I never check my Goodreads Inbox* because I honestly forget it’s there. So for two months I missed the very well-written and thoughtful message from a woman in Pennsylvania who wants to know if she should start reading Fantasy and if so, why. I still haven’t heard back from her after my apology for dunderheadedness so I don’t know if she got an answer. Still, though, it’s a good question and I think I ought to answer it for myself.
So, why should a person read fantasy–or, better, why might a person be interested in starting to read fantasy? I’m not big on telling non-writer people what they “should” read once they’ve made it through High School because reading for pleasure is a highly subjective exercise. For decades my pleasure reading stayed far away from anything fantastic. The very mention of princessess, elves and spectacular jewelry sent me into fits of eye-rolling and lather. It’s only been in the last five years that I’ve revisited the Fantasy section of the bookstore.
Image (c) Lisa Frank, Fair Use
Ultimately, though, Fantasy and I both changed a bit and met one another halfway. Epic Fantasy–which I prefer**–deals with alternate worlds.
You know all those movies where teachers try to reach a room of disinterested kids that are supposedly unteachable? There are a few scenes where you see what human flotsam the kids are and then the teacher decides to rap Shakespeare or talk about how Mayans invented the zero and all of a sudden the kids are “Liek Whoa!” and turn into people who can pass standardized tests.
Fantasy is how storytellers rap the Shakespeare. It’s a way to look at history, metaphysics, and philosophy while being engaged in a narrative that compels you far beyond anything else. The true storytellers, the descendents of Homer and Shakespeare and seanachies are writing epic fantasy now.
Before I came back to this genre I was reading mysteries, thrillers, horror, family sagas and romances. Everything I got from those books is found in the stories these new bards tell. While Kellerman, King and Cruisie are all very good at what they do, Epic Fantasy is a genre where you can find everything packaged the way stories have been packaged for centuries.
Read fantasy because it’s the way we have of sitting around the village fire and listening to the griot.
What Fantasy novels and series do I like to read? I’d recommend:
A Song of Ice And Fire (Series) George R.R. Martin
-Game of Thrones
-Clash of Kings
-Storm of Swords
-Feast For Crows
-A Dance with Dragons
The Kingkiller Chronicles (Series) Patrick Rothfuss
-Name Of The Wind
-The Wise Man’s Fear
The Demon Cycle (Series) Peter V. Brett
-The Warded Man
-The Desert Spear
The Acacia Trilogy David Anthony Durham
-Acacia: The War with the Mein
-The Other Lands
-The Sacred Band
The following books are parts of series where I have only read one of the series books so far.
Curse of Chalion Lois McMaster Bujold
Blood Song Anthony Ryan
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*I honestly am kind of ticked off, because Goodreads emails me whenever someone likes a review, comments on a thread, sneezes. They don’t email me when I have, you know, email.
**There are several subgenres of Fantasy. The kind I don’t like is still around and is called Sword and Sorcery.
Do you like Dumas? The first two books of Steven Brust’s homage to The Three Musketeers (known collectively as the Khaavren Romances) are rollicking good fun told from the POV of an unreliable narrator, Paarfi, whose overflowery court language is to die for. They start with The Phoenix Guards:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Phoenix-Guards-Khaavren-Romances/dp/0812506898
This review sums Paarfi up very well: “One of the conceits of the Khaavren Romances is that they are written by a contemporary of Khaavren, the protagonist, one Paarfi of Roundwood. Paarfi redefines “prolix” with each page he writes. Like Dumas, Paarfi is paid by the word. Like Dumas, Paarfi writes with hyperformality, wild circumlocutions, and a willingness to break from the narrative thread at any time to chase down almost any distraction. As just one example, at one important juncture Paarfi spends a few pages establishing that a long place name, de-constructed through half a dozen languages, translates as “wood wood wood wood.” It’s a sly send-up of Dumas; Paarfi out does Dumas, to wonderful effect.”
People don’t tend to think of Brust when they think of Fantasy. I consider that a compliment.
Oooh! That sounds GOOD! I love Dumas. _Count of Monte Cristo_ is one of my favourite books.
This is what’s been good and bad about coming back to fantasy. Other genres (like mystery and YA) I pretty much know inside and out. But here I’m always overlooking good things. At least I’ve got you and NM and Jason and Casey to point me to them.
A lot of people don’t know Brust. As a disciple of Roger Zelazny, I love to introduce people to the guys who carry on Zelazny’s legacy.
I’m always glad to recommend things, but I get the feeling you don’t like my recommendations much. Which is fine, of course. But they never make your lists. I think your tastes are much epicer than mine.
I honestly haven’t read but one of them. The Patricia McKillip one…alphabet of thorns?
I was going to start the Hawk of May a couple of weeks ago but got sidetracked by wanting to reread something familiar.
The thing about me and any book is that I have to be completely in the mood to read something. It’s why I’m having horrible luck with the library and their wait list. I’ve got a folder on my Kindle solely dedicated to book recommendations and books written by friends. It has 46 books in it; some have been there for 2 years. So it’s truly not you but me.
Pardon the brevity and the typos. This was sent from my iPhone.
Oh, I’m not fussing, just joking. But it’s true that you love the epic more than I do.
Fantasy was for so long just felt like it was written by people who were so out of touch with this world that they buried themselves in writing up Tolkien-inspired doorstops full of stilted dialogue and ridiculous names
But those were epic fantasies too. Sword and Sorcery tends to actually very short books in a series and really hasn’t been that popular in modern days. Apart from Conan, Elric of Melnibone (and his copies like Drizzt or Vampire Hunter D) and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, but all three are about as non-Tolkienesque as you can get. It’s a very specific subgenre closer to the western than anything. Even Burroughs-a lot of people had no idea John Carter was based on actual books that predated Avatar as opposed to ripping it off.
I think you just read a lot of bad epic fantasy, and you’ve discovered some good ones again. Mostly realistic and mainstream ones from your likes. Fantasy fans seem to have their own very specific tastes: some people won’t touch the genre they say, but then you look in their bookshelves and they have every Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett book ever made.
I’m digging this at the moment: http://www.amazon.com/Lies-Locke-Lamora-Scott-Lynch/dp/055358894X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348780399&sr=1-1&keywords=lies+of+locke+lamora
I feel bad. I didn’t like it. I didn’t finish it though; maybe I should go back. I think I read it too close to Rothfuss.
Pardon the brevity and the typos. This was sent from my iPhone.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/167415275
Pardon the brevity and the typos. This was sent from my iPhone.