What role do you think technology should play in fantasy? Some authors try to avoid it (ex. worlds set in an imagined past before modernization or worlds like HP where wizards simply do not use telephones or television even though they have been invented). Yet other authors try to imagine what a world with both technology and magic would look like (ex. The Legend of Korra, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series). Can magic and technology work well together? What questions does an author have to address to make it work?
When thinking about this I realized that the books I read are split about 50-50 on this.
I read a lot of paranormal or urban fantasy type of books where the magical elements are happening in a modern, everyday setting. Up to date technology is par for the course in these books. There is no issue or discussion about it most of the time.
In the Guild Hunter series they talk a bit about technology because the angel’s start getting annoyed that humans invent things like satellites that can track flight. They have to actively block human technology that is going to limit their superiority.
In other books, like The Dresden Files, it is part of the mythology that wizards short out electronic devices. That helps the series because although it has been happening over a lot of years, you don’t have discussions of outdated tech when reading the older books.
I tend to see less technology in fantasy universes.
I wonder how much of that is because it is just easier to not have it. If you try to combine technology and magic, you have to have a logical way that it all works together. If you entirely make up a world run entirely on magic then you can make any logical inconsistencies go away by waving your hands and whispering, “It’s magic!”
There are magic vs technology books like Rebel Mechanics and series like Elemental Blessings where some magic users tinker with tech while the others all think they are weird.
I think I prefer a fully magical world so I don’t have to think too much about if the whole thing makes logical sense. Agree or disagree?
