Posted by My best friend once stated that even my fantasy reads like Sci-Fi. I think one reason for that is that I do not dare blaspheme and try and replace the Lord God or desecrate how his salvation might work. So… while I can write pagan idolatry and do, there are no new mechanisms for how someone is saved, how someone believes, how they are forgiven, etc. And frankly, that’s sort of the big draw with modern fantasy writing.
I’m listening to the superlative Pendric and Desemona series by Lois McMaster Bujold, the reigning queen of sci-fi/fantasy. They’re great, and as always the writing is unbelievable. She has earned her throne. That said, I’ve got red flags and flinches going off in my head multiple times a chapter saying “I could never write this, or try and make that false god so sympathetic, and then proceed to the communion rail to face Jesus this weekend.”
So… I mostly still write scifi of one brand or another, and yes, even my sci-fi believes in magic because there’s magic in the Bible. (It’s never really a good thing.) So, I can handle that.
It’s interesting that I run into the same problem with “hard scifi” writing. The Ad Astra series, Stargate SG-1, DEFNITELY Star Trek, and even The Expanse INEVITABLY devolved into blatant Buddhist/Pagan gods. “The Evolved Masters” with whatever title they have function as gods from the machine, paths to immortality, sources of resurrection, clue bats, and blessings just like Zeus and Apollo. Only the origin of the pagan pantheon differs from sci-fi to sci-fi. Whether you’re Wesley Crusher ascending to godhood or the crew of the Roscinanti dealing with the fact that hyperspace pissed off the angel-things that can rewrite the laws of physics at will… every hard scifi writer ends up writing the gods of his own invention.
Hard pass on that. Irony here: I’m not religious enough to write “hard sci-fi.”
So I’ll keep on writing my angels-and-demons, hyperdrives-and-blasters, sword-and-sorcery mixes with different octanes for different settings, and if they all sound like different segments of the same reality, well… you might be on to something. Ask me about the God of All Creation whom I follow and falteringly serve.
I’ll be glad to tell you the True Story.
In the meantime, how about a little space opera to pass the time?!
#amwriting
Lagrandil 