On the surface, the genres of fantasy and science fiction seem as if they couldn’t be more different from one another and wouldn’t mesh well together at all as they employ entirely different tropes, settings, and reading strategies. However, there exists a genre that isn’t often talked about that combines the best of both of fantasy and science fiction to create worlds where the real and fantastical mesh and clash in interesting and unique ways. This gerne is called Science Fantasy.

What is Science Fantasy?
Science fantasy (also referred to as space fantasy) is a genre of speculative fiction that takes traditional tropes from both fantasy and science fiction (sci-fi) creating a setting that utilizes both. The science fantasy genre itself is a rather niche and yet broad genre that is not often discussed as a whole. As matter of fact, several other genres of speculative fiction that you’ve more likely heard of could fall under science fantasy as subgenres.
To give you a picture of what the science fantasy genre can look like, let’s briefly explore these “subgenres”:

Sword and Planet/Planetary Romance – A popular genre in pulp fiction magazines, these stories send a human protagonist to a planet where they must contend with an alien society, typically with sword in hand. Ex. Dune by Frank Herbert (1965) Avatar by James Cameron (2009) Thor: Ragnarök by Marvel Studios (2017)

Science and Sorcery – Proposed by the encyclopedia of science fiction, these stories are where two distinct realities, one grounded in science and the other in magic, interact with each other.

Magipunk/Dungeon Punk – These stories blend magic and technology to create a fantastical science where magic enables or is consider a form of technology. While this genre can be categorized under many subgenres that fall under the punk genre, it typically contains fantasy elements strong enough to fall under science fantasy as well. Ex. Arcane by Christian Linke and Alex Yee (2021-2024) Final Fantasy VII by Square (1997) Divinity: Dragon Commander by Larian Studios (2013)

Dying Earth/Planet – These stories are self-explanatory. They can take place on our earth or a fictional planet. The “dying world” in the story could be a representation of a clash between an old way and new way as well. Ex. Dying Earth by Jack Vance (1950) Dark Souls by FromSoftware (2011) Don’t Escape: 4 Days to Survive by scriptwelder (2019)

Weird Fiction – A mutation of speculative genres like cosmic horror, dark fantasy, and sci-fi that’s stories often leave the reader feeling some mixture of curious, disturbed, and fascinated. Is considered a subgenre of horror but contains enough elements of prescient technologies and fantastic entities to be science fantasy. Ex. The Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P Lovecraft (1936) House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000)

As I said before, fantasy and sci-fi utilize completely different reading strategies; they utilize separate techniques that overall make reading more effective and enjoyable. Fantasy deals with the unreal while appealing to the emotions of the reader while sci-fi deals with the unknown while appealing to the reader’s intelligence. Science fantasy, however, is uniquely situated to satisfy both the reader’s minds and hearts as it is grounded in science having internal consistency yet suspends the reader’s disbelief while making room all manner of fantastical elements to play upon a wide range of human emotions.
C.S. Lewis once said about science fantasy that “The last sub-species of science fiction represents simply an imaginative impulse as old as the human race working under the special conditions of our own time. It is not difficult to see why those who wish to visit strange regions in search of such beauty, awe, or terror as the actual world does not supply have increasingly been driven to other planets or other stars.”
Simply put, science fantasy is an oxymoron; it’s the genre where the real and imagined, the mythical and scientific, the magical and mundane, meet and intermingle.

The History of Science Fantasy
Speculative works of fiction can be traced back thousands of years however, the science fantasy genre can be traced back to as recent as the 19th century with the term “science fantasy” itself originally being coined by critic Forrest J. Ackermann in 1935 as a synonym for science fiction.
In the 19th century, authors such as H.G Wells, Jules Verne, and Mary Shelly produced science fantasy works pioneering the genre until the Golden Age of Science Fiction (1938-1946 in the U.S.) buried it for a time. H.G Wells was known for his speculative fiction works such as The Time machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1897). Jules Verne’s works such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1867) are considered science fantasy classics. Mary Shelly was notable for her legendary work Frankenstein (1818) using a sort of imagined science rather than real science that stems from the physical laws were observe in the real world.
In 1948, writer Marion Zimmer, in Startling Stories magazine, called science fantasy a mixture of science fiction and fantasy with critic Judith Murry in essence concurring by considering science fantasy as works of fantasy where magic has a scientific basis. It was until later that American pulp magazines such as Magic Inc, Slaves of Sleep, and the Harold Shea series that the label of science fantasy came back into wide use.
In more recent times, the Star Trek franchise is often cited as science fantasy as writer James F. Broderick has described it as science fantasy with sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke backing up this claim stating that many purists argue that Star Trek is science fantasy rather than sci-fi and partially agreeing with it. Star Wars has also been hotly debated as to whether it is science fantasy or not with George Lucas stating that “Star Wars isn’t a science-fiction film, it’s a fantasy film and a space opera.”

How are science fantasy stories written?
Science fantasy, being a hybrid genre, contains elements of both science fiction and fantasy in varying quantities in their worlds; stories can contain a lot of fantastical elements with only a dash of sci-fi or mostly comprise of sci-fi with only hints of fantasy or anywhere in between. However, all that is necessary to create a story set in a science fantasy world is to create an orderly universe with regular and discernable laws yet contains at least one violation/reversal of these laws, specifically a deviation from a natural law or scientific theory.
There multiple ways to create a violation/reversal of law/theory necessary for science fantasy:

Alternate History – Essentially a “what if” scenario created by the extrapolation of a reversal of a historical fact. These stories often call into question and address themes of history, values, and assumptions.

Counter Science – An author can ignore/deviate from scientific knowledge to create a world to serve particular aesthetic ends or serve no ends at all, just existing for the sake of existing. This technique leans the world more towards fantasy than sci-fi.

Supernatural entities – Introducing an entity that is counternatural to a world grounded by science provides tension between the contrastive elements (magic/science, natural/supernatural, mysticism/empiricism) that structures and informs the themes and plot.

By violating/reversing natural law and/or scientific theory, science fantasy questions the absoluteness we place upon it, it poses questions towards the nature of reality asking philosophical questions involving metaphysics, theology, cosmology, ontology, meta-theory, mythopoeia, and especially epistemology.

Science fantasy, like fantasy, often escapes the familiar “real” world to journey into a world of fantastical mysteries beyond science’s purview. Although, science fantasy is rooted in science, stories of the genre can and often do provide semi-scientific rationale towards the “magical” elements of the story’s world, convincing their audience of their plausibility. The central conflict of the story itself may be about both worlds or the protagonist struggling physically or mentally to survive against, comprehend, explain, and/or understand the fantastical phenomena.

Many science fantasy stories adhere to the traditional romance archetype, presupposing a “world elsewhere” an exotic world where one or more constraints of reality are suspended. The protagonists of these stories are often imbued with supernatural powers and/or attributes, giving their adventures a larger-than-life quality with the protagonist typically going on a quest for a clearly defined object of desire or the restoration of a disrupted equilibrium.

Lastly, science fantasy often borrows from fantasy’s ethical frameworks as well, its distinctions between good and bad magic which may or may not always be clear. The outcome of such stories, however, are rarely in doubt; the goal is secured, the evil is thwarted, and order is restored. Due to their formal shapeliness (a function of the Romance archetype), their Manichaean ethical axis (their dualistic view of the world), and adherence to “poetic justice,” these stories satisfy sublimate needs of the audience; they speak to our desires and dreams.

Conclusion
I personally feel that science fantasy, while niche and rarely spoken of, holds some of the greatest potential for storytelling I’ve have seen yet out of any genre. The combination of science and magic in a fantastical yet rational universe can make for unique stories that are, quite literally, out of this world which I feel critically needs to be talked about in a media landscape filled with generic medieval fantasy worlds that ironically feel more mundane than the real world and bland science fiction galaxies that make the final frontier the last place in the universe you’d want to be.

I hope that this look into science fantasy can inspire you to look into or even create your own stories in this or other niche genres. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you when the stars align once again. -Conwizard

Sources
Malmgren, Carl D. “Towards a Definition of Science Fantasy.” Science Fiction Studies 15.3 46: 259-281.
The Campfire Team. “Science Fantasy: A Stellar Recipe for Otherworldly Adventure.” www.campfirewriting.com/learn/science-fantasy. Oct 4, 2023. Web. 8/19/2025.
Wurderman, Abi. “The Creative Writer’s Ultimate Guide to Science Fantasy.” www.dabblewriter.com/articles/science-fantasy. August 1, 2024. Web. August 19, 2025.
Lee, Sarah. “Exploring Science Fantasy: A Comprehensive Guide.” www.numberanalytics.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-science-fantasy. May 28, 2025. Web. August 19, 2025.
“Science Fantasy” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fantasy. Aug 16, 2025. Web. 9/16/2025
“Science Fantasy” https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/science_fantasy. April 7, 2025. Web. 9/ 16/2025