Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Mirrorball Man" data-source="post: 6420748" data-attributes="member: 15809">I think you're saying two different things here, and while I agree with the latter (FR is comfort food, unsophisticated but nourishing) I strongly disagree with the former: the setting never felt original or groundbreaking. It certainly doesn't feel like that now, but it wasn't different back then. It's not that FR is generic, it's that FR doesn't have any element that is unexpected (which is part of its appeal, actually.) Elves, evil wizards, ancient ruins: it's a hall of fame of everything that is commonly found in mythology and fantasy literature. If you read Elric, The Grey Mouser, The Dying Earth, Amber, even The Lord of the Rings - fantasy series written before the Realms, they all feel fresher and more vivid even now than Faerun, because they're not made of borrowed parts or because they've managed to give a new spin to old ideas, which is something that FR's authors has always struggled to do.</blockquote>