Why are the blurbs on fantasy novels so god-awful?

[Tonguez]

Tonguez: Clarification question. You said that you used to read a lot of fantasy, but you haven't any good "modern" fantasy lately. I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean that you've been unimpressed by most fantasy written in the past few years, or that you've been unimpressed by most fantasy that takes place in a modern setting? There's a sizeable difference.

Stuff written in the past few years. The thing is besides Pratchett the last good Fantasy I read was On Stranger Tides (I've read other stuff since then which I liked but wouldn't consider good eg Sara Douglas's 'Crucible Trilogy' I liked but its one of the few.)

 

[takyris]

Well, you like Pratchett, so that's a start.

What are you interested in? Are you interested in swords & sorcery, fantasy in a modern setting, what?

I liked a lot of what Modessit did in his Recluse series, and I thought that his Ghosts series was interesting, too. Both of them are a bit different than standard fantasy fare in terms of what's going on, and he's big on doing more complex social stuff than just kings and emperors. If you don't like his style, though, you'll hate the series -- and some people really don't like his writing style.

George R.R. Martin is currently hugely popular, and I'm lovin' him along with everybody else. I tend to be skeptical of a lot of existing series, though, because I've been burned by series that spiral out of control. Martin has been clear from the get-go that this is a six-book series... maybe it actually will be.

Robin Hobb's Assassin trilogy was a lot of fun for me -- a nice system of magic and a good voice. When it was over, I was just about ready for a story that wasn't told from the point of view of an unhappy young adult, but at the time, I was very very into it. A lot of people had issues with the NEXT trilogy (the Liveship Traders), but I personally liked it a lot, too -- more about magic and politics and less about swords, though. Her third series, which is about the protagonist from the Assassin series as an adult now and dealing with a lot of people who are acting the way he acted as a teenager, has been great so far.

I just recently read the first book of an incomplete series by Jude Fisher -- Sorcery Rising. A lot of interesting political stuff, and the fight scenes were handled very well. Not a "quest" type story at all, but rather a bunch of infighting and wrangling at a giant trading faire that happens every few years. I had a really good time reading that one -- my only complaint was that some of the POV stuff was weird -- we seemed to move from one person's head to another in the middle of a scene. Once I got used to it, it didn't bother me, but it's a bit different. (Note: It's not omniscient viewpoint, it's third-person-limited viewpoint that changes in midscene to third-person-limited in someone else's head, near as I can tell.)

Those are all just my personal opinions, obviously. Some people will likely chime in and hate some of those, and others will have suggestions that I haven't read (or didn't like much myself).

And hey, failing that, shoot me an e-mail and you can read one of my currently unpublished masterpieces.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Martin has been clear from the get-go that this is a six-book series... maybe it actually will be.

Wasn't it originally supposed to be three books which then
expanded into six and now has become seven? Anyway, I
live in constant dread he'll screw it up, something this good
just can't last!

 

[takyris]

Hey, VB,

Bummer on me if I got that wrong. I really thought that it was always supposed to be:

3 books, five years pass in world of book, 3 more books in new time setting.

I could be waaaaaaaay wrong, of course.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Hey, VB,

Bummer on me if I got that wrong.

I believe he expanded it into six books before he released Game of Thrones,
but I believe the original thought was three (or two?) books. He saw he could
not possibly stick the story into that short of a format. He added book seven
(which is the next book btw), which takes place between the two trilogies, a
bridge of sorts, when he saw that it was easier to just write a full book of the
happenings in the between-period rather than try to tell it in flashbacks.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Wasn't it originally supposed to be three books which then
expanded into six and now has become seven?

From the start, it has been a series of 6 books. Just recently, GRRM has said it MAY end up being 7, but that isn't certain yet, and it definitly won't go beyond 7.

The confusion of 3 vs. 6 books may stem from the fact that he probably had a standard 3 book contract for the first half of the series, then signed a second contract for the remaining 3 books. (this is just speculation on my part, based on how we used to sign contacts at HarperCollins. Yes, I know he is published by Bantam, but things are pretty standard in publishing across the major publishing houses)

Most major publishing houses use 3 book contracts for name authors who are writing a series of books as a way of limiting costs. Advances are paid with a portion of the $ on signing, and if you sign a 3 book contract vs. a 6 book contract, less $ is paid upfront (at HarperCollins we paid a % of the advance upon signing, a % upon delivery of the manuscript, and the balance upon publication). Also, if an author doesn't deliver on all the books in the contract (which happens more often than you'd think), there is less $ paid out that you have to try to get back or write off as a loss.

Also, a 3 book contract is good for the author. If your first book in a series is a huge hit (as GRRMs was), you can negotiate a better advance for the remaining books on the second contract. While rare, it's not unheard of for an authors agent to shop a series to a different publishing house mid-series in order to get better pay for the author.