April 8, 2026
Why I Write Both
On writing sci-fi and fantasy without apology — and the readers who know exactly what the overlap looks like.
There is a long-standing convention in the publishing industry that sci-fi writers should not also write fantasy, and that fantasy writers should not also write sci-fi. The reasoning is commercial — different shelves, different conventions, different readers — and the convention is, in my experience, wrong.
The readers know it’s wrong. The good ones have always known.
The genres are the same engine
A hard sci-fi novel is built on a magic system. The magic system is called physics. It has rules. The rules are knowable. The plot is what happens when characters press hard against the limits of those rules and the rules don’t flex.
An epic fantasy novel is built on a magic system. The magic system is called magic. It has rules. The rules are knowable. The plot is what happens when characters press hard against the limits of those rules and the rules don’t flex.
These are the same book. The uniform is different.
The reader who comes to a good fantasy novel for the rigour of the magic system is the same reader who comes to a good hard sci-fi novel for the rigour of the physics. Both readers want a world that can be reasoned about. Both readers reward the writer who treats the world honestly. The shelves are separate but the readership is the same readership, and the readership has been telling publishers this for forty years.
What the overlap looks like in practice
When I sit at my desk to draft, the first decision I make is what the engine of the story is — what set of rules will be doing the load-bearing work for the plot. Sometimes the engine is physics. Sometimes the engine is magic. Sometimes the engine is both, and the book ends up on the science fantasy shelf, which is the shelf I love most because it doesn’t pretend the two genres are different.
Beyond that first decision, the work is the same:
- Build the system with internal consistency
- Cast characters who use the system competently
- Set up a problem the system cannot easily solve
- Make the protagonist’s choices visible against the limits of the system
- Reward the reader who has been paying attention
That’s a sci-fi book. That’s a fantasy book. That’s any book.
Why I won’t apologise for it
I’ve been asked, in interviews, whether I worry about “confusing” readers by writing across both genres. The answer is no. The reader who is going to love Long Light is the same reader who is going to love The Ninth Heir. They both want the world to be real on the page, by which they mean coherent under pressure.
I write both because they are, to me, the same craft. The day I stop treating them that way will be the day I stop being interested in either.