Bink knew the dolphin only from old pictures; it was a kind of magic fish that breathed air instead of water.
Piers AnthonyDouglas Adams' Hitchhiker series also shows the potential of lighter fantastic fiction. I read the first, and listened to a tape of a later one, and it's fun.
Piers AnthonyPolishing: a useful lesson for the hopeful writer. You say your tormented prose doesn't read as well as mine? Neither does mine, at first!
Piers Anthony