Crossing the Line

Last Resort is a book that I had to write. It came to me while I was writing the Far Coast series and grew from there. What I found fascinating was that line, which publishers love so much, between one genre and another. I can't get my imagination to fit into a pigeonhole.

It made me want to explore the shading of one thing into another. And while the whole book is SF, it does leave you understanding why it could easily not be.

Of course it does depend on your definitions and if 'fantasy' requires wizards and elves then the Far Coast wasn't fantasy. But it was a medieval setting with chainmail and swordfights. But not Earth-medieval. And if it isn't set in Earth history then it isn't a historical novel, not even an alternate history.

Of course, most writers don't worry about that. They don't try and establish the linkage, or lack thereof, to Earth history. And they are probably very sensible not to bother. But it kind of bugged me. So if you just found out that your fantasy turned into SF or vice-versa, then I apologise.

Glynn Stewart's excellent 'Starship's Mage' series pushed the same limit. But it didn't make you stop reading or treating it as SF just because it relied on magic-users. Well it didn't stop me anyway. It did indicate that there is a lightening up of the urge to categorise.

And the new project is determined to stay firmly in the SF genre. But I haven't really found out that much about the characters yet. Maybe they'll surprise me?