The current state of fantasy literature

[cidak]

The first three books of the Foundation Series by Asimov were originally written for a SCI FI magazine and then later published as a three book series. The rest of the books then followed as interest grew.

No doubt there is pressure for authors to publish books following a series and continuing the series on and on (like the Sword of Truth). A friend of mine went to a book signing by Feist where he lamented the fact that no one would buy books he wrote outside of the Magician series. How many read Fairy Tale? Or High Hunt or The Losers by David Eddings?

As usual, for all types of writing, there is good and bad, you just have to sort them out, and with more and more books being published there is more sorting to be done. Same for music, movies and television. How many Sit Coms have you sat down to watch and wondered who signed off on the production? (especially Australian ones! ).

I don’t think the Fantasy Sci Fi world is coming to an end, if anything it is expanding and, I think, is better for it.

 

[Nightfall]

While I agree Fifth Sorceress is tripe, it's not the harshest tripe out there. I still favor Pynchon for that along with some other modern writers. In any case modern fantasy does take a beating now and again with some bad books but overall it's a lot better than the romance or western genre in my view. But that's just me.

 

[MerricB]

The first three books of the Foundation Series by Asimov were originally written for a SCI FI magazine and then later published as a three book series. The rest of the books then followed as interest grew.

Not even written as books - they were written as short stories. They got longer as they went along.

So the bottom line is that while good fantasy authors are proliferating, we're also seeing a tidal wave of bad works hitting the shelf. Unfortunately, there's so much poor fantasy out there that one cannot takes up arms against all of it simultaneously.

It might surprise that person, but such has always occurred, in every field, since time began. You have one Mozart amongst a bunch of hacks - the hacks were popular at the time, but disappear as more time goes by. We look back at Asimov now, but there were plenty of poor writers being published at the same time.

Does that "bottom line" sound like what's happening in the d20 System market at the moment? Sure does to me. Oh, it's also happening in film - for every "Lord of the Rings", there are 10 "Dungeons & Dragons"!

Cheers!

 

[ctate]

Other notable SF series from pre-1980 that folks have missed, while we're cataloguing:

Roger Zelazny's Amber books: first series of five novels dated 1970-1978.

Frank Herbert's Dune books: 1965, 1969, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1985

Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" stories and novels first appeared in 1950 (!), and were continued intermittently in the 60s through 80s. As another example, his four Planet of Adventure novels were published in 1968-1970.

And who could forget E. E. Smith, PhD, who brought us the Lensman series: 1934, 1937-8, 1939, 1941-2, 1947-8, 1950?​

There's a long, long history of SF being published in a succession of sequels, firmly rooted in the pulp-serial publishing days. It's ironic that The Lord of the Rings has become the poster child for the trilogy format: it is one novel, not three, and Tolkien vigorously objected to its being split into multiple volumes. His publisher, Allen and Unwin, insisted and got their way.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Some people might argue that they are objectively not good books, yes. But you know what? Those people would be talking through their hats, because there's no such thing as an objective measure of literary quality! This is art we are talking about - it's value and effect are subjective, not objective.

That's not entirely true. The overall scope and ambition of a novel is an objective way to gauge, not its quality, but its potential to be good. Even a very cleverly written Pokèmon tie-in novel will never have a chance to rise above the level of futile and pointless fluff. If your main ambition as a writer is to determine if Captain Marvel is stronger than Superman or not (he is, by the way ), you're limiting your literary options so much that the end result will almost certainly be less interesting than any attempt at writing the Great American Novel.

 

[Selvarin]

I didn't get that far to find all the 'isms that are attributed to it. But there was nothing in there as bad as the writing in Spellfire. Worst Book Of Any Genre Ever!

Spellfire? The one by Ed Greenwood? I actually liked the book, despite a fair number of editing goofs/cuts ( go here http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/2566/ed-novels.htm for a better explanation). Not that I liked the other two books, mind you (way too much lore-dropping, etc., cluttered them up), and from what I've seen a lot of people were disappointed with the novel Silverfall because...Oh well, I won't get into that.

Generally speaking, I don't buy many books from 'unknowns' these days because it's too easy to get burned. With the exception of a few WotC series (such as War of the Spider Queen), I've been turning back to some older 'classic' or semi-classic books. And you know what Robert Jordan's real problem is? Middlism. No real beginning, no real end. By the time I got the first book from the Wheel of Time series, he was already on the 5th novel. It's like the Friday the 13th/ Halloween film franchise. When Mr. Jordan decides to wrap things up, *maybe* I'll attempt to read the rest. I just don't have time for the Series That Never Ends.

P.S. Two good authors whose trilogies I thoroughly enjoyed:

C.S. Freidman (Black Sun Rising, True Night Falls, Crown of Shadows)
Tad Williams (The Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell, To Green Angel Tower Pts. 1 & 2)

 

[MerricB]

And you know what Robert Jordan's real problem is? Middlism. No real beginning, no real end.

You should have known that from the start.

"There are no beginnings or ends on the Wheel of Time..."

I like Terry Goodkind a great deal; one reason is simply because his books could stand alone if necessary - they have beginnings and ends.

But my all-time favourite living author is Steven Brust. (Favourite dead author: Roger Zelazny).

Cheers!

 

[WizarDru]

My list was, by no means, meant to be exhaustive.

I specifically avoided referencing things like Andre Norton, Moorcock, Asimov, Howard, Leiber and others for the specific reason that either some weren't purely fantasy (as Asimov) and that their contributing works (seminal as they are) were published in magazine form as short stories first.

Take Norton's Witch World series...they are almost serial like in nature, bound by a thematic premise and world location, but only some stories connect with others directly. Collectively, they can make a pseudo-novel...but they really aren't. They are an arc of stories with an overlying theme and premise. They were published semi-regularly in a magazine, back when the market was completely different. Remember, newstands used to be the way most folks got lots of their reading material, and comics and magazines used to have much bigger distributions. Magazine sales have declined steadily for decades, even as more specialty magazines have appeared. Back in the 30s through the 60s, you built your world and setting piece by piece, revealing a little more each time through a short story. It doesn't work that way any more. The distribution system is different, and so is the publishing culture.

Others, like Vance and Herbert, weren't writing series per se...they wrote a book. Afterwards, they might write another in the same setting...but it wasn't a trilogy or pentology or Jordanology. It was a book, and then a sequel. They weren't conceived at the same time, and the sequel, in some cases, wasn't even considered when the first novel was written.

 

[Storm Raven]

I'd like some names, please. (*whap* No, not for that reason). I certainly don't pretend I read every fantasy book that comes on the shelves but apart from some of Anne Bishop's stuff and part of the Anita Blake / Merry Gentry (?) books, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a fantasy book (esp. a series) where sex was 'pervasive and graphic'.

Have you read any of the Gor books?

 

[Assenpfeffer]

Have you read any of the Gor books?

Eric's grandmother definitely doesn't want to hear about the Gor books.