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Are there any Science Fantasy books like this?

Sketcher

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
Hi. I was wondering if there are any science fantasy books that reflect a large passasge of time rather than being stuck in what seems to be one time period for thousands of years. Something that starts out like Game of Thrones/Lord of the Rings, but down the road evolves to a time more akin to Star Wars with a mesh of space ships and magic.
 
Hi. I was wondering if there are any science fantasy books that reflect a large passasge of time rather than being stuck in what seems to be one time period for thousands of years. Something that starts out like Game of Thrones/Lord of the Rings, but down the road evolves to a time more akin to Star Wars with a mesh of space ships and magic.

Off the top of my head:

The "Elfquest" graphic novel series starts off in the past, the stone age, but eventually evolves into stories with other generations that are in the space age....

"Usagi Yojimbo" has a hypothetical future (or alternative future) where there are samurai who fight with swords and blasters....(And, I believe creator Stan Sakai was inspired by "Star Wars" with this futuristic version of feudal Japan titled: "Space Usagi").
 
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The one that comes to mind is the Dragonriders of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey. Its been almost 3 decades since I've read them so I'm more than a little foggy on the details, but I clearly remember the story spans several millennia. The series starts out as a science fiction story about colonists landing on a new planet, then facing some global catastrophe which causes the fledgling civilization to slowly regress into a medieval setting.
 
The one that comes to mind is the Dragonriders of Pern, by Anne McCaffrey. Its been almost 3 decades since I've read them so I'm more than a little foggy on the details, but I clearly remember the story spans several millennia. The series starts out as a science fiction story about colonists landing on a new planet, then facing some global catastrophe which causes the fledgling civilization to slowly regress into a medieval setting.

Well, not really. That's true if you read them in chronological order, but in publication order, the series begins with the original colonists' descendants who've forgotten their origins, giving it very much a fantasy flavor (which is why the books are generally filed as fantasy even though they're actually science fiction). The initial trilogy involves their rediscovery of the origins and true nature of their civilization. Then there's a sidebar trilogy running parallel to the first (with its first two parts coming out between books 2 and 3 of the main trilogy). These were followed by a pair of novels that jumped back 1000 years earlier to depict events that were legendary in the time of the original two trilogies, but still 1500 years after colonization. It was only then that we got the story about the initial colonization of Pern, as the ninth installment in the series. Then there's a tenth book that overlaps and parallels the events of the original two trilogies (McCaffrey loved writing overlapping books), and then the eleventh book finally moves forward from where the original trilogy ended. And the series has continued to jump around in time quite a bit since then.


As for actual magic/fantasy series that move forward into the Space Age, I've always wanted to see something like that myself, but I can't think of any examples. The closest thing I can think of is the animated Avatar franchise. Avatar: The Last Airbender was set in a fantasy world paralleling the mid-19th century on Earth, with some parts of the world in a steampunk industrial era while most of the rest was more traditional, and The Legend of Korra, set 70 years later, parallels the 1920s on Earth, with more modern technology, airplanes, cars, radio, and motion pictures, and an increasingly globalized society. Korra also did a flashback episode set at the start of the Avatar cycle 15,000 years before and showing what the ancient version of their world was like.
 
^Avatar: excellent suggestion.

Like the MCaffrey series mentioned above, I believe Terry Brooks jumped around chronologically in his Shannara series; linking present day stories, near future stories and the Shannara saga proper into one huge timeline. I'm not that familiar with Brooks' work to be sure, though.
 
To the OP:
Although it's going to be quite a while yet, Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn novels are eventually going to match quite closely to what you're looking for. Sanderson's plans for the series are a "trilogy of trilogies" that span 3 different eras: a medieval Fantasy-type setting (Trilogy #1), an Urban setting (Trilogy #2), and a futuristic setting (Trilogy #3). He's also in the process of releasing a 'side trilogy' (called the Wax and Wayne Trilogy) set in the same world that is a 'bridge' of sorts between the medieval setting of the first trilogy and the Urban setting of the second, yet-to-be-released trilogy and takes place in a period of time equivalent to Earth's 19th Century.

In case you're interested, the released (or soon-to-be-released) books in the series so far are Mistborn: The Final Empire (Book 1 of the first Mistborn Trilogy), Mistborn: The Well of Ascension (Book 2 of the first Mistborn Trilogy), Mistborn: The Hero of AGes (Book 3 of the first Mistborn Trilogy), Mistborn: The Alloy of Law (Book 1 of the Wax and Wayne Trilogy), and Mistborn: Shadows of Self (Book 2 of the Wax and Wayne Trilogy).

Sto-Vo-Kory mentioned Terry Brooks' Shannara series; it actually does the inverse of what you were looking for, but is still worth reading. Here's a list of the books in the series in chronological order:
Running with the Demon (Book 1 of the The Word & The Void Trilogy)
A Knight of the Word (Book 2 of the The Word & The Void Trilogy)
Angel Fire East (Book 3 of the The Word & The Void Trilogy)
Armageddon's Children (Book 1 of the Genesis of Shannara Trilogy)
The Elves of Cintra (Book 2 of the Genesis of Shannara Trilogy)
The Gypsy Morph (Book 3 of the Genesis of Shannara Tirlogy)
Bearers of the Black Staff (Book 1 of the Legends of Shannara Duology)
The Measure of the Magic (Book 2 of the Legends of Shannara Duology)
First King of Shannara
The Sword of Shannara (Book 1 of the Original Shannara Trilogy/Sword of Shannara Trilogy)
The Elfstones of Shannara (Book 2 of the Original Shannara Trilogy/Sword of Shannara Trilogy)
The Wishsong of Shannara (Book 3 of the Original Shannara Trilogy/Sword of Shannara Trilogy)
The Scions of Shannara (Book 1 of the Heritage of Shannara Tetrology)
The Druid of Shannara (Book 2 of the Heritage of Shannara Tetrology)
The Elf-Queen of Shannara (Book 3 of the Heritage of Shannara Tetrology)
The Talismans of Shannara (Book 4 of the Heritage of Shannara Tetrology)
Isle Witch (Book 1 of the The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara Trilogy)
Antrax (Book 2 of the The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara Trilogy)
Morgawr (Book 3 of the The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara Trilogy)
Jarka Ruus (Book 1 of the High Druid of Shannara Trilogy)
Tanequiel (Book 2 of the High Druid of Shannara Trilogy)
Straken (Book 3 of the High Druid of Shannara Trilogy)
Wards of Faerie (Book 1 of the The Dark Legacy of Shannara Trilogy)
Bloodfire Quest (Book 2 of the The Dark Legacy of Shannara Trilogy)
Witch Wraith (Book 3 of the The Dark Legacy of Shannara Trilogy)
The High Druids Blade (Book 1 of the Defenders of Shannara Trilogy)
The Darkling Child (Book 2 of the Defenders of Shannara Trilogy; forthcoming in July 2015)
The Sorcerer's Child (Book 3 of the Defenders of Shannara Trilogy; forthcoming 2016)

Note: Terry himself recommends that new readers tackle Shannara in publishing order (omitting the Word & Void Trilogy), as follows:
The Original Shannara Trilogy/Sword of Shannara Trilogy
The Heritage of Shannara Trilogy
First King of Shannara
The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara
High Druid of Shannara
The Dark Legacy of Shannara
Defenders of Shannara

There is also a trilogy of short stories (which I didn't mention above) called Paladins of Shannara (Allanon's Quest, The Weapon Master's Choice, and The Black Irix) which are set in between the events of the Original Shannara Trilogy/Sword of Shannara Trilogy, and which Terry recommends new readers tackle prior to delving into the Defenders of Shannara Trilogy).
 
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