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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jhaelen" data-source="post: 6129237" data-attributes="member: 46713">I recall an anecdote from Orson Scott Card, how one of his stories (I think it was what later became the Worthing series) was rejected by a Sci-Fi magazine because they felt it was Fantasy. IIRC, he argued it was Sci-Fi because he could give a scientific explanation for everything that happened in the story. However, these explanations are never given in the story: It was written from the viewpoint of the world's inhabitants who were on a medieval tech level. And to them, when they encountered technology beyond their understanding it was clearly magic. In the story the world is observed from orbit by spacefaring humans who interfere with the local species in order to guide their development but without giving themselves away.Iain Banks has written a similar Culture novel (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inversions_%28novel%29" target="_blank">Inversions</a>) that is only recognizable as something other than a Fantasy story if you've read a couple of his other Culture novels. Otherwise you might miss the hints.</blockquote>