Abstract: Dungeons & Dragons is a cultural phenomenon in many media: games, movies, books, figures, etc. While the franchise is lauded as one of the most influential presences in the genre of fantasy, its science fiction elements are commonly ignored, namely, the Spelljammer campaign and its associated novels. Spelljammer is self-professedly a “space fantasy,” but upon further investigation, it reveals itself as meta-sf. Alongside the hitherto unanalyzed Jane Yolen novel Cards of Grief , David Cook’s Spelljammer: Beyond the Moons opens the door to understanding certain science fantasy works as meta-sf. Spelljammer: Beyond the Moons presents itself as meta-sf insofar as the explanation of the science utilized in the novel is done in terms of magic, creating cognitive estrangement for the characters within Spelljammer itself. Cards of Grief is meta-sf in an inverse way, creating a world of science fiction in which the characters are mythically estranged from their world by the inserted fantastical elements.
Kieran Strand-Leeds (Thu,) studied this question.