Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Far Future
Tagged: Theme.
A period more often found in sf and Science Fantasy than in fantasy proper. Brian Stableford has distinguished two categories of Far Future imagery: the "future of prophecy", which depicts the consequences of warnings or predictions, is clearly an sf concern; the "future of destiny", on the other hand, which depicts "images of the ultimate future", can just as clearly be a concern of fantasy. Examples (most of which hover between fantasy and science-fantasy structures of verisimilitude) include: Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique sequence; Henry Kuttner and C L Moore's Earth's Last Citadel (1943; 1964); Jack Vance's Dying Earth sequence; and Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun (1980-1983). [JC]
see also: Dying Earth.
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