The Quality of Fantasy these days

[Isaac Arcott]

I found this blog last night that nicely summarizes my feelings on the underutilization of the Fantasy genre as a tool of intellectual examination. Although I'd say Thar Shaddin is an exception to the trend, I still think everyone here should read this.

http://www.peasanthovel.com/2010/10/the ... -struggle/

[Arusa]

Dude, this is totally true, and probably the main reason I made my own RP site. Fantasy seems to have very little originality, unlike sci-fi; that's definitely something that bothers me as well. Yeah, definitely. That's why I adore original fantasy! In fact, if you want recommendations for some good original fantasy, I can totally help you with that.

Also, I'm glad they mentioned The Witcher in the comments, because that is my favourite game ever (even if I haven't read the books yet). Even the elves couldn't ruin it, since it's amazing.

And, uh, what exactly is the difference between fantasy and sci-fi? Is there a line, or do they just totally blend into each other?

[Chezak D'Maroe]

Aren't you supposed to be posting, "Arusa"?

[Arusa]

Pfft, you can't complain when you take a million years to post for us, and I have the excuse of having like 20 other posts to do as well.

[Pagusel]

Oops, wrong forum for that discussion, you two!

Also the difference between fantasy and sci-fi is that in sci-fi the names all have to have "x"s and in fantasy the names all have to have "v"s and "y"s. That is the difference.

[Saruna]

science fiction is defined by its scientific reasoning. It seems lately that anything having to do with space and technology and "science" is counted into sci fi, but to me true science fiction involves a certain extra effort by the author, where he will try to explain the technology in his work in a way that theoretically it could work.

Fantasy, then, is just that: it doesn't need explanation and typically involves that little bit of magic that, even explained, could not be replicated on our world.

I dunno, I think the blogger has a good point, but I also think the blogger has been only reading terrible fantasy. China Mieville? Robin Hobb? Michelle West/Sagara? Tim Lebbon? Neil Gaimon? Brian Sanderson? Patrick motherfucking Rothfuss? The fantasy genre is rife with good writers who have fantastic and interesting ideas.

None of the writers above feature elves in their fantasies. Tim Lebbon in particular goes nuts with creations (my favorite to date is the one that's like a giant tumbleweed made out of flesh that just absorbs anyone who gets in its way). Some of them (Hobb, Sagara) do feature dragons, but they are definitely not your typical dragons.

Many of them only have humans or races near to humanity (Sanderson, Rothfuss, some of Mieville, other authors I have that I can't look at right now cuz the books are in my room and Morgan is still sleeping). All of them feature struggles both between the humans and of tensions between the races, some of which is definitely based in social/political issues that we face today.

So, I dunno, stop reading crap novels?

[Breda Dreaughan]

I'm inclined to agree with Saruna. Also, I would add George R. R. Martin to the list. There's story about humans huddling in the dark afraid of predators and building their castles with years of toil for you. Admittedly it does seem that fantasy is so popular these days that all kinds of crap gets published just because it has vampires or dragons in it, but there's a lot of good stuff in there as well. One just needs to look for it a little bit.

Also, I once read or heard from somewhere that scifi is a story about something that could theoretically happen one day in our universe, whereas fantasy could not. Your mileage may vary.

[Isaac Arcott]

Thank you! I'd also add Daniel Rabuzzi to the list, if it pleases.

This is the same reason you can't judge all Anime the same way. But that said, Sci-Fi gets a lot more academic respect. It's easy to find great Sci-Fi, because practically everyone knows where to find it, whether they're lit geeks or not. Great Fantasy on the other hand is buried beneath mountains of inconsequential page-filler and really good children's books.