One of the authors whose books I read often (James Rollins) asked on FB today if he should start doing book trailers for his action-adventure novels. The answer skewed heavily “no”, with only a couple of “yes” takers. But one person said something that made me want to kiss a stranger straight through the internet.
He suggested that instead of a trailer the author commission sketches of various characters.
Ever since I’ve started reading fantasy again I’ve realised that I have a real failing as a reader. I cannot visualise fantastic creatures.
Now of course I can picture a dragon or a gryphon. Those are both fairly standard fellows for the most part, and encountering them in a fantasy novel is like coming across a chihuahua or a mouse. You just know what they look like.
But other creatures? Authorial attempts to invent a new mythology almost always fall flat in my mind. Because I can read descriptions that are really good and still not visualise a blessed thing.
The worst of the offenders in recent memory is Daniel Abraham’s otherwise-excellent The Dagger And The Coin series. One of his central conceits is that there are 12 distinct races in his world; races created by dragons in the distant past to do certain functions. The dragons are long gone when the series opens, but the races coexist frostily in the world they left behind. It’s a great hook…that falls flat on its face in places because you simply can’t keep them all straight in the first place (“wait? Are these the ones with bug carapaces or the ones who look like pennies?”). Add to that my complete inability to visualise the whole person and it makes for an awkward reading experience.*
Now of course, Abraham’s books are an extreme example. Other extreme examples include David Brin’s Uplift Saga. But the Uplift Saga does exactly what I think so many other speculative fiction writers need to do.
It has an actual encyclopedia with visual representations of the fictional aliens. That’s the dream for a person like me. Because you can wade through good descriptions (and bad: Brin repeatedly calls one character “a walking stalk of brocolli”) but there is no substitute for a picture. Even for literate folk, visualising the unknown is sometimes an impossible task.
Now I know most authors can’t afford to commission an encyclopedia a la Brin. But pretty much every author has a website now. And I’d say if you’ve got some ducats to throw around on video trailers maybe instead you’ll find a good sketch artist who will draw your critters for your website. Or even for your book.**
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*I read the first volume, The Dragon’s Path last year. I’ve got the second volume, The King’s Blood chilling on my Kindle for when I’m in the right mood. Would I recommend them? I’d say so far they’re B/B- fantasy. If the races were handled better I’d maybe bump that up to a B+. I applaud him for trying to do something different. But the execution of that difference left a lot to be desired.
**Poseidon’s Children was a quick-take sea monster thriller I got for free on the Kindle back in the spring. The author and publisher actually put illustrations in it that were a HUGE help to me.
Even if the authors don’t have the money to commission art for their websites, they could (and many do) put up links to fan art that they think works. I find that remarkably helpful.
I”m pretty much of the camp that believes all authors should write encyclopedias to go with their work, even if their artwork is in the style of Napoleon Dynamite.
I love illustrations and explanations.
I have a hard enough time writing, so I’m all for commissioning artwork. You don’t want me drawing.
Trick is to find – and afford – imagery in sync with the quality and tone of the fiction.
1. Brin’s Uplift series is wonderful.
2. Not just artwork but other helpful items. Maps for stories in which there is much travel and details of the travels. The only thing worse than no maps are maps which don’t show the places being written about. A Dramatis Personae is very helpful, esp. when there are numerous characters in varied settings with bizarre names.
Kosh, I’ve been wondering about Uplift. Have you read the whole saga?
Several of the reviews I’ve read re. Sundiver state that it is not at all indicative of the series’ quality.
When I say I hated it, that’s not entirely correct. It’s probably better to say that I was frustrated as it had potential but was uneven. Im in the mood for that type of book and seriously thinking I’ll give the next book in the saga a try.
Pardon the brevity and the typos. This was sent from my iPhone.
Oh, and YES to better maps and Dramatis Personae.
Pardon the brevity and the typos. This was sent from my iPhone.
I found Sundiver to be very stand-alone and one could easily read the others without reading this one. With the second volume it gets MUCH better and I think you will thoroughly enjoy a dolphin-crewed spaceship if nothing else.
I’ve read the whole series twice, the second time was better as it is such a massively complex work that it took me two readings to really absorb it all.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even Sundiver was better the second time as I could see how it all tied in.