People like to compare Star Wars and Star Trek, probably because they both start with “star,” but I’ve long asserted they shouldn’t be put in the same category. From a storytelling perspective, the former is a fantasy genre story set in a science fiction world, with very few science fiction plot elements, which is common to the space opera subgenre with which Star Wars is often associated. The latter is closer to the core of the science fiction genre, not because it is particularly strict about its faithfulness to real-world scientific understanding, but because its story structures are more idea-driven (out of the MICE quotient) and otherwise aligned with the kinds of plots and premises involved in science fiction. Oftentimes, the merging of science fiction and fantasy ends up looking something like Star Wars, where a fantasy story is told with science fiction plot dressing. Dune is an example of this which leans more into the science fiction but remains a fantasy-type plot and largely reads more like a fantasy novel than a science fiction novel. More rarely, science fiction plot elements will pop up in otherwise fantastical settings – Sanderson’s Mistborn eras seem to be trending in this direction.
Despite (or perhaps because of) my professional background and other interests, I tend to write more fantasy than I do science fiction, especially in longer formats. Science fiction seems to lend itself better to short stories in my brain. For the most part, I prefer to avoid crossovers, both in reading and writing. They usually either become one or the other with a few trappings from the other genre, or they don’t work. If I’m reading a fantasy novel, I generally don’t want the realism and explanations that tend to go along with incorporating a science fiction approach, and if I’m reading science fiction, I’m not looking for swashbuckling adventures and grand magics. That makes it all the stranger that I had an idea for a science fiction/fantasy crossover short story and decided it was worth pursuing.
The premise is the kind of exploration/adventure fantasy, but with a science fiction world, a science fictional objective, and science fictional context. There’s a bit of an archeology in space conceit to it, which seems to be an idea I keep returning to (Origins keeps bubbling up in my mind as something I’d like to prioritize writing sooner rather than later, though this particular short story is not related to that effort in any way). My guess is I can fit the whole story in under ten thousand words, which counts as short story territory for me.
I don’t know if the story will end up working, but it’s intriguing enough to keep me coming back and putting words towards it. In a strange way, it’s also motivated me to do more writing in general, so I’ve made some decent progress recently on Golems and Kings. If nothing else, perhaps it will help me build momentum to increase my writing pace on that more significant effort. We’ll see. I’m not making any promises, but there’s a decent chance you’ll see this story in some form or another some time in the next couple of months. Assuming, of course, that I manage to make work the kind of crossover which I’m almost never pleased with when others attempt it.
IGC Publishing 