Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Bootsix t1_iy5yths wrote

Reply to comment by MaxFlorschutzAMA in I am Max Florschutz, author of Science-Fiction and Fantasy, back again to celebrate the launch of my latest book, Starforge! by MaxFlorschutzAMA

Haha I agree, my brother and I had a small argument about being able to simply "magic" a problem away vs having to base the solution in science. So you seemed the perfect person to ask, thank you for taking the time.

5

MaxFlorschutzAMA OP t1_iy5z9xx wrote

No worries. Thanks for the question.

"Hand-waving" exists in both genres, to be fair. Plenty of stories have devices magical or scientific that work via "Who knows, we just know that it works" logic.

But even if there is a magic solution to a problem, what sort of ramifications does that have for the setting? Can magicians create food? What's the cost, and would anyone ever starve? At the root, be it magic or science, the same questions about society and the world will be asked, and an author will need to have (or find) those answers.

8