, are in present tense.

    The crash survivors build themselves a big tower to live in. These parts of the book are very heavy on the tools and technology they've lost as everyone deals with not knowing how to survive out in the wild, even though they still have some technology that survived the crash. They have to relearn or invent ways to make mortar and cook and hunt. From what I remember, since most of the survivors are combat marines, they all know how to use swords, but they also start making bows from scavenged material leftover from the ship. Using these special plastics and alloys they're able to make bows that are much, much stronger than anything the natives have. The captain of the ship, being pragmatic, orders the main character to impregnate many of the women, since he's the only guy around.

    Another thing is that the main character learns that he has some sort of magical power that he only got when they came to that planet. He's able to forge metal and imbue it with magic or something. I want to say that his power is considered very rare by the natives and they call it black magic or something, in contrast to the regular magic used to throw fireballs.

    Eventually the natives attack the crash survivors and a whole bunch of stuff goes down. I don't even remember if it was a particularly good book, but since I never bothered to look for other books in the series it may not have been that great.

    Ring a bell for anyone? I'm finding it hard to google effectively.

    Page- on
    Competitive Gaming and Writing Blog Updated in October: "Song (and Story) of the Day"
    Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
    stream
  • FeatherBladeFeatherBlade Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    One that I enjoyed was "Stealing the Elf-King's Roses" by Diane Duane. It's mostly integrated magic and technology. Not a lot of action, but plenty of intrigue and mysteries. The main character is a forensic psychic who works as a prosecutor in Los Angeles.
    Page- wrote: »
    Spaceshipwreck survivors on fantasy world

    Actually sounds vaguely like ElfQuest.

    Or possibly... what is it... Spelljammers? The ships used by spacefaring elves that purported to be ancestors of all the elves in disparate fantasy settings like the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance?

    FeatherBlade on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Page-Page- Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    None of the characters were elves. At least they aren't referred to as elves, and I don't think they had pointy ears. It definitely wasn't a D&D property, either; didn't say so anywhere on the book, and there were no dwarfs, trolls, orcs, other fantasy creatures. The natives of the planet were regular humans.

    I want to say that the author was French, but that's just a guess.

    Page- on
    Competitive Gaming and Writing Blog Updated in October: "Song (and Story) of the Day"
    Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
    stream
  • ZedarZedar Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Christopher Stasheff's Warlock series are based around a man who lands on a world based on medieval Europe, complete with elves and witches. I've only read the first couple and liked them, but I gather they're rather hard to come by these days.

    Zedar on
    steam_sig.png
  • SkyCaptainSkyCaptain IndianaRegistered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Page- wrote: »
    None of the characters were elves. At least they aren't referred to as elves, and I don't think they had pointy ears. It definitely wasn't a D&D property, either; didn't say so anywhere on the book, and there were no dwarfs, trolls, orcs, other fantasy creatures. The natives of the planet were regular humans.

    I want to say that the author was French, but that's just a guess.

    The Fall of Angels from the Saga of Recluce.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saga_of_Recluce

    SkyCaptain on
    The RPG Bestiary - Dangerous foes and legendary monsters for D&D 4th Edition
  • Page-Page- Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Yes.

    Page- on
    Competitive Gaming and Writing Blog Updated in October: "Song (and Story) of the Day"
    Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
    stream
  • RadicalTurnipRadicalTurnip Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    SkyCaptain wrote: »
    Page- wrote: »
    None of the characters were elves. At least they aren't referred to as elves, and I don't think they had pointy ears. It definitely wasn't a D&D property, either; didn't say so anywhere on the book, and there were no dwarfs, trolls, orcs, other fantasy creatures. The natives of the planet were regular humans.

    I want to say that the author was French, but that's just a guess.

    The Fall of Angels from the Saga of Recluce.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saga_of_Recluce

    Bah, you beat me to it. Almost every recluse book can stand alone (weirdly) because each is another addition to the world. The books that take place later in time (but weren't necessarily written later) keep making references to stories that became legend or myths, and these are actually (eventually) covered in another story. This one (The Fall of Angels) is one of the few books in the series (there's one other I've read) that actually has a sequel.

    Also, if you read the books in the order they're written, there's an overarching theme of the magic, making "order" the good magic to begin with (Order magic is called black magic, because black is ordered, and white is a chaos of colors) but eventually (at least as far as I am in the series, about 1/2 way through) making "grey" magic much better, saying there are benefits to both types.

    I found the books to be well-written, but emphasizing the seemingly trivial or day-to-day of life. So, while there are epic battles that are awesome, most of the book is them figuring out how to survive without their technology. This is true for all the books, many of which are coming-of-age stories. I enjoy the slower pace of the books, but many find them tedious or dull...just a warning.

    RadicalTurnip on
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    see317 wrote: »
    There's another Piers Anthony series called The Incarnations of Immortality that is very much Sci-Fi + Fantasy, with a very heavy dose of Christian mythology.

    Fair warning: A lot of Piers Anthony work has a strong subtheme of sexual deviance.

    Man, I'm posting on the Penny-Arcade forums. I'm no stranger to sexual deviance.

    The Incarnations series is more current tech + fantasy. For High Tech + fantasy Anthony has the Out Of Phaze series.

    There's also Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter which is magic + science blended.

    Tofystedeth on
    steam_sig.png
  • Drake ChambersDrake Chambers Lay out my formal shorts. Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    Have you read Northworld Trilogy by David Drake?

    Not exactly what you described -- no elves or dragons -- but it's got awesome sci-fi technology that's created with magic. Imagine a band of filthy, bearded, 10th century viking warriors. Now give them all powered battle armor and see what happens.

    In short, it's a retelling of the greatest stories of Norse mythology (which I find to be just about the most compelling in terms of mythology, for my taste anyway) in a sci-fi setting.

    Drake Chambers on
  • GenlyAiGenlyAi Registered User regular
    edited July 2010
    There's also Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter which is magic + science blended.

    I was going to say that (as well as its semi-sequel The Dragons of Babel), though they are more a post-industrial revolution fantasy world than an explicit clash between fantasy and tech. Great book though.

    GenlyAi on
  • BursarBursar Hee Noooo! PDX areaRegistered User regular
    edited July 2010
    see317 wrote: »
    I figure there's got to be more out there along these lines, so point me in the right direction. Elves getting blown to bits by tanks, dragons immolating vast swaths of elite marines, gryphons tangling with attack choppers...

    Grunts by Mary Gentle has a lot of this sort of stuff, but I honestly cannot recommend it based on quality. It is bad.

    In a sort of gentle deviation, the Wizardry series by Rick Cook involves a computer programmer teleported into a standard fantasy world, who then discovers that he can "program" magic (in words of fire hanging in midair, no less) and creates a rudimentary operating system, single-handedly inventing a new form of magic-casting. Lots of puns involving the word "daemon" are involved. The first one can be read online for free by the publisher here. It's entitled Wizard's Bane, the other Wizardry title there is an unfinished book the author decided to release after he quit writing following heart surgery.

    Bursar on
    GNU Terry Pratchett
    PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
    Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
    egc6gp2emz1v.png
Sign In or Register to comment.