For me, I'd like a hero who isn't naive or in the agriculture industry, bad guys who have good reasons for what they do so you can kind of see where they're coming from, and a magic system that is internally consistent (I'm looking at you Rowling).
Oh and no elves, dwarves or Dark Lords.
No more Tolkien ripoffs. No more elves, dwarves, or robed wizards who save the world. No more dark lords; I'm with you, Koohoolin. No more Moorcock "Eternal Champions." No use of the word "Chaos" in the title; that should be retired permanently now that Roger Zelazny has passed on. No more books written by lame wanne-be authors, ghostwriters, or relatives (I'm lookin' at you, Herbert Jr.).
What I'd like is a fantasy book that ends at the end of the book, instead of making an endless series (I'll let George R.R.R.R.R. Martin finish his, though; it's pretty good). A bit of humor is nice, but goofball Pratchett stuff is out. Original characters that don't fit obvious fantasy archetypes are a must. Lots of orginal ideas, just dripping off each page, not all of which need to be played up or even revisited at all.
Has anyone read John Bellairs' "The Face in the Frost"? That one was a real gem.
- Less hype about China Mieville
I had never heard of China Mieville before Dragon Magazine, so how much hype could there possibly be?
What I'd like is a fantasy book that ends at the end of the book, instead of making an endless series (I'll let George R.R.R.R.R. Martin finish his, though; it's pretty good). A bit of humor is nice, but goofball Pratchett stuff is out. Original characters that don't fit obvious fantasy archetypes are a must. Lots of orginal ideas, just dripping off each page, not all of which need to be played up or even revisited at all.
I agree with all of those points. Having everything serious or everything silly is just not true, for lack of a better word. Life is funny AND tragic, which leads me to my next thing: Fantasy novels can be great literature if they reflect the big themes well. But I think most of them are just caricatures of what the author thinks a fantasy novel is or should be.
It seems to me that Tolkien (and maybe Moorcock and a few others; the early guys) were trying to make myth, almost poetic in it's force, and to do that they harnessed their imaginations and created or re-imagined ideas like elves, dragons, magic rings, soul-sucking swords etc to tell the story. But people mistook the surface style, which is not important, for the substance which is. So you get people writing fantasy books and instead of thinking "I'm going to use my imagination to delve into my own psyche and try to find fantastic symbols for universal powerful themes" they think "It's not a fantasy novel if it doesn't have elves, swords and magic. So I'm going to write a story with those things in it." It makes it come out empty. The only poetic force most of them have is that they confrom to Campbell's Hero's Journey, but only because people think that's what a book has to do to be considered fantasy.
Phew that maybe should have been in the rant thread!
Zombies are also good.
So you get people writing fantasy books and instead of thinking "I'm going to use my imagination to delve into my own psyche and try to find fantastic symbols for universal powerful themes" they think "It's not a fantasy novel if it doesn't have elves, swords and magic. So I'm going to write a story with those things in it." It makes it come out empty. The only poetic force most of them have is that they confrom to Campbell's Hero's Journey, but only because people think that's what a book has to do to be considered fantasy.
Phew that maybe should have been in the rant thread!
Not at all; this seems to be exactly the thread for it. Hey, speaking of Hero's Journey, I read a book called "Hiero's Journey" a while back that was pretty interesting, for those looking for a different take on psionics.
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If you are looking for fantasy authors that break the Tolein-esque mold, try one of the books below. I won't give you the details here because the online sources can do that far better than I, but I highly recommend the books as being excellent fantasy, beautifully written and avoid falling into the rut you describe.
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier.
Kushiel's Dart (and the two follow-on books) by Jacqueline Carey. Note: This series is for mature readers as a portion of the story does deal with topics that are not to everyone's taste, but I *stongly* encourage you to research the reviews on this one before making yup your mind, it is truely stunning.
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I had never heard of China Mieville before Dragon Magazine, so how much hype could there possibly be?- Less hype about China Mieville
I didn't think there WAS any, at least until I read that absolutely useless issue of Dragon Magazine. Jeez... you'd think there was a new campaign setting coming out. What a waste of good page space.
...and what is fantasy anyway?
One of my favorite books of all time is Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, which just so effortlessly throws around mind-bogglingly strange and fantastical ideas of every page of the book but it is pretty far from traditional fantasy. Even his "pseudomedieval" books like Cloven Viscount and The Nonexistent Knight is put within other "real" books because they don't have elves or Conan in them...
I noticed that some books of Leena Krohn have been published in US too, another highly recommendable writer whose fantasy literature is very strange...I don't think it is possible to make a RPG campaign from Tainaron or Gold of Orphir but they might give some ideas...
[url]http://www.sfsite.com/03b/lk196.htm[/url]
I think it was Harlan Ellison who said that good scifi author is a person who even for a fleeting moment can convince us that society where raspberry marmalade is form of currency is viable...that's what I want. I want worlds where raspberry marmalade is form of currency.