tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post7352869692156168384..comments2024-03-26T16:31:13.865-07:00Comments on Mark Lawrence: Out with the old, in with the new!Mark Lawrencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16877925828353073272noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-66237920214460364122021-07-10T06:43:40.878-07:002021-07-10T06:43:40.878-07:00I can get behind people who want "new stuff&q...I can get behind people who want "new stuff". What I cannot fathom is people who re-read for a 10th time some old series they already know inside out instead of reaching for something they haven't read, either old or new. <br /><br />Another phenomenon I see is people either reading popular books with bad reviews to check whether they're "really that bad" or forcing themselves to read series they're bored of because "every self-respecting fan should know this big name". This often means popularity of the author, not quality of the novel decides whether more people pick it. <br /><br />If you're popular, you'll keep being popular. If you're unknown, good luck to you... Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-52057637240489351302021-07-09T15:55:18.236-07:002021-07-09T15:55:18.236-07:00I'm not sure Weiss and Hickman are all that re...I'm not sure Weiss and Hickman are all that representative of 80s or 90s fantasy writing - they were extremely mediocre authors back in the day as well. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529725084811715233.post-8821306768341154622021-07-09T04:19:13.757-07:002021-07-09T04:19:13.757-07:00Times and styles change. I recently went back to r...Times and styles change. I recently went back to re-read the first fantasy series I remember reading as a child: Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's Death Gate Cycle. That book features several things in it that have mostly disappeared in (properly edited) fantasy books released after 2010. Some of the changed elements in more modern fantasy, compared to 80s and 90s, include:<br /><br />* Showing as opposed to telling. A well-edited book today will favor the former. I feel this is simply the "right" way to do it, as it delivers more sensory information to the reader. Most things before the 90s that I've read are mostly telling.<br />* Omniscient narrator as opposed to 3rd person limited or 1st person limited. This, I think, is a stylistic choice, and may end up changing in the future. Maybe we'll return to this style later. It's possible to argue 3rd person limited takes the reader closer to the protagonist and their thoughts, but I've seen omniscient books doing this equally well.<br />* Villains who are evil for the sake of being evil, as opposed to having a villain with a reason to their villainy. Not saying this doesn't happen today, but lots of us are used to the gray morality kind of thing by now. This ultimately leads to the question of why the henchmen working for a Bond villain would work for a clearly evil character who might kill them at a moment's notice. Modern books like to answer that question.<br />* Worldbuilding: It's pretty rare for an older fantasy book to be anything except medieval Europe. While that still remains a popular choice among authors, today it's more common to have strange, alien worlds that have no similarities to life on Earth. There are exceptions, such as Conan.<br />* Most of all, I would say vulnerable protagonists. Old fantasy serieses tend to feature callous, tough men who are the baddest badass who ever badassed. I like seeing some humanity and sympathy through character flaws.<br />Jesse Kaukonenhttps://jessekaukonen.netnoreply@blogger.com