Traditional Fantasy

For quite a long time, I've been mulling over why Fantasy books are somehow different now than they were in say the 1960s. Since Twilight, vampires have moved from the Horror Genre into Paranormal Romance and these books are often found under Fantasy on Amazon, yet their target demographic is very different from that of older Fantasy.

Add to this the trend for fae, mer people and other fantasy creatures in a lot of YA and Romance books and the result is a certain level of genre confusion. Readers who love these newer books that take them into a romantic fantasy realm often don't like what they find in books by Tolkien, Moorcock or Zelazny, while readers of the older Fantasy genre dismiss these newer stories as young female Romance.

So, I've mulled this over for some time now. You can have a relationship between characters in the old Fantasy books, yet it doesn't read like a Romance book. You can have fairies, werewolves, vampires, and all sorts of supernatural creatures in a story and still it reads like a Romance. Where do you make the division?

Some authors have started differentiating by bringing in another new genre, Fantasy Romance or Romantic Fantasy. This is good, but with marketing advice telling them to put their books under as many categories as possible, the books still show up when a reader does a search for Fantasy. Some readers are even looking under Fantasy to find those books.

Some old style Fantasy writers are tagging their books with Traditional Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, etc. to try to indicate their type of Fantasy and that it isn't Romance. The trouble is, a lot of stories don't actually fit into any of those categories and used to be just categorized as general Fantasy, so we're back in the slush pile of books mixed together but two very different audiences searching for something they want to read.

I had an epiphany last night that I wanted to share. It doesn't solve the category problem, but it provides an insight into the difference that makes some books target a mostly female, romantically minded audience and others appeal to the Sword & Sorcery and other older style Fantasy readers.

Do the non-human characters have very human attributes? Alluring vampires, hunky werewolves, most modern stories about fae, share a level of humanity in the characters that makes them human enough to stimulate romantic fantasies. Most 'shifters' stories  are populated with characters that although they acknowledge a provocative, shadow animal nature, are inherently human in their thinking processes and emotional attachments.

Contrast this with similar creatures from stories in the other camp; Anne Rice's Lestat, who although he displays some human characteristics, has a vampire nature that deals with human interaction in shockingly callous ways; Traditional werewolf stories, where the savage nature of the wolf precludes any chance of romantic entanglements; a certain story about goblins that raised some controversy because the mating customs of the non-human species includes injecting a male with a paralysing venom before the female takes him sexually. To a human, this would be a consent issue (although the goblin in question is established as psychic and would have known if there was an objection), but compared to a black widow spider, the guy gets off easy. Watch chickens, dogs or cats mate and you don't see human considerations in their methods. To the female goblin, she is only doing what is considered normal and acceptable in her society.

This comes up in science fiction a lot, both books and movies, when aliens are involved. What is normal for humans or aliens is very different. Those books that are being classified as Science Fiction Romance require human characters to have human relationships. If an alien gets included in the story, it only works as a Romance if he has been humanized.

So the demarcation for the reader demographic really comes down to whether the reader is looking for a Romance or YA story that has some Fantasy elements to spice it up, or whether they want a Fantasy story that will take them to completely different worlds where creatures are not human and don't act like humans, but have their own customs and cultures that humans may not understand. This is sometimes the basis of stories, finding the conflict in these different ways of life.

I'm a Traditional Fantasy reader. I don't really like Romance and see the YA and Romance books in the Fantasy category and feel that they don't belong there, but under Romance. I love a good Fantasy with alternate worlds and creatures and they are still being written, but they have become harder to find in the Fantasy category among the Romance stories targeted at young women. This is an issue that isn't likely to go away soon, but is more likely to increase.

All I can say to the readers of this material is to enjoy reading what you like. We're all entitled to that. But when you come across a story with creatures who don't behave like humans or fit your romantic ideals, just remember that we were there first. The non-human creatures of traditional Fantasy stories are what once defined the genre. There is no other place for us to go.

I'm finding this a much slower read than I expected. That and all the holiday chaos is making it hard to make progress. Ho hum! I hear it gets exciting later on so I'll keep plugging away.

I haven't been around for a while or built up my shelves with the books I've read. My bad. I've been doing other things over the summer and actually forgot I had an account here. I'll try to make an effort to drop in more often and get my shelves up to speed. Now that the weather is turning cold, I should be spending more time inside, reading.

Why did I buy this collection after already buying and reading one of the stories contained therein?

Well, it was put together by George R.R. Martin and a story related to his Ice and Fire series was also included. I don't mind that Neil Gaiman got an extra buck off me. His story led me to the collection. It was also on sale at the time, or maybe it's kept permanently cheap. http://www.amazon.com/Rogues-George-R-Martin/dp/0345537262/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447676983&sr=8-1&keywords=rogues+martin

In any case, there are stories from several other authors, some I've heard of and some I haven't. I don't often buy anthologies, but this one has already paid for itself with the Martin story. It was more of a chronicle of ruling families of Westeros, especially the Targaryens, but it was worth every penny.

I will read the other stories, but when the mood strikes me. Don't look for a review of the book as a whole because this is as close as I plan to do one. There are some authors I've wanted to try included so I'll look at it as a sampler to dip into when I want a short read.

How the Marquis Got His Coat Back

by Neil Gaiman

This is a sort of companion story to Neverwhere, so it's written in Gaiman's best fairytale voice and is enchanting every step of the way. We briefly meet a few denizens of the world under London where Neverwhere takes place; enough to get the feel of the world. This story was originally released in the Rogues short story collection, commissioned by George R.R. Martin, but Gaiman subsequently released it independently.

All I can really say about it without giving away the whole plot is that it's atmospheric and enchanting, with some memorable and distinctive characters. It convinced me that I have to read Neverwhere, because I've only seen the television series and have missed out on the book, and the introduction says the television series leaves out a lot of what Gaiman wrote.

This was a re-read from my early Fantasy reading days, but it was almost new to me after so many years.

Anne McCaffery is one of the great Fantasy writers of all time and this was the first book of her Pern series, her best work.

I can safely say that it stands the test of time. To quote the opening paragraph:

"Lessa woke, cold. Cold with more than the chill of the everlastingly clammy stone walls. Cold with the prescience of a danger stronger than the one ten full Turns ago that had then sent her, whimpering with terror, to hide in the watch-wher's odorous lair."

See what I'm saying here? In just a few words you start to know the character, you're right into an emotion and you know there's a crisis forming. She's GOOD!

The rest of this book, and the rest of this trilogy plus the next one, are brilliantly written. The characters are very well formed, the crisis keeps you at the edge of your seat, and the multilayered conflicts are artfully interwoven.

I can't say enough for this series. If you like Fantasy and haven't read this yet, make it your next book. Just do it!

There's a meme going around Booklikes with people posting their photos to show what they look like.

I'm a fairly private person but...

(scroll down)

This is me. Enjoy it, I might take it off when I think about it again.

Wrapped up this series at last. The second book is still my favorite but I liked the way the ending on this one tied up a full circle. It was a good way to finish the series, though I'm going to miss that world.

We need more old school Fantasy like this in new books. It's getting hard to find. I think that's why I'm going back to read some older stuff.

I haven't posted on this site for a while, so in the meantime I read this, which brings me up to date with Martin.

It gets better in this one, so I have hope for the next one. In theory it should come out next year, maybe.

I just want to slap him for how he ended it though. Yeah, same as the television series. No spoilers here.

I just want it all to end now.

I found this book a little slower than the others in the series. It still fills in information, but I wonder if Martin is spreading himself too thin over all these lands and families? He's dividing up the characters into differnt books at this point. I wonder if they'll all come together again in the end? Or will he just kill off the excess?

Yeah, I think that's it.

This was a funny story, but I had trouble following the dialog a lot of the time. It's very thick and although I can listen to a Scottish person speak and generally follow them, it doesn't translate well to writing.

Despite that, it was an enjoyable book. The wee free men seem to encompass all the folklore about little people and they get up to some hilarius hijinks.

I read these two trilogies in high school. They're some of the best Fantasy ever written so I've decided to read through all of them again! It's past time.

I didn't rate some of the later books. Series seem to work best in threes. In this instance the second trilogy might be even better then the first, but McCaffrey went down a new story line and I think that's what makes the difference.

Looking forward to some serious dragon time.

I'm sure most of you have seen this in the interim, but in case you haven't (and even if you have) ...

This is Bella.  She needs surgery to mend the effects of an improperly healed break in her leg and pelvis, and a dislocated hip that has settled out of the joint.  She needs surgery in order to improve her mobility and quality of life, and to stop any pain she may be feeling.  Her new adoptive parents -- Big Beardy Bloke Buried By Books and his wife -- would like her to have that surgery, but are struggling to cover the costs.  Their crowd funding campaign with GoFundMe.com (http://www.gofundme.com/y7eg8b8) is currently at a little more than 1/4 of the set target -- just short of covering the costs of Bella's diagnosis, or looked at alternately, a little more than 1/3 of the estimated costs of surgery.

All those of us who have pets know what those pets mean to us.  All of us, I'm sure, would spare no expense to give our own pets the veterinary care they need.  Having lost one cat to a belated and erroneous veterinary diagnosis myself, I understand very well that time is absolutely of essence in this regard.  Animals can tell us that something is wrong with them, even if they can't put a voice to precisely what it is -- and they shouldn't be made to suffer, any more than any human should be made to suffer.

Giving via GoFundMe.com is 100% pain-free, 100% anonymous if that's how you prefer your gift to appear, and as easy as hitting an online retailer's "buy" button.  Please think about what you can do to help.  Thank you!

This one slows down a little from the saga as it has been so far. The series is still great though and I wouldn't miss any of the books!

I've been watching the most recent HBO series (series 5) and looking for things to happen in some of these books. There is so much that no film could ever catch all the detail, so I definitely recommend reading all the originals.

This has everything a good Fantasy should have. An interesting world, characters with individual personalities and a quest. A woman's magician husband goes missing and in her efforts to find him, she gets involved in magic herself and the politics that go with it.

Lita Burke is definitely one of the better Fantasy authors of this century, although I wouldn't compare her with the giants like Gaiman. She write a good, fast paced story and includes all the details and elements that make it work well.

The ending won't be what you're expecting. I like that in a book. It's a good, fun adventure.

Airship pirates and a gentle English lilt on the narrator, what's not to love?

http://www.amazon.com/Wake-Dragon-Steampunk-Adventure/dp/B00VR20Y4M/ref=sr_1_1_twi_3_audd?ie=UTF8&qid=1429269674&sr=8-1&keywords=wake+of+the+dragon

I've read the text verion of this book and really enjoyed it. The audio version is even better! A shipment of opium has been purloined by a dodgy businessman, then he loses it to a raid by airship pirates who fly at storm's edge. A spy or two, a reticent clerk, a wayward farm girl and mechanoids all contribute to a tapestry of odd characters that take the reader's emotions through tension, laughter, thoughtfulnes, excitement, outrage and a wistful longing for the freedom of the skies.

A little over 8 hours of listening pleasure and a wonderful adventure.