Physics and magic. Elves and aliens. Fantasy and sci-fi. What’s the difference? If you showed a BluRay player to a caveman, he’d call it magic. If you showed a spell-book MIT professor, he’d call it science fiction. While fantasy and sci-fi seem like opposite ends of the literary spectrum, the lines between them can get as fuzzy as the business end of a peach. Some authors have decided to reconcile the two genres’ seemingly insurmountable differences, birthing a hybrid called “sci-fi fantasy.” Or maybe “fantasy sci-fi”? Like magic and science themselves, the genre is defined depending on how you look at it. But no matter how you like at these novels, we can all agree they’re the 10 best sci-fi fantasy books of all time.
The Broken Earth Trilogy
Set on a supercontinent plagued by climate disasters called “fifth seasons,” N.K. Jeminsin’s triple Hugo award winning Broken Earth series is a trilogy of seismic proportions. In the caste society of The Stillness (the continent’s name) the energy manipulating orogenes sit at the very bottom – hated and feared for their abilities. After a particularly powerful orogene caused the most devastating fifth season in recent memory, three orogene women are forced to deal with the social and geological fallout. While the novel appears like a fantasy story on the surface, dig through the dirt and you’ll find the remnants of a technologically advanced civilization buried beneath. It’s a cautionary tale of what happens when people attempt to control a planet, and when a planet fights back.
Kill Six Billion Demons
A hodgepodge of sci-fi, fantasy and world religion, Tom Parkison Morgan’s Kill Six Billion Demons features one of the most mind-boggling original settings in all of graphic fiction. Painstaking illustrated over a decade by the author, the story follows a barista turned god-killer named Allison Ruth, who spirited away to the center of the multiverse by runaway deity. Furnished with a magical artifact beyond her comprehension, the former business major must now fight off the plethora of alien beings that wish to take her power for themselves. Oh, and she has to rescue her boyfriend – he’s kind of the worst but doesn’t deserve to be kidnapped by evil demigods. After learning martial arts from a stone angel and magic from a trash-talking devil, she might just have a shot. But first she’ll have break into a space dragon’s dimensional vault and compete in a planetary emperor’s fighting tournament – classic sci-fantasy hero stuff.
Dune
While commonly shelved as the GOAT sci-fi series, Frank Herbert’s Dune features far more fantasy than physics. Unless you’re living under a Shai-Hulud sized rock, you probably know the now Hollywood-ified story of Paul Atreides and his battle to liberate a planet from a space emperor. While series features plenty of standard sci-fi elements (starships, laser guns, force fields) Dune also delves deep into the mystic – Van Morrison style. What happens when an ancient order to physic space nuns engineer a “chosen one” prophecy to spawn an interstellar messiah? Frank Herbert has a couple ideas, though none of them turn out very well for humanity.
Saga
Like Walt Whitman or Lana Del Ray, Brian K. Vaughn’s Saga contains multitudes. In a galaxy plagued by endless civil war, two soldiers from opposite sides of the conflict have defected to raise a child together. Now on the run from, well… everyone, the pair are forced to depend on each other for survive. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a relationship! When you live in a universe populated with ghost nannies, cyclops romance novel writers, and a race of tyrannical androids with TVs for heads, you’ve got make sure that your romantic bond is strong. And boy is this romance strong. Aside from being a sci-fi/fantasy novel, Saga is also a scintillating piece of erotic fiction. Read it with a towel close by – else the pages will get sticky with your sweat. Or whatever other fluids you got going on, I don’t judge.
The Locked Tomb Series
Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series won fans from premise alone: goth lesbian necromancers in space. Set in a Dune-like universe where nine planet ruling Houses serve an undead emperor, the novel follows Gideon Nav, a wise-cracking soldier of the shadowy Ninth House. Forced to serve the Ninth House heir Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Gideon sees a way out of bondage after Harrowhark asks her to serve as her bodyguard in a series of Emperor-run trials. One problem: Harrow and Gideon’s Hate each other’s guts. In order to solve a murder mystery in a mansion haunted by undead lab experiments, they’ll need to learn to trust one another – and quick. Gideon might not understand the science of weird bone magic, and Harrow’s stick arms can’t swing a sword, but they’re each other’s best bet.
The Deep
Rivers Solomon’s The Deep is based on a song of the same name by the rapper Clipping, which tells the story of the descendants of pregnant African women thrown overboard by slave ship owners. Known as the wanjiru, these mermaid-like beings live a peaceful existence under the sea, blissfully ignorant of their awful history – save for one. One wanjiru historian is responsible for carrying the memories of her people’s trauma, memories that cause her to seek out the surface world her ancestors left behind. An elegiac record of an aquatic species, The Deep combines evolutionary science with a mythology based in grief.
The Book of The New Sun
Gene Wolf’s The Book of The New Sun may seem like grimdark fantasy on the surface, but take off the medieval mask and you’ll find sci-fi hiding beneath – Scooby Doo villain style. Exiled from his guild for showing mercy to a captive, former torturer Severian wanders the world with nothing but a sword for company. As the series marches on, the reader slowly learns that this unfamiliar fantasy world is actually our own – thousands and thousands of years in the future. Built on the ruin of a technological past, The Book of The New Sun features a full cast of sci-fi elements in a Ren Fair disguise. A.I. appearing as spirits, aliens appearing as gods, science taken for magic – nothing is what it seems.
Empire of Silence
Is it sci-fi? Space opera? Epic fantasy? When it comes to Christopher Ruocchio’s Empire of Silence, the answer to each of these questions is “duh.” Hero? Genocidal maniac? Victim of circumstance? When it comes to defining this series’ main character, the answer is “it’s complicated.” Like Jaime Lannister of A Song of Ice and Fire or Kvothe of The Kingkiller Chronicles, Hadrian Marlowe is known far and wide for killing a royal – along four billion other souls. Responsible for blowing up a sun, Hadrian’s reputation is mixed to say the least. But how did he find himself in the circumstances that allowed him to make that unthinkable choice? Hint: Daddy issues – though being shipped off to serve as an unwilling space gladiator didn’t help things either. With the fantasy spin of Dune and the human drama of Mass Effect, Empire of Silence is among sci-fantasy’s best.
The Dark Tower
The central spoke around which Stephen King’s multiverse revolves, Stephen King’s The Dark Tower is a seven part mega-novel with enough pages to fill a wizard’s library. Centered around a pistol-packin’ knight errant named Roland Deschain, the series’ first novel The Gunslinger begins with Roland’s quest to find the titular architecture. By ripping portals the fabric of reality and vaulting through universes (including our own) Roland’s journey leads to homicidal locomotives, flesh-eating lobster monsters, an army of androids that look like Dr. Doom, and a rendezvous with the series author himself. Helping Roland on his quest are three people he’s pulled from Earth, one of whom is an adolescent boy who, in classic Stephen King narrative fashion, is forced to grow up too fast. Featuring characters from his other books, this series best enjoyed after reading the rest of King’s oeuvre – The Dark Tower is the skyscraper sized cherry on top.
Hyperion
Hyperion, the OTHER most famous space opera. Often mentioned in the same breath as Dune, Dan Simmon’s seminal work of sci-fi/fantasy similarly inspired by the classics. Written in the style of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the series tells the story of seven pilgrims on a journey to Hyperion – a planet that is home to the sacred Time Tombs. While the Tombs are said to be able to grant heart’s desire, they’re also guarded by a heart-stopper: The Shrike. Named for its penchant for impaling things on spike, this evil robot monster angel is feared throughout the universe. Each pilgrim has their own reason for risking it all with The Shrike. One woman wants to save her A.I. lover. One man wants to save his daughter from a Benjamin Button-esque affliction. One sloppy drunk is doing it just to finish his epic poem. Just like the The Canterbury Tales, this journey takes all kinds.
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