Books
I've been putting off this page for awhile, as it's going to
be huge when all is said and done. It could possibly be a separate website in and of
itself, and as my disk space on Tripod continues to shrink, this may indeed come
to pass. But for now it will reside here.
The vast majority of what I read is what I like to call
speculative fiction, which is just a pretentious label for science fiction &
fantasy without the geeky connotations. Like most people my age, Star Wars was
my first introduction to the world of SF. Empire Strikes Back was the first
non-Disney movie I had ever seen. And after the nightmares of being stomped by
an AT-AT Walker went away, I knew
that I was hooked on works of high imagination. As I reluctantly grew up and
realized that the adult world had little regard for high imagination, I turned
to the world of science fiction & fantasy for my fix of things fantastic. For a
few hours each night I could escape the mundane world and explore the
impossible.
"Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality.
It's a way of understanding it."
- Lloyd Alexander, author of the Prydain Chronicles
I've always preferred fantasy (magic) to science fiction
(technology). For one, fantasy tends to take place in settings reminiscent of my
favorite historical period, that of medieval Europe. And I just find magic
and religion much more interesting than warp drives and laser beams. This is a
gross generalization, but in my opinion science fiction is about the exploration
of a speculative idea, eg. what if contact is made with aliens, what if a race
of giant red-headed men conquered the earth etc. It's more of an intellectual
exercise, and it tends to be authored by scientists. It appeals to the logical
sphere of the brain. Fantasy is more concerned with the people, place and things
of its fantastic setting. It's more emotionally evocative and romantic. It's
about people doing heroic and epic things. Now I know there are epic heroes and
romance in science fiction, but that's the exception, not the rule. In fantasy
it is THE rule. Fantasy novels have moved me to tears. I cannot say the same for
any science fiction book.
I've read an embarrassing amount of fantasy books, and my
to-be-read bookcase has countless more. After reading all those books I've come
to the conclusion that good writers are very hard to find. I can literally count
the number of good fantasy authors on one hand. 90% of all fantasy published
since the 60's is a direct rip-off of Lord of the Rings. Authors fabricate a
make-believe land, cobble together its history, make a map, and populate with
elves and dwarfs, and voila, another fantasy trilogy rolls off the assembly
line. And there's such a demand for these cookie-cutter fantasies, that they
don't stop at trilogies any more. It's not uncommon to see Book 8 of the ___
___ Saga on the book shelves these days. Sadly I used to be one of these Fantasy
Lemmings. If a book had a map, and a promise of multiple sequels I was hooked. I
used to do weekly sweeps of all the used book stores buying up as many fantasy
series as I could. Then, one fateful day, I re-read Lord of the Rings. And the
difference in quality between that and the drivel I was reading could not have
been more apparent. My days of buying 12 book series are long over. My incessant
(almost fanatical) need to complete a series of books, also long gone. Why
should I waste my time and money on crap?
This page will be a clearing house for all my rantings and
ravings about fantasy novels and books in general.
Enter!
