Chat Between Chapters: What role do you think technology should play in fantasy?

For this discussion post, we are joining the Fantasy With Friends discussion with Pages Unbound.

This week’s prompt:

What role do you think technology should play in fantasy?  Some authors try to avoid it (ex. worlds set in an imagined past before modernization or worlds like HP where wizards simply do not use telephones or television even though they have been invented). Yet other authors try to imagine what a world with both technology and magic would look like (ex. The Legend of Korra, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series). Can magic and technology work well together? What questions does an author have to address to make it work?

 Julie:

Personally, urban fantasy is my favorite form of fantasy. This genre combines magic with the real world, and I find that is the perfect combination. Since I don’t want to live in a prehistoric world before electricity and indoor plumbing, I also don’t enjoy those problems in the fantasy worlds I read.

Give me cars and cellphones and magic and teleportation all at once. I’m all in for that. I mean, technology is a kind of magic, right? LOL So yea I think they pair well together.

I do appreciate when both exist but clash – like magic doesn’t work with fae that can’t touch iron. So maybe there’s interference when the fae are near. It can lead to interesting plot points. But please, no more walking on foot or horseback for months when cars exist.

Lynn:

I also agree – no problems for me when fantasy has technology. I think that’s why I enjoyed the Crescent City books so much. They are modern high fantasy. Like Julie, I also am tired of fantasy books where they ride horses for days just to get somewhere. Or if they don’t even have clothes with zippers because zippers are too modern.

As for the questions an author needs to address, that’s all in the setting and how the characters interact with the technology. If the characters are in a modern setting, they should be driving cars and talking on cell phones.

What about you?

We are also linking up our discussion posts with the 2026 Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight and co-hosted by us!