Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The lines between sci-fi and fantasy blur in some of the most popular entertainment franchises like Star Wars, Warhammer 40,000, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, along with classic book series like Dune and Dragonriders of Pern. If you’re looking for a new world to explore and can’t decide if you want it filled with spaceships or dragons, you don’t necessarily have to choose. Just pick something from this list of the best science fantasy books of the 21st century.
Marissa Meyer’s debut novel puts a science fiction spin on the tale of Cinderella. A cyborg mechanic living in New Beijing, Cinder discovers a royal conspiracy involving the denizens of the Moon, who have the ability to manipulate people by controlling their bioelectricity. Cinder kicked off Meyer’s long-running The Lunar Chronicles series, which is being adapted into an animated TV show.
Other books continue to add satellites, genetic engineering, and spaceships to fairy tales like Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Snow White. Jemisin’s Hugo Award-winning novel is extremely bleak, beginning with the world being destroyed and following three women dealing with the aftermath. The first book in the Broken Earth series explores the devastating effects of climate change and intolerance, as people with the same sort of power that shattered the world have to hide their abilities for fear of being killed by angry mobs or their own families.
In classic Clarke fashion, what seems to be magic turns out to be tied to forgotten technology. Charlie Jane Anders' Nebula Award-winning book celebrates all sorts of weird kids by following the relationship between Patricia, a young witch, and Laurence, a boy genius who invents his own time machine. Fantasy and science fiction stories regularly deal with apocalyptic threats, but this world is unraveling slowly due to war and devastating storms.
Patricia and Laurence come together and grow apart several times over the course of their lives, but their love might hold the key to bringing magic and science together and saving humanity. The first book in the Machineries of Empire trilogy follows Kel Cheris, a soldier tasked with retaking a fortress captured by heretical enemies of the galactic government. That means combining her consciousness with the mind of one of the greatest tacticians of all time.
General Shuos Jedao was executed after killing a million people, including his own forces, using a devastating weapon. Cheris has to figure out how much she can trust Jedao and her own superiors to complete the mission and stay alive. The space opera is infused with Korean folklore, blending science and magic through the concept of calendrical workings, where ritual observances fuel mind control powers and technologies that break the laws of physics.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
