We’re not there just yet, but Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books will be blending magic and tech as they go on. He keeps promising to deliver FTL travel using the magic systems he’s embedded in his worlds.
Without getting spoilery, the Cosmere is a shared universe for the majority of his book series and novellas. Each series deals with a magic system that was “splintered” in a way from a main source of divine power. While each series or novel is pretty well self contained, they more you read the more you notice overlaps between the series; it’s possible for powerful and talented beings to travel between worlds in the Cosmere without going through space.
Each of his main series has tech developments and time jumps built in where we see tech developing more and more. In one series, he has three or four eras planned, with the first and second eras already published. The first era is your typical dark fantasy setting, and by the time of the second era “magi-tech” (or “fabrial” tech might be a better in universe term) has developed to be about old west levels. The next era is supposed to be at a 1980s tech level, and I think the last era will be future tech.
There have also been indicators that beings that are aware of more than one planet in the Cosmere being concerned about tech level and the rate of technological progress occuring in a given world. There might be a conflict brewing in which a magi-technological arms race matters, so each series is getting a healthy injection of tech development.
All that is to say, don’t pick up a book set in the Cosmere today and expect robots and spaceships. But the current work is all clearly laying the foundations for such. Might take a few more years to really get there, but Brandon is nothing if not a prolific author.
We’re not there just yet, but Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books will be blending magic and tech as they go on. He keeps promising to deliver FTL travel using the magic systems he’s embedded in his worlds.
Without getting spoilery, the Cosmere is a shared universe for the majority of his book series and novellas. Each series deals with a magic system that was “splintered” in a way from a main source of divine power. While each series or novel is pretty well self contained, they more you read the more you notice overlaps between the series; it’s possible for powerful and talented beings to travel between worlds in the Cosmere without going through space.
Each of his main series has tech developments and time jumps built in where we see tech developing more and more. In one series, he has three or four eras planned, with the first and second eras already published. The first era is your typical dark fantasy setting, and by the time of the second era “magi-tech” (or “fabrial” tech might be a better in universe term) has developed to be about old west levels. The next era is supposed to be at a 1980s tech level, and I think the last era will be future tech.
There have also been indicators that beings that are aware of more than one planet in the Cosmere being concerned about tech level and the rate of technological progress occuring in a given world. There might be a conflict brewing in which a magi-technological arms race matters, so each series is getting a healthy injection of tech development.
All that is to say, don’t pick up a book set in the Cosmere today and expect robots and spaceships. But the current work is all clearly laying the foundations for such. Might take a few more years to really get there, but Brandon is nothing if not a prolific author.