Literature Atlas

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Genre

Hard Fantasy

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

Hard fantasy is a term used for varieties of fantasy literature that present stories set in, and often centered on, a rational and knowable world. In this sense the term echoes hard science fiction, from which its name is drawn, since both build their fictional worlds in a rigorous and logical manner, though the term also carries other, less consistent uses, and one scholar has argued it is both unpopular and imprecise.

Facts
Notable Example
Trouble with Water (1939) 1
Defining Trait
Magic treated as an almost scientific force of nature subject to rules and principles 1
Sources
1. Hard fantasy - Wikipedia
  • Section: Definition, subsection Examples
    "Trouble with Water" (1939) by
  • Section: Definition, first paragraph
    magic is regarded as an almost scientific force of nature and subject to the same sort of rules and principles
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