  Fantasy
This week: Epic Fantasy Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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I try to avoid having thoughts. They lead to other thoughts, and—if you’re not careful—those lead to actions. Actions make you tired. I have this on rather good authority from someone who once read it in a book.
― Brandon Sanderson |
| ASIN: B01DSJSURY |
Product Type: Kindle Store
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Amazon's Price: $ 5.99
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The Stormlight Archive
I don't usually highlight specific books or specific authors here, but every once in a while, something will come along and make me say, "So that's how it's done!" - followed by "Wow, I haven't got a ghost of a chance, do I?"
There are other ways to handle fantasy stories, of course, but one of the most well-known is the epic fantasy series. Robert Jordan, for example, is known for his multi-book saga The Wheel of Time - something that, I have to admit, I never got into, myself, but many of my friends liked it.
Well, Jordan tragically died before he could finish it, but he saw the end coming and had a chance to hand-pick who would be able to finish Wheel of Time - and that someone was Brandon Sanderson.
I believe Sanderson is done with that now, having brought WoT to a close (and no, I didn't really feel like going back and reading the others just because Sanderson finished it). But Brandon Sanderson has begun his own epic, multi-volume fantasy story, and here's the first book:
| ASIN: 0765365278 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 8.99
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The next one is coming out soon, so here's your chance to get in on a new epic fantasy series, pretty much from the ground up.
I can only hope there's less time between this book and the next than there was between the first and this book.
Still, even if epics aren't your thing, check out some of the other books by this prolific author - I'm sure you'll find something you'll like. |
And now, some of your stories...
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| ASIN: 0995498113 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 19.95
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Last time, in "Fantasy Newsletter (January 15, 2014)" , I talked about diversity in fantasy and science fiction.
Mummsy  : Best newsletter ever.  Thanks for the plug! *rubs hands together & waits for the entries to roll in* 
Hope it helped! (As of publication of this newsletter, there's still time to enter "Diversity Makes the World Go Round" [18+]!)
Loreli  : I appreciated this newsletter. I will put it in my folder for keeping ones.
Oh. You forgot that Anne Rice cant write a successful male to save her life. At least not that I have read lol
True, but she can't write women either.
Bob DeFrank : The 'why' of diversity is a good topic, but the 'how' can be a poser. How to bring different people or cultures from different parts of the world together? There's plenty of tropes: war, pilgrimage, trade, a slave trade, refugees and migration, etc. and of course the epic quest across much of the world.
My favorite method for bringing diverse groups together is to set the story in a city, a major hub of travel with neighborhoods were people from all over the world have arrived, how their cultures interacted, and how they create something new. Often the city itself becomes a character. China Mieville's New Crobuzon, Terry Pratchett's Ankh Morpork, and Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris are all good examples.
On the Sci Fi side, David Brin's Brightness Reef trilogy has diverse alien colonists from different parts of the universe settling a planet in waves, the cultures influence each other and the people compromise and work together to form a functioning society.
Good points.
oe_leider: Thank you so much for addressing racial and sexual diversity in fantasy stories! So often I see people arguing that it "makes perfect sense" for all of the characters in a fantasy world to be white because it's "based on Europe" when 1. There have always been people of color in Europe, and 2. It's a fantasy world, you can do what you want with it. So it means so much to me that you addressed this with intelligence and enthusiasm.
Thanks! Also, it's not necessary to base your fantasy stories on Europe.
brom21 : We are not aware of it, but when we look for original material I find that we actually get slightly altered products from other sources and cultures. For instance in the first Men in Black there was an alien called a cephalopoid. Is it just me or does that sound similar to cephalopod which is the class name for sea creatures like octopi and squids? Of course we do not do this consciously. It simply pops into our heads. It just goes to prove everyone is interwoven. Thanks for the informative newsletter!
Yep. I always say don't even try to be non-derivative. Everything is necessarily derivative.
I also want to share a note I got in email. I'm keeping this response anonymous because it was via email and not the newsletter form:
Anonymous: I usually read the newsletters that show up in my email box. Most are good and once-in-a-while, I get an idea or reminder that I can use in my writing.
Never, until now, have I felt the need or desire to contact the author of the piece. Your newsletter on diversity caused me to have an epiphany.
I am a very late, middle aged, white man, raised in all white neighborhoods and attended all white schools, like all the generations before me.
It's not surprising that the characters in my stories are also all white. That was never intentional, it simply never occurred to me to include anyone else.
You have really given me a wake-up call! How much richer and more interesting could my stories be if I added more diverse characters to them?
I thank you for your thought-provoking piece and promise to take its message to heart and put it into practice.
This is why I write - in the hope that I can affect even one person's life in a positive way. Glad I was able to do that. Thank you for telling me this.
And that's it for me for Feburary - see you next month! Until then,
DREAM ON!!! |
| ASIN: B083RZ2C5F |
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Fantasy: February 12, 2014 Issue [#6154]
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