i can't think of evolution happening in a fantasy story, and i don't think it would work for me. i would prefer Genesis or a big ole' unexplained black hole of knowledge where evolution could have occured but there are no authoritative texts about it
Genesis isn't an "unexplained black hole of knowledge".
It constructs the Universe in a very ordered, rational way {for the audiences of the time}.
Similar to the way we do today.
It merely places "God" as the Ultimate Source of events as opposed to "the Singularity" which is as close as Physicists seem to be able to come to a "beginning".
i guess i prefer a Genesis account because it would mean that inside the world, everything has it's place, because everything is ultimately anchored to a meaningful beginning (maybe not 'meaningful' in a nice way).
But this is one of the questions being posed by The Second-Apocalypse Saga, isn't it?
Whether or not anything is inherently "meaningful" or if "meaning" is ultimately just an heuristic utilized by a series of phenomena which could ultimately be material and without "meaning" in the traditional sense?
Also, how does a non-Biblical account of our Origins counteract the idea that Everything has it's Place?
In a non-Biblical view, everything is just the grand-baby of protozoan bacteria using DNA, inching its way through the world and into geographical environs that gradually sculpt its descendants into divergent species... Every species on Earth quite literally has its place, has been filling its Place for millennia, and continues to do so.
in an evolutionary setting, the ultimate origin of everything hinges on coincidences.
Not really. Evolution does not concern itself with the Ultimate Origin of Existence.
It is merely a tool for observing the processes by which different Species came into existence.
we get bipedals on earth, maybe tripedals on some other planet.
Yes but there would be geographical reasons for the development of bipedals, tripedals, and quadripedals. Variables and factors that generate organisms that precede and encompass their existence. And each of these creatures on each of these planets would literally have been evolving for millennia to fill their "place" in an optimal way.
i think good fiction works because the author creates a story that is unlike the random reality we live in. that is, even the random things that happen in the story still mean something towards the final trajectory of the characters and stuff. idk wut
Assuming that the reality we live in is "random" is a large assumption based on no evidence whatsoever.
All that being said, Bakker's world is one wherein the principles of Science, Evolution, and Technology seem to have some discernible influence...
i.e., the Inchoroi, the Consult, and the Tekne.
{as opposed to Morgoth and Sauron from Tolkien's mythos}.