During my early years I read a considerable amount and about 1996 I finally stopped. For a while. Fantasy novels didn't... catch me any more. I had been reading books written during the late 70's and the 80's .They repeated tropes set up by Tolkien: good versus evil, the little man saving the world, the greatest powers in the world are benevolent. I couldn't do it anymore. Each book I picked up hit upon the same things. Some did so in different ways, but ultimately it was unsatisfactory. So I stopped.
During the late 90's and the early 00's I delved a bit into science fiction, some literary fiction, horror (a great genre that I have also grown to love) some philosophy, history. But most of the fantasy I read was the rereading books that I had enjoyed before. Nothing new came along.
Until the last few years.
The last couple of years I have discovered George R. R. Martin, contributor and editor to the Wild-Cards series of books, but more importantly the fantasy series "A Song of Fire and Ice". These last books have revitallized my interest in fantasy. I have since moved backwards, discovering authors I had missed due to their writing's proceeding my birth: Fritz Lieber, H. P. Lovecraft, Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Vance, Roger Zelzany the list goes on, though not quite so alphabetically (do you believe that's actually the order I thought of them in? Doesn't matter, it is.)
The books are good, in that they aren't trying to break new ground, and that they ignore Tolkien, primarily because they were written before his "Lord of the Rings."
But "A Song of Fire and Ice".... These books made me change my opinion about what was possible with fantasy. These books are not going to be everybodies cup of tea. They are visceral and unforgiving. Thumbing his nose at convetion, not just for fantasy, but literary writing in general, Martin kills off main characters. Narrative characters. Characters whose perspective you've been following since the start of the novels. This is at once both jarring and refreshing. Knowing that no character is safe does amazing things for me as the reader. It engages me. It surprises me. I missed that with the novels of the past.
I had also discovered Neil Gaiman. An author that many of you would be familiar with as the author the film Star Dust is based upon. I've read three of his books -well one nove, a collection of short stories, and a graphic novellization of a novel based of a series of screenplays he wrote for the BBC. Neil Gaiman has wit. His very fantastic, but grounded in the real world. (All of his stories, at least thus far have been set or started in the real world.) He doesn't take the good vs. evil position that seemed so popular in novels after Tolkien, at least, not as blantantly good and evil. His antagonist's are always intriguing, and very sympathetic (and in "American Gods" he's downright one of the best characters).
In that vein, I have just discovered China Mieville (that's pronounce Mee-ay-veal). His take on fantasy (or, 'wierd fiction' as he has dubbed his stuff) is refreshingly bizzare... but believable. He has written a series of unrelated books set in the fantasy world of Bas-Lag. A world so bizzare as to be laughable, but written with such skill and unrelenting attention to detail that it does not come across as such. I can accept the world of Bas-Lag: with it's shade of grays, it's strange races (mosquito people, catacus people... beetle people) and it's steam-punk themes as readily as I can accept Brent Easton Ellis' books about the jaded rich. Mieville seems to believe in his world... not as a reality mind you, he's not crazy, but as something for vast potential. Something that could exsist. It's wonderful in it's way.
I plan on picking up the other two Bas-Lag novels shortly.
As well as exploring other authors, particullarly more that I may have missed due to to my age (and them being written before I was born).
posted by F.G. Shaw @ 12:58 AM
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