  Fantasy
This week: Edited by: Colin Back on the Ghost Roads  
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This newsletter is for everyone who enjoys the magic and mystery of a good Fantasy, be it Tolkien, Jordan, Rowling, or a host of others. I will also be attempting to give some time to other types of fantasy, as written by the likes of Asimov, Wilson, Clarke and a galaxy of talent.
I hope to present some information that will be useful to other fantasy authors on site, and entertaining to all our subscribers.
So, let the wonder and glory of all that is fantasy engulf you.
The Fantasy Editors:
Colin Back on the Ghost Roads
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John~Ashen 
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Note, you can view my previous articles at "Newletter items" |
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Crossing the Boundaries: Horror and Fantasy
In this time leading up to Halloween, it's often fun and useful to consider Fantasy's often close cousin, the horror genre. Many classic stories of horror are also stories of fantasy. Dracula has an immortal being forced to live through eternity seeking his true love. Frankenstien has a scientist who may well be made creating an artificial life form using electricity and pieces of corpses. The tales of Lovecraft and many of his contemporaries have beings from beyond space and time menacing modern (to the writers anyway) characters. Magic mystery and monsters all play a part in these stories. So too, many fantasy stories have elements of horror in them. The Lord of the Rings had the Nazgul, dead kings who now serve Sauron, not to mention the Balrog in the Mines of Moria. Harry Potter has Lord Voldemort, who shows aspects of many classical horror creatures. Adding elements of horror to a fantasy story can create a more gripping encounter for the heroes, and for the readers. So, how do horror stories truly differ from fantasy?
The answer tends not to be a series of hard and fast rules, but more a series of guidelines. Some things frequently happen in horror stories that typically do not in fantasy, while other things occur in fantasy that often do not in horror. Below are some common differences in horror and fantasy stories that might help you think of ways to make your fantasy a little more frightening. Please remember that these are not laws set in stone. A story that contains many of the horror oriented themes may still not be horror, and adding one or two to a fantasy story will certainly not force it to move to the horror section of the local bookstore. Use them as you will, and classify your stories as you feel appropriate.
In Fantasy, the heroes have the abilities to challenge the villains. While fantasy heroes may often seem helpless in the face of the evils that confront them, they always have some means to fight back. Frodo had Sting and the Elven mail to see him through his quest to Mt. Doom. Harry Potter has access to amazing magic and the skills and powers of his friends to back him up.
In Horror, the heroes are typically unsuited to the task at hand. Horror heroes are often just ordinary people caught up in the events of the story. Even if they have some special knowledge about the threat they face they often suffer from some flaw that makes them all but unable to face the horrors of the story. In most modern horror movies, the heroes are simply victims that don't get caught quite as unaware as the ones that go down faster. In the stories of Lovecraft, the mortal heroes are generally helpless against the eldrich horrors that appear, and can only stand against the human cultists and other agents, and pray that that will be enough.
In Fantasy, someone in the group of heroes understands what is going on. There is nearly always some mentor allied with the heroes that knows what is happening and why and hence can offer the key to victory. Gandalf, Dumbledore, and Obi Wan Kenobi all play this role.
In Horror, there is often no one who can tell the heroes what is happening or why. If heroes in horror stories want to survive, they usually have to figure things out on their own by observing the events around them. They don't have any wise mentors or knowledgeable partners to keep them clued in.
Note that this is probably the most flexible of the guidelines. Dracula was hunted by Abraham Van Helsing, and the kids in It (the book anyway) had something watching out for them, although they did have to work out a lot of what was going on by themselves.
In Fantasy, most of the main characters come through in the end. How many of the lead figures in Lord of the Rings were dead at the end? That is fairly typical of Fantasy stories. Most of the time, the lead characters come through pretty well, or if someone major is killed, then it is often possible to bring them back such is happens in The Belgariad or Army of Darkness.
In Horror, even the winners may come away scared for life. In many of Lovecraft's stories, simply confronting the elder horrors was enough to drive most men mad. Quite often when a band goes out, only one or two come back alive, and they aren't in very good shape at the end of it. Many horror stories start with a relatively large group of lead characters and then start picking them off one by one until only a very few are left at the end. In many cases in horror, the villain of the story wins, or at least comes out of things better off than the heroes.
In Fantasy, the villain can be beaten. While the heroes may have to face the cliched impossible odds to stop the evil, the evil can always be stopped. If it is not, it is because the heroes were not quite up to the task, not because the evil was unbeatable.
In Horror, the true evil is often unstoppable, but its plans can be thwarted. Often time, the evil force in a horror story cannot be stopped by mortal means. This does not mean things are hopeless for the heroes, although it can be the case. There are often ways to prevent the evil from winning, even if it is not a clear victory for the heroes. Stopping the plan, however, often just slows the evil down, and it may be back before you expect it.
So, if you want to add some horror to a fantasy story, you can always shift things towards the horror end of things. Force the heroes to learn what the evil thing can do by seeing it act rather than being told about things it did long long ago. Let the heroes win, but only at great cost. Don't end the story with the evil vanquished forever, but rather with the heroes knowing that it may be back again, and possibly soon. And please, have a happy Halloween.
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From Taniuska
Hi Colin
I was reading one of your newsletters on death in fantasy, which I found fascinating. You
have pulled together 7 various concepts, but I think there is still the possiblity of a
character to be brought back from death through the powers, perhaps of a powerful being
from a parallel world. It probably sounds confusing, but this is what I have done in one
of my stories - Brazen. The character is killed off but then returns with powers from a
previous life she had led. While her old body is dead in the human world, she is alive
among in our world, in the body she possessed in the previous life. I know it probably
sounds confusing as a summary, but I suppose I just wanted your thoughts about whether
the topics you raised were considered the 'rules' that should somehow be followed??
I hope this makes sense.
Cheers
Tan
Hello Tan.
No, the topics I raised are not rules that must be followed. That's the great thing about fantasy, there are no rules except those that the author chooses to write in. The examples I gave in the newsletter are simply what I have seen as the more commen ways of handling character death in a fantasy world. What you describe would be similar to type 5 or 6, Death Can Be Beaten, or Reincarnation. In this case, it would be reincarnation not in another body, but in another world. This sounds somewhat similar to Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series, where a man from our world gets incarnated as several aspects of the Eternal Champion, although clearly there are many differences between your story and those. Thanks for your letter.
From: systemwolf8
Ive been working on a story lately called The Wolf in Room 327, and I've been wondering whether or not I should classify this as a fantasy story. It has one werewolf in it, but apart from that it doesn't really have any other fantasy elements. What do you think?
Classification is mostly up to the author. If the werewolf is a more classical werewolf, ie a person who can chage into a wolf, or a wolf who can change into a person, or even a being who can take on the form of a wolf or a person, and the werewolf is a major focus of the story, I'd say go ahead and classify it as fantasy. Werewolves are fantastic creatures, and from the title, I would guess the werewolf is a major part of the story.
From: Trav !!
I have to admit, I fell in love with Cyberpunk when I first read the novel Snow Crash, which is simply one of the best books I've ever read. It is unfortuate that Cyberpunk is less popular than it should be.
Well, Cyberpunk does tend to be a darker and more depressing genre. Many people prefer lighter, more escapist literature I suppose. Still Cyberpunk is very popular in some groups. Japanese writers and animators seem to have a very strong liking for cyberpunk themes, for example. So, keep looking around and you'll probably find it's more popular than you might think.
From: Lothmorwel |
This, and your previous newsletter were great inspirations to me, though not in a direct, Cuberpunk aspect.
Your optimism that anything is possible is infectious, and promoted me to think way more 'outisde tha box'. Im the story I'm writing I am already working to mix medieval fantasy with Georgian themes (pirates, highwaymen, smugglers), but now I'm thinking about adding some more elements. What those elements are, I don't know.
I don't want to deviate too much from the classic fantasy story, as that is my love and I want to create one of my own. However, in this day and age, people have written almost to the boundaries of fantasy and sci-fi, and the only original thing to do now is to incorporate and mix different themes and ideas.
Thank you for your news;etters, I really appreciated and enjoyed reading them.
Good lukc with your future projects (be they more newsletters, your own stories, anyting).
Hazel.
Thanks for the feedback, Hazel. I wouldn't say that fantasy and SF themes have been used up in any way. It is still possible to write an original classical fantasy story. All it takes is a different take on magic (keep an eye on John's newsletters as he's promised some good stuff about magic systems), or a character who is a bit different from the norm, or even a setting that is different from usual.
For example, if you wanted to incorporate pirates into your story, you could create a world that conists mostly of islands in a huge sea. That would chage the nature of long distance travel, and probably change the focus of magic even if it didn't involve a different system of magic. The politics and cultures of the world would be different as well. That one change could create something entirely new. And that to me is what fantasy writing is really all about.
From Strange Wulf
Ah yes, the unfortunate circumstance of adding too much tech and going insane. A friend told me the technical term for it, but I don't quite remember. Some combination of "pycho" and "cybernetic" or something like that. In any case, it's no doubt a direct result of sensory deprivation. Not many cybernetics have the senses that we have, and it's no doubt unnerving to have an arm that can't feel anything. If there is no way to compensate for this, or to create artificial nerves, most people will go insane after too many replacements. However, I would think they'd be as likely to kill themselves as to kill others, like in the Robocop movies. It'd take a rare person not to go insane.
Also, this NL reminds me of Full Metal Alchemist, an anime series that has a bit of scientific magic and something called Automail. It's sort of like a form of high-tech clockwork cybernetics. You can't put guns or weapons in it, but it can replace your limbs well enough.
I've seen one place where it is refered to Cychosis. There are many places where the reason for the maddness is not explained. In Shadowrun, (the game system anyway) adding cyberware reduces your 'essence', and if essence falls to 0, you become an almost mindless killing machine. It may be that essence in that setting is your 'humanness' and as you chip it away you turn into a monster.
And yes, Full Metal Alchemist does seem to have some aspects of Fantasy Cyberpunk to it, particularly the automail constructs. Another place where it occurs is the World of Aden, which has mechamagical limbs, and the problem of The Wasting, which eventually afflicts anyone with these constructs added to their bodies. Cyberpunk is definitely not just for SF anymore. |
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Fantasy: October 11, 2006 Issue [#1313]
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