What is fresh in fantasy?
- Thread starter Tormenet
- Start date
dougmander
Explorer
buzz said:
You will enjoy "Northern Crown*", the title I am developing for Atlas Games for early 2005 release -- a complete campaign setting in an alternate-history colonial America, with folk magic, folkloric monsters and personalities, witches, pirates, puritans, coureurs-de-bois, ruined Moundbuilder cities, and so on...
*formerly known as "Septentrionalis" or "The Game with the Unpronounceable Name"
The Mirrorball Man
Aventurier
Everything has the potential to sound boring and half-baked depending on whatever your personal background might be. That's not relevant here. Fantasy literature is first and foremost a western phenomenon, read by western readers. Any element borrowed from other, less well-known cultures, is bound to bring some freshness to the genre. Simple common sense.jasper said:
Check out any of the books by Guy Gavriel Kay besides the Finovar Tapestry.
I think his best is Tigana. Followed by: Lions of al Rassan, A Song for Arbone, and his duology Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors.
They offer a fresh look and incorporate fantasy themes from historical times and places in new ways.
Tigana = Italy
A Song for Arbone = France
Lions of al Rassan = Spain under the Moors
The Sarantium duology = Byzantine Empire
Of course that is how I interpret it. Someone else may disagree with the connections I made.
I think his best is Tigana. Followed by: Lions of al Rassan, A Song for Arbone, and his duology Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors.
They offer a fresh look and incorporate fantasy themes from historical times and places in new ways.
Tigana = Italy
A Song for Arbone = France
Lions of al Rassan = Spain under the Moors
The Sarantium duology = Byzantine Empire
Of course that is how I interpret it. Someone else may disagree with the connections I made.
WayneLigon
Adventurer
I'd recommend the following:
Holy Lisle's Fire in the Wind (her first novel) and succeeding books Bones of the Past and Mind of the Magic. Also, her newest completed series The Secret Texts. There is one trilogy (Diplomacy of Wolves, Vengeance of Dragons, and Courage of Falcons), then a stand-alone prequel (Vincalis the Agitator) detailing how the world of Matrin got the way it is in TST. The link above is the complete (legal) text of the novel. Her website has excerpts and essays about her books and worlds, as well as a writer's workshop.
Holy Lisle's Fire in the Wind (her first novel) and succeeding books Bones of the Past and Mind of the Magic. Also, her newest completed series The Secret Texts. There is one trilogy (Diplomacy of Wolves, Vengeance of Dragons, and Courage of Falcons), then a stand-alone prequel (Vincalis the Agitator) detailing how the world of Matrin got the way it is in TST. The link above is the complete (legal) text of the novel. Her website has excerpts and essays about her books and worlds, as well as a writer's workshop.
Cordo said:
Cordo: I'm reading every bit of it.
My thought was to ask the question and sit back and listen to the response. However, you do point out that I'm being a little (if unintentionally) impolite.Thanks to everyone for the answers. I tend to limit my reading to non-fiction, but I plan to read some of the stuff you've recommended.
Tormenet
dougmander said:
Doug,
Looking forward to it. I found your web site a while back and read it with great interest. I was bummed when I went back to get a bunch of stuff and found you had removed it all. (Congrats on the publishing deal.) Still can't pronounce it, though.
Tormenet
Dr. Strangemonkey
First Post
I do think that many of the coolest things in Fantasy are being done outside of novels proper.
A lot of the best stuff was short stories in the first place, and now we see it expanding into even more liminal genres like RPGs, check out Nobilis, comics, games, and cartoons.
A lot of the best stuff was short stories in the first place, and now we see it expanding into even more liminal genres like RPGs, check out Nobilis, comics, games, and cartoons.
The Cardinal
First Post
ditto on Steven Erikson - I've just started reading Midnight Tides (the 5th book of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series) and it's absolutely fabulous.
Now all I need is a Powered by GURPS Malazan RPG (Erikson is or was a GURPS player & GM)
Now all I need is a Powered by GURPS Malazan RPG (Erikson is or was a GURPS player & GM)
Nobody has mentioned the Legend of the Fire Rings story series that is available on the web, Rokugan 2000. The (now, not then) story director, Rich Wulf wrote a 25-some-odd chapter epic, that was never finished. It takes place in the same Rokugan that exists in the RPG and card game, but in the year 2000 instead of the year 1000. For those who are fans of the original L5R fiction, this blends that extremely detailed world with a modern 21st century society. I've seen a lot of attempts at "modern fantasy" worlds, but this is the only one I've seen that comes off smoothly and believably.
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