And I need some feedback.
This is my Author’s Note at the front of it, trying to explain a bit of the story and why I’m trying to write it. Any comments would be appreciated.
There are a few things I need to explain before you go about reading this book. I promise not to take too much of your time, and, in fact, if you wanted to skip over this and dive right in, more power to you—what I’m about to say doesn’t really add to the story itself. I just thought a bit of an explanation was in order, since this book somewhat rests between two different genres and is awfully hard to classify.
I’ve always wanted to write a fantasy story, the epic kind that people read and re-read for years to find all the little details in (my experience as one of those people is that there is no one quite as devoted to works of literature like fantasy and science fiction fans). The problem with that, though, is simple: a dozen far better writers than I had already laid claim to and mastered that corner of the imagination. Tolkien, of course, but also Weis and Hickman, Jordan, Goodkind, Feist, Lackey, just to name a few—all of their stories have taken fantasy, expanded on it, made it a living and breathing thing with magic, dragons, and myths. Another book, or series of them, would only be a pale imitation of the worlds they’ve invented, and that left me in one hell of a pickle.
So what I’ve decided to do is write a fantasy story that really pushes the boundaries of that genre. What you’re about to read happens on a different world, but there most of the similarities to fantasy end. There is no magic in this story, no gods and goddesses (except for what exist in the faith and religion of the people), no dragons, elves, dwarves, or orcs. People swear and sometimes hate their lives, but smile and laugh at the good things that happen to them. They work in jobs to support themselves, wondering if that’s all there is to life; sometimes they’re born into money and wish they weren’t. When thrown into circumstances outside of a routine life they sometimes freeze and don’t know what to do—this isn’t a story about heroes and villains, where the main character is an absolute bad ass and goes around killing everything he doesn’t like. It’s about people trying to make a decent life in the place and time they were born into, having to deal with things that are out of their control.
I guess you could say I was trying to write a realistic fantasy, although if a greater contradiction exists I sure haven’t heard of it. I wanted to try and dismiss the stereotypical, adolescent elements of fantasy—you know, the big busted women clad in black leather out practicing swordplay in the moonlight, the handsome and rugged men slaying goblins by the metric shitload, the evil antagonist who wants death and destruction and laughs manically at the slaughter of innocent people. I wanted to focus on the rational parts of the genre—characters and issues people can relate to—but I still wanted to try and keep the fantastic settings and beautiful lands that people have come to love in fantasy: the kind where, like The Shire, people would want to live. If that’s how you feel after you’ve read this, then I know I haven’t wasted my time writing it.
For people looking for a variation of the archetypical fantasy story Tolkien perfected—keep the magical treasure away from the bad guy—you will be sorely disappointed, so I figured I’d get that right out front, hopefully before you’ve bought this and taken it home to read. The heart of this story is the war between two differing cultures, and the soul of it is the characters involved on both sides of the conflict. If you’re up for it, find a good chair, grab a cup of Irish coffee, light a fire, and sit back and start reading. If not, well, thanks for your time—there’s a thousand other books (probably written better than this one) that can strike your fancy and take you out of your world and into theirs.
Try indenting or putting spaces between your paragraphs. It would help reading it. I couldn’t get into your writing because it looks like one huge blob of text.
Yeah…the damn thing didn’t copy over right from MS word. Let me try it again.
There are a few things I need to explain before you go about reading this book. I promise not to take too much of your time, and, in fact, if you wanted to skip over this and dive right in, more power to you—what I’m about to say doesn’t really add to the story itself. I just thought a bit of an explanation was in order, since this book somewhat rests between two different genres and is awfully hard to classify.
I’ve always wanted to write a fantasy story, the epic kind that people read and re-read for years to find all the little details in (my experience as one of those people is that there is no one quite as devoted to works of literature like fantasy and science fiction fans). The problem with that, though, is simple: a dozen far better writers than I had already laid claim to and mastered that corner of the imagination. Tolkien, of course, but also Weis and Hickman, Jordan, Goodkind, Feist, Lackey, just to name a few—all of their stories have taken fantasy, expanded on it, made it a living and breathing thing with magic, dragons, and myths. Another book, or series of them, would only be a pale imitation of the worlds they’ve invented, and that left me in one hell of a pickle.
So what I’ve decided to do is write a fantasy story that really pushes the boundaries of that genre. What you’re about to read happens on a different world, but there most of the similarities to fantasy end. There is no magic in this story, no gods and goddesses (except for what exist in the faith and religion of the people), no dragons, elves, dwarves, or orcs. People swear and sometimes hate their lives, but smile and laugh at the good things that happen to them. They work in jobs to support themselves, wondering if that’s all there is to life; sometimes they’re born into money and wish they weren’t. When thrown into circumstances outside of a routine life they sometimes freeze and don’t know what to do—this isn’t a story about heroes and villains, where the main character is an absolute bad ass and goes around killing everything he doesn’t like. It’s about people trying to make a decent life in the place and time they were born into, having to deal with things that are out of their control.
I guess you could say I was trying to write a realistic fantasy, although if a greater contradiction exists I sure haven’t heard of it. I wanted to try and dismiss the stereotypical, adolescent elements of fantasy—you know, the big busted women clad in black leather out practicing swordplay in the moonlight, the handsome and rugged men slaying goblins by the metric shitload, the evil antagonist who wants death and destruction and laughs manically at the slaughter of innocent people. I wanted to focus on the rational parts of the genre—characters and issues people can relate to—but I still wanted to try and keep the fantastic settings and beautiful lands that people have come to love in fantasy: the kind where, like The Shire, people would want to live. If that’s how you feel after you’ve read this, then I know I haven’t wasted my time writing it.
For people looking for a variation of the archetypical fantasy story Tolkien perfected—keep the magical treasure away from the bad guy—you will be sorely disappointed, so I figured I’d get that right out front, hopefully before you’ve bought this and taken it home to read. The heart of this story is the war between two differing cultures, and the soul of it is the characters involved on both sides of the conflict. If you’re up for it, find a good chair, grab a cup of Irish coffee, light a fire, and sit back and start reading. If not, well, thanks for your time—there’s a thousand other books (probably written better than this one) that can strike your fancy and take you out of your world and into theirs.
Bah! I give up.
I would love to try out this book as you work on it. I have to warn you though, I will be honest with you. If you can make this book work, then I would love it, but I can see you falling back to stereotypes just the same. Right now I am reading “Shogun” which I love. It is about two different cultures meeting for the first time and finding conflict in each other.
Anyway, if you want to bounce ideas off of me, I would be glad to hear them! I use aim and icq.
You’ve got a couple of good authors there…but the others are simply so-so. I think that you should try reading some GOOD fantasy for a change, and not simply what’s on the bestseller list this week.
Why do you feel the need to have this Author’s Note thing at all? Your book should stand on it’s own. Trash the whole thing and just write the book.
The way you name only “Tolkienesque” authors has me concerned that you may not have a lot of non-Tolkienesque influences (this may be a very wrong perception, please excuse).
May I suggest looking at “Perdido Street Station” by China Mieville and “Kushiel’s Dart” by Jacqueline Carey as two books that are very much outside of Sword & Sorcery yet very much inside “Fantasy.”
My thoughts:
(a) don’t go overboard with the self-deprecation. Sure, there may be plenty of other, better, books. But you don’t need to break your arm pointing it out repeatedly
(b) As others have pointed out, there have been fantasy books written that involve “real” people in “realistic” situations. Which is not to say that you shouldn’t write such a book, but don’t imply in your Author’s Note that you are inventing a new genre
© no magic? What’s up with that? why not? can’t there be magic that is part of their world without there being dragons and chainmail-clad-women?