Technology introduced in a fantasy world

[toromos]

I would like to read some novels about how a fantasy world, governed by magic, would be affected by the introduction of real world technologies. For example, how a magical world would be affected by the introduction of electricity, guns/gun powder, etc. A lot of urban fantasy seems to cover magic as part of a technological world, but not vice versa. I've tried doing some searches for this on the internet, but I'm not coming up with any good leads.

Thanks for any input and suggestions.

 

[Chaoticheart]

Try the Saga of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

In the books set during the time of Cyador, the empire has the remnants of futuristic technology, though magic is fairly young. In some of the later (timeline based not published) novels, the society has reverted to your standard medieval setting, but technologies such as tanks, armoured ships, guns etc get introduced.

Young magic/limited futuristic tech:
Magi'i of Cyador
Scion of Cyador

Full Magic/introducing tech:
The Magic Engineer
The Order War
The Death of Chaos

I'm working from memory, and some of the other books have the tech in them, but to my knowledge these are the ones which put a focus on it. It is entirely possible that I'm wrong though

 

[Mark_Lawrence]

I know of such a book, but I suspect the rules preclude me mentioning it

Zelazny's Amber series has large elements of this - Guns of Avalon in particular,

 

[Metryq]

Corollary to Clark's Law: Any sufficiently repeatable magic is indistinguishable from technology.

Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series, starting with the excellent On A Pale Horse, takes place in a world where magic and technology live side-by-side—not exactly what you are looking for, but a great read.

Robert Heinlein's Glory Road takes a 20th century soldier on a sword-and-sorcery style quest through some parallel universes that do not permit some types of technology (like gun powder). It is not a central theme, but leads to an interesting scene when a high-tech tool kit falls into a marsh.

 

[chrispenycate]

How developed should the magic be? To paraphrase, any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology. If the magic system is integrated into society and working reliably and well, not a situation widespread in our universe, then anything science based would just be a competing school. Demon raising, alchemy and electronics; you can get the same results from any, it's just a question of convenience, which specialists you have on hand. Obviously, if for some reason the magic is getting weaker (as in Niven's "The Magic goes away") the competition might get a bit more heated. Even China Miéville's railways are streaming up the opposition.

If the magic is more limited, and the technology is filling a real gap, it's different. Now I could see magical assassination, banning certain studies (whether magic is given by the Gods or not, politically the sorcery lobby has had a lot longer to get installed) and countries embracing the new increasing their power, and threat level, drastically.

Try the "Sword of Knowledge" trilogy by C.J. Cherryh et al. for the latter.

Oh, and someone has already paraphrased Clarke's first law; I shouldn't work in the middle of posting.

 

[toromos]

Good questions! I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for to be honest. I was thinking about the transition from "medieval" warfare to modern warfare via gunpowder and guns, and how that affected societies. Or in the U.S., there was a pony express, a set of fast riders on horses that served as mail conduits in the mid 19th century until it was replaced by the telegraph.

I'm interested in novels that would explore how a society is impacted by the movement or replacement of one form of tech/magic by another. I suppose the degree to which the magic/technology is indistinguishable from the other is less important than the impact of the transition.

I think Sedia's Alchemy of Stone might be close to the mark, but I haven't read it yet.

 

[Metryq]

Stephen Baxter's Anti-Ice would probably class as "steam punk," except that it posits the equivalent of nuclear power about 60 years early. An Antarctic expedition discovers a peculiar deposit of ice with magnetic properties. Suspended within the bubbles of this ice are particles of anti-matter, and the first expedition blows itself off the map after melting a sample. It's been a while since I read the book, but I recall anti-ice applied to warfare, spaceflight, and other engineering efforts.

Our own history includes a long climb from esoteric arts like astrology and alchemy to mature sciences like astronomy and chemistry. So a society based on magic discovering empirical science and technology does not seem that strange. After all, "magic" was real enough to our ancestors.

A couple stories that run that backwards—technology giving way to "magic"—are Robert Heinlein's novellas (often printed together) "Waldo" and "Magic, Inc."

Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (translated to film three times, and worse each time) took the occult and made it real—namely, vampires. It's a fascinating premise, explaining what a vampire is, how the lore developed throughout history, and why vampires were always so few in number and suddenly a world-wide phenomenon.

I know this is not technology related, but the X-Men comics/movies are an example of a sharp discontinuity. Imagine a new breed "suddenly" appearing with "super powers." Kinda far fetched, especially when the super powers are things like controlling the weather, or manipulating metal through sheer force of will, but perhaps something similar really happened—

This is going to make a few people laugh, but Jean Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear is similar to the X-Men. The story follows an orphaned 5-year-old Cro-Magnon (early modern human) named Ayla who is adopted by a group of Neanderthals. Ayla is forever astounding the clan with "super powers," like being able to swim, or speaking, which the clan frowns upon. (The clan is depicted as using some vocalizations to accent their dialog, although most of their speech is sign language. Thus, Ayla could communicate in total darkness, or without looking at someone, or even over a distance too great to see signs properly. Imagine a telepath in our own time.) The first book is good, but I'd skip the rest of the series.