Clarkesworld, Epic Fantasy part 2

Just saw they had posted up part two, and thought I would share a few of my favorite quotes.

These especially get the heart of my problems with George R.R. Martin. Once again, Ed Greenwood really has a lot in common with my feelings. He seems to have an interesting perspective since he more or less wrote novels in order to get paid. It's also interesting to see how a lot of the authors who have answers to these questions I don't particularly care for, also tend to be authors I don't particularly care for.

This probably says more about me than it does about any of these individual quotes. but I've never been secretive about my opinions when dealing with any of these subjects.

After reading these two battery interviews, it really makes me want to give the Erikson/Esslemont duo a try. I may not wind up liking their books, but both of them seem to have their heads bolted on right. But again, the one person who really seems to have the closest opinions to me is probably Ed Greenwood. he's an author i've never read, though I've read maybe 12 forgotten realms books by other authors. I'll have to see if I have any of his and give them a try sometime.

Steven Erikson:
Every death needs to mean something—it's the one conceit authors possess: the one real fantasy in this whole mess. So it needs to be handled respectfully. When it isn't: well, we all succumb to cowardice every now and then; and if not cowardice, then laziness. If those excuses don't fit well, there's always senseless stupidity, which afflicts authors on occasion as much as it does anyone.

The risk with killing off main characters is, if you do it too often and too capriciously, you risk your audience deciding it's not worth emotionally engaging with any of your characters, and then you're screwed.

Peter Orullian: We've all likely read a novel where the death of a character felt like the writer was proving to us that he's got the chutzpah to do it, but the death didn't make sense in the story. I'm not talking about senseless death. It's rather like the rash of fantasy writers who admire George Martin for being able and willing to kill his characters, and so decide they're going to do the same. And that not killing a character becomes a fantasy cliché.

Truth is, trope-avoidance is the new trope. Very transparent.

Patrick Rothfuss: [Kill a character?] On page 603 of your third book.

I kid, I kid....

Never, really. A lot of people think that you need to kill someone to raise the stakes in a book, or build dramatic tension, or prove to your reader that the world is truly dangerous and that seriously bad things can happen.

Ed Greenwood: Writers should resist the temptation to kill characters on a whim or as the easiest way to write themselves out of a situation, but should always bear in mind that to some extent, writing is a service industry: your readers' needs should be paramount. Arthur Conan Doyle discovered the cost of eliminating Sherlock Holmes the hard way, and had to bring him back. I am not saying every beloved character should lead a charmed life, improbably surviving every sticky situation (because the character is thereby lessened in the reader's eyes, and the dramatic tension of peril in your storytelling lost, as the reader becomes aware that any peril isn't real).

Steven Erikson: If there's going to be tears, better have a few laughs along the way. Besides, it's almost impossible to sustain the heavy stuff without ending up wanting to top yourself, or sinking into mawkish melodrama. A novel's like a drug; sometimes for everyone's sake you got to cut it with something innocuous.

Terry Brooks: Violence is a key element in epic fantasy. Wars and battles are almost always involved. Conflict is the bedrock of sagas and of the changes brought about by life. I do have some self-imposed rules. I am not a fan of graphic violence, so I steer clear of elaborating on blood and gore and body parts and the like. I'm not saying it doesn't work; it just doesn't work for me. My emphasis is on issues. How do hard choices impact us? What is the nature of our responsibility to others? How do we balance right and wrong when it isn't always clear which is which? Violence is a part of resolving those dilemmas, but I don't want it to be the focal point.

Ian C. Esslemont: Violence in fantasy, epic or not, gets more attention than it deserves. If it is justified by the needs of the story then it has earned its presence. If not, then it is just shallow gore or juvenile pandering. It must serve the thematics, not just splash prettily.

Caress of Steel.

I know this song came out a bit before the novel.. but every time I listen to them I wonder if Terry brooks had this album. Though it's probably also a bias on my part.. After all I some what consider RUSH's (a band I like btw)early albums to be pastiches of Led Zeppelin. So it makes them thematically similar to Brooks being a Tolkien Pastiche.






None of this is to say that some how the Band is at fault for the Sword of Shannara existing.. but I can't help but connect the three men of Willowdale to Shea, Flick, Menion Leah and Shady Vale.

Whats wrong with the Multi Tome Epic?

After reading on another site, which was against the 90's fashion of "doorstop" fantasy.. It made me start wondering.. what exactly is wrong with it? I mean I realize that you get your occasional unfortunate circumstance like Robert Jordan dieing, or an NFL game distracting George R.R. Martin. But generally speaking these sorts of series that just go on and on and don't finish are not the norm. Terry Goodkind Finished his "Sword of Truth" series. Kate Elliot Finished her "Crown of Stars" series. Tad Williams finished "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" and looks set to finish his Shadowland series in the next year or so. And the series which followed up the post in question, David Drakes Lord of the Isles, Just finished up.

Tor books was more or less responsible for the " Doorstopper trend ".. but Daw picked it up and ran with it too. Which considering that they previously published only shorter novels.. that was a bit of an odd swap. Oddly Del Rey never really had that many large books.. the remarked upon Sword of Shannara being a bit of a singular example.. I don't own to many Del Rey's that are more than about 350 pages at the most.

Yes, Terry brooks is still going with his "Shannara" series, but his books are interconnected trilogies rather than one huge series. And no one really knows if Dennis Mckeirnan will ever finish the "Mithgar" series.. and It dosen't seem to be popular enough that anyone but me will really care either way.

The complaints seemingly were specifically directed at character interaction and dialogue driven story telling.. Whats wrong with that?! Whats wrong with knowing what motivates characters beyond " Wizard bad, Thongor Smash! " all the time.

Its become obvious to me lately with the number of trilogy omnibuses out there that even 250-300 pages is too short for some readers.. and with the average price of a paperback book being in the range of 9$ I can see why.. If I only have 10$ to spend on a book.. do I want one thats going to take me 2 days to finish or one thats going to take me all week to finish?

Now I'm certainly not trying to tell anyone what they should and shouldn't read or like. I love short stories.. But I prefer them when they are presented like the Lankhmar series... In Chronological Order.. so I can read them as a larger series rather than sporadic episodes. People may hate me for saying it, but I actually prefer the 12 volume Ace Conan series because of this. I just wish that Howard had been alive in order to do what Leiber did instead of having some one else do it for him.

And I admit that some of the stuff in the Wheel of Time series and these other multi-tome epics is a bit gratuitious.. the endless descriptions of clothing and re-iterations of what characters look like as if anyone would just pick up volume 10 on a lark and read it.

Perhaps in this particular case my attention span is too long for a 15 page short story of a 80page novella to really keep me interested, I'm obsessed with Chronologies and what order I should read things in. And I'm also obsessed with getting the most for my Money. The resent Omnibus versions of Glen Cook's Black Company are great, For 15.99 you get 3 complete novels. Vs the 7.99 you'd likely pay for each of them if you bought them separately. The same holds true for all the various David Eddings books.

Alright I'm done rambling now, continue with your regularly scheduled Wenching and Wizard smashing.

Wishsong of Shannara, Shannara #3

From Blogger Pictures

Well i've found my favorite terry brooks character so far, Slanter the Gnome.. perhaps an unfortunate name given the gnomes in the Shannara series have a great deal in common with persons of Asian descent.. Not inferring anything it probably never even crossed his mind. But Slanter is a great character, I wish that he hadn't been bogged down with worthless characters like.. say.. Jair Ohmsford, who served as more or less nothing but a plot device to redeem Slanter. I easly finished this volume in a much shorter time period than the first two, Its worked that way so far. Volume #1, the weakest of the 3 so far took the longest to read.. the second book was stronger than the first so took about half as long to read.. or about a week compared to the 2 weeks Sword took.. Wishsong took a weekend, it was fast paced, and tight in its story telling, it suffered from the obvious sexual tension between Ronne Leah and Brin Ohmsford.. But it shows that Brooks is slowly learning how to tell a more human story.

Up next will be the short story Indomitable which serves as an Epilogue to Wishsong and to the Sword trilogy as a whole... depending on how good that is, I may or may not get Darkwraith of Shannara the Graphic Novel.

first two novels of 2010 will be Sharpe's Tiger and Dune

Elfstones of Shannara Part 3

Alright, so I survived my second terry brooks novel, as I stated in my previous posts on this volume, I'd never heard anything about brooks that wasn't negative, and while I didn't find all of those to be accurate upon actually reading his works, quite a few were.

Its definitely a fun journey, taking you from Arborlon to Storlock and all the way south to the Hollows before back to Arborlon, for one doozey of a slap to the face ending for the characters of the book. Much like Brooks set up the character of Lauren as the apparent main character for the book, and then slaughtered the hapless elf 4 chapters in, He runs a grueling death toll on the characters in this volume. Where as in Sword, lots of characters were introduced but no one really died until the end, In Elfstones characters died left and right, and one character who you would feel almost certain would survive, marry the hero and go on to have like a bajillion babies with him.. well.. Its really cold but also adds a nice bit of depth to the world of Shananra, which if I were to say Middle Earth's History ran deep, Shannara's is only a few hundred yards away from being non existent. But its improving. As is Brook's writing ability.

I am a few chapters into the 3rd volume " The Wishsongs of Shannara " now, and the writing is definitely better.

The Elfstones of Shannara, Part Two

well I'm now halfway through the book, and I've noted several more instances of creeping Tolkien "Borrowing" in the book.. Mostly the Pykon's are a bland knock off of the Argonath scene in Fellowship..

I've got to stress again its pointless for Brooks to continue referring to the elves as elves.. as they seem to have nothing about them which differentiates them from humans. they are neither immortal, beautiful or excel at anything to a great degree due to having limitless time to study it. They seem to be nothing more than slightly more magical humans.. albeit who seem to have a gene for curly blond hair. I'd have named them Cherubs instead of Elves.. And it would have added new possibilities for their war with the Demons, both the one in the past and the looming one in this book.

The series is still not the worst Fantasy I've ever read.. but its very much the equivalent to epic fantasy that Lin Carter's Thongor is to Sword and Sorcery.. Well meaning, and love of subject, doesn't always equate to talent. But it sometimes is still fun.

The Elfstones of Shannara

From Blogger Pictures

Having finished reading the first volume in this Trilogy, I can state safely that yes, the author " Borrowed " a considerable number of plot points and Monsters from Tolkien in a very unsubtle way. However, it was also his first book, and not everyone springs forth into this world fully formed as a good writer. It was rife with some very bizarre word choices, words like " Quadrant " and " Sector " and " Mechanically " bring to mind Sci-Fi, not Fantasy worlds. They are anachronistic, every bit as much as if he purposefully used words like Micle(much) or Weeds (woman's clothing) to give his writing a more Tolkien like feel.. Following the bizarre choices of words, is also his very strange naming conventions.. some of the character names like Allanon, Balinor, Padamon Creel, Menion Leah and even Hendel are pretty good fantasy novel names, Ohmsford is a decent enough name, but names like Shea, Flick, Palance, Buckhannah are very distracting.

My other major problem in the Sword of Shannara was the problem of conveying distance traveled, the main measurement of distances in the four lands seems to be the Yard, everything seems to be no more than several hundred yards away from wherever our main characters are.. This would make the cross map journey from Culhaven to Paranor no more than a few hours long at most.. which is of course ridiculous.. He might as well have measured the journey in Ells. Its distracting, but again I'd be willing to forgive it if he had not continued to do it in the second book which brings us to the point of this.

I started reading "Elfstones" almost immediately after finishing "Sword" the odd naming choices are also still prevalent.. naming a male main character Lauren, Shea at least is a Masculine name in the Gaelic-o-sphere but Lauren is strictly a feminine name. Its just an invitation for ass beatings. Its neither particularly exotic, nor fantastical.. and it just makes me think of the half dozen Laurens I went to school with.. The Pros of the book are that its got a better flow to the writing, showing that the author improved after his freshmen offering. Its got better villains in the form of The Dagda Mor( I'm guessing he read some Rollenston at some point.. But I'd have named the evil demon Balor rather than after Dagda the Good..) The Reaper and the Changling. I don't think Brona had a single line in Sword, he had no real motivation except " To be evil " .. at least the Dagda and his henchmen have the motivation of having been locked up for a really long time in a really sucky phantom zone like forbidding courtesy of the Ellcrys ( a talking tree, kinda cool.. not encountered one of those since Wizard of Oz and then later The Last Unicorn... So not something that gets used a whole lot.. the aspect of the tree picking the chosen also echoes through the ages into the Naming Hat from a certain Boy Wizard series..

So far the second book in the series is off to a better start than the first one, it seems to have the bonus of being written by a more confident Terry Brooks.

Currently Reading - The Sword of Shannara

From Blogger Pictures

I know this title has something of a bad rap, and it both deserves it and doesn't. Yes it swipes entire sections from the Lord of the Rings.. and yes it has all the hallmarks of an amateur writer.. but it is pretty fun so far.. I'm about halfway through it and I look forward to reading the next couple in the series.. Its no Tolkien, but then I don't want it to be.. so long as its Brooks, I'll be happy.