The black ocean series does a good job if blending the two together. But it sort of sets them in opposition to each other. Interstellar travel is made possible on futuristic spaceships by using magic to plunge the ship partially into another dimension, shortening the relative distance between stars. But unless the it is specially shielded against it, magic ruins and destroys technology.
this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Definitely, although I think it's most interesting if the advanced technology is based on the magic.
Like, let's say there is a world where there are magic plants that can heal you, people who can magically scry nearby locations if they meditate deeply, and stones that levitate in the moonlight.
And there's an evil empire that exploits the fuck out of this by industrially farming the plants to create a highly concentrated serum, removing people's brains and hooking them up to computers for magical sensing abilities, and attaching fragments of moon rocks to the levitating stones to create antigravity. Creating invulnerable flying supersoldiers with impossibly good radar powered by brain backpacks.
The second Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson gets close. It's a setting where magic meets wild west tech, including guns, cars, and electricity.
I've heard that his next trilogy in the setting will have more of an 1980s tech level.
A couple of Sanderson's short stories touch on space ships, computers, and magic.
EDIT: I didn't answer the question. Yes, I think it can work. I'm also a huge fan of Brian McClellan's Powder Mage books. This mixes musket level tech and industrialization with magic.
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In any other setting, when we take specific, tiny stones and carve patterns into them until they can perform tasks for us, we call it magic.
The Psalms of Isaak series did this very well at the beginning -- starts off with a magic fantasy land but as you read you realize that there were forebearers with immense science and technology, and weaves a conflict between the two.
Yep
Sure, there are books like that and Shadowrun.
Like most things by Philip K. Dick, the man who has more movies based on his writing than any other author?
Yes and it sounds cool as hell
There's a ton of examples, so yeah.
My home brew ttrpg setting is exactly that
That's prevalent in the Might and Magic series. But (probably depending on the game) the high technology is often hidden from the common folk.
Yup.
Shadowrun kind of does the same. It's not really super-advanced, since it's cyberpunk, but it's cyberpunk with magic. And it's my favorite setting, it's such a cool idea.
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It is called Star Wars, and it is one of the many reasons why I do not like it.
What about it specifically do you dislike? This type of setting definitely invites questioning by the audience and can break immersion, but I'm curious about your take on it.
I think this is the greater unpopular opinion I have, but here I go: It's something more personal rater than anything. Since child I've always fund kinda stupid that a civilization that has ships with space travel capabilities still using swords to fight sigh LASER swords. I always felt Star Wars like a mediaval story, it have swords, magic, incest, politics, and the sci-fi stuff is a big flex tape. I'm pretty sure that without it, Star Wars wouldn't never be the success that it is.
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A sequel to Arcanum that moves the timeline forward into the information age?
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In dungeons and dragons there is a type of hybrid character you can play called an Artificer who treats magic more like technology, and there are a ton of examples in popular media that others have mentioned. I do think you have to determine how and if you'll keep them distinct if that's important to your plot, but if they developed alongside eachother maybe the technology of that world relies on magic to work.
Or maybe your magic relies on elder gods that don't like the mortal hubris of critiquing the gods works so attempts to unravel magic gets you cursed or worse.
I think they can go together and the way you fit them can even become a plot point!
Why wouldn't it work? Stories usually fail because the plot is bad or because they're badly told, and it's not that hard to maintain verisimilitude just because seemingly opposite ideas like magic and advanced technology are combined - just communicate what your magic and technology can and cannot do in broad strokes and stick to it, and avoid asspulls that make no sense and/or undermine the character beats you're showing. But you get exactly the same issues in a story with only magic or only advanced technology.
Starship mage also did it well.
Super advanced technology is magic. Hell, regular advanced technology is magic. Just run with it.
It did in Final Fantasy VI with its Magitek
Most Final Fantasy games mix sci-fi and magic. Only the specifics of the lore around how it works changes with each FF universe.
I think the MCU has done a good job with it, but I'd like to see a non-superhero version of it.
Star Wars
In the 'advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic' there is John Carter, Dune and a ton of other movies where the tech seems like magic.
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Like Star Wars?
Star Wars doesn't really do 'super advanced technology'. Like they've got space ships and hyperdrive and laser swords and shit, but they don't treat it like high-tech stuff, they treat it like we treat cars and swords.
The whole design aesthetic of the Star Wars universe is a state of technological stagnation. They all have advanced technology, but it could be more advanced, however, for whatever reason, they haven’t bothered to make any but minor advancements in a very long time.
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How do you treat cars and swords.
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Dune as well.
Warhammer 40k
Yeah, there are a lot of examples out there.
DS9?
Tbf, in Dune all the "magic-y" bits get "scientific" explanations. I suppose you could argue the same with Star Wars and midichlorians.
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Yes.