Sta.sh
For the people of DA who liked my comment~ Enjoy, guys!
ecause women are collectively more short-sighted and more self-centered than men, giving them an equal voice in society is tantamount to a slow-motion execution for any society. This is not theoretical, it is observable, as the equalitarian societies of Europe are already demographically in demise and in the process of losing their democracies and their property rights.
Lately I've been feeling that many fantasy authors say nothing (especially not anything new or imaginative) with their writing, and do so in as many words as possible.
Fantasy seems to be the only genre where people will be content to read about nothing for over a thousand pages.
I don't think I'm merely deluded by deviantART's sub-par selection, although it certainly has made an impression on my opinion. If you pick up a fantasy novel off the shelf in a bookstore, chances are the prose will be terrible, the characters will be charicatures at best, and the main point of the story will be to entertain you (which isn't really a bad thing if that's all you're really looking to get out of a book; but if you are looking for more, then it is a large waste of time reading fantasy).
Am I missing something here? Can anyone point out to me a fantasy novel I may enjoy? (So far all I can think of is perhaps Conan the Barbarian--it's on my To Read List, and there mostly for entertainment.)
There's also something about the type of people who write fantasy: usually undeservingly arrogant, ignorant, stubborn, and boring.
Perhaps not all fantasy authors: I mean the type of person who assumes they know all there is to know about writing, as if the gods have blessed them with a gift; they refuse to educate themselves on proper English despite the fact that it is their artistic medium. This is the type of person who will spout lines such as, "I write fantasy because it is the only genre that doesn't bore me."
If you require magic swords and elves in order to make something interesting you must have a very narrow view of what is interesting. We live in a great big beautiful world teeming with life and death and drama at every corner, behind each hill.
Perhaps they have such a hard time imagining anything set in real life to be anything other than boring simply because their own lives are so droll?
I'll end this rather negative outburst with a positive note. A good writer needs two things: an education, and lots of life experience.
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I know you posted this a couple of months ago, but here are my two cents. I used to, at one point many years ago, complain about the very same thing. Until, of course, I realized that some of the writers and works I liked classed as fantasy. Namely Gaiman, but there is also my undying love for Lewis Carroll, along with some comics and then some animal fantasies I read as a kid, etc. My issue was ultimately not with fantasy but with a particular variety of fantasy, which is what I think most people are also complaining about. That is, the kind of medievalist swords & sorcery high fantasy that builds heavily on Tolkien. I did read his work in my early teens and enjoyed it, but then nothing else I encountered in that vein drew my interest and I developed the attitude in question.
Along with realizing that fantasy encompasses more than just these subgenres was also the realization that a lot of books people don't consider fantasy in the proper sense features elements of what's called low fantasy. Magic realism is IMO a form of low fantasy. Stuff like Kafka or Bruno Schulz also constitute a variety of fantasy. Any movie that features some bit of magic or some inexplicable event like Big or It's a Wonderful Life are fantasies. Once you start thinking this way, it becoming more difficult to dismiss fantasy. I mean, Greek myths are fantasy. So's the Odyssey!
Anyway, the authors mentioned are all dealt with in the larger scope of fantasy and might be up your alley. All fit more under urban, contemporary, and dark subgenres, which I've always found preferable myself.
I do like some fantasy. I suppose I'm really complaining about that particular type of fantasy you mentioned. Fantasy is what got me in to reading when I was a kid, particularly two series by Garth Nix, and The Chronicles of Narnia. I also really enjoyed A Wrinkle In Time when we read it in school, though now I can't recall much of it.
Others have suggested some "atypical" fantasy reads earlier in the comments of the journal. I've already added Wicked to my To Read list, it seems a bit more up my alley.
And yeah, generally that's what people are really complaining about--fantasy, but a particular type of fantasy. To be fair, the bulk of popular works in any genre is crap. Science fiction is just as bad (though it often gets a pass because it's deemed more serious or plausible).
I don't know enough about your tastes to know what exactly you'd enjoy.
I see that someone else way down did mention Peake's Gormenghast books, which are probably my favorite fantasy novels. He was a contemporary of Tolkien, but his world is not heroic, more what I would call Gothic and Dickensian. If you prefer lots of action and dislike too much description, it may not be your thing.
Lee has been around since the 1960s, but for whatever reason she's not as widely known as some. Still need to read the Flat Earth books, but I've read all her Paradys stories and recommend them if you like dark fantasy or Gothic fiction. She's an amazing stylist.
Valente and Miéville are more recent/contemporary. She's not widely known, but her work is pretty unique and beautifully written. I would recommend The Orphan's Tales, which is actually split into two volumes. And I'm mostly familiar with Miéville's Bas-Lag books, which are classed as urban fantasy or weird fiction. Perdido Street Station would be the one to check out. I find his work reminiscent of Dickens, and he's a fan of Peake as well.
I've actually got a huge back log of fantasy to read if you're looking for any ideas. A few have already been mentioned, specifically Zelazny's Lord of Light and Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Have you read any of Le Guin's stuff at all? The Earthsea books are straight-up high fantasy, but well written and pretty distinct.
Gormenghast, it's called, and Dickensian, you say? Sounds interesting. And a story doesn't need to be chronically action packed to entertain me. I like writing that feels like it has something to say, or is entertaining with a strong voice and a unity of style and content, or has beautiful prose; preferably all three if I can get it.
I'll do some checking in to the others you mentioned; although I've heard nothing bad about LeGuin, I'm hesitant because I'm not a fan of long series.
The books are labeled the Gormenghast books or trilogy; the specific titles are Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone, published in that order. From what it sounds like, you might enjoy the books and understand what Peake did in terms of style and theme.
And the books in LeGuin's Earthsea series are all self-contained units. With the 2nd/3rd Earthsea books, you might better understand who Ged is by reading the 1st book, but the stories center on other characters in different lands. I haven't read the more recent books since the initial trilogy, but Wizard of Earthsea is my favorite of the trilogy.