Fantasy Conversion Kit

[kate_nepveu]

My entry in the genre conversion kits discussion is very belated, but here it is all the same (I came up with a list of titles back when the discussions were going around, and then didn't have time to add reasons to the list). Since I'm not up-to-date on science fiction

Comments

[izhilzha]

I'm intrigued that your list mostly includes fantasy that would be shelved in the (grown-up)fiction section of most libraries. Were I trying to convert someone (no matter what age) to fantasy, there are some "children" or "YA" books that would be right up next to Tolkien.

Examples: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin; The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander; A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond.

Unless your list is specifically directed to converting someone to sword-and-sorcery "grownup" fantasy....

[larabeaton]

I know that my preference for the fantasy genre began with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, so if I were to add YA books to the list, that one would be at the top.

[kate_nepveu]

But for adults? An awful lot of baggage there.

[silmaril]

That's why I'm hesitating to pick them up, even though they have to be the most periodically recommended books to me. (That is to say, like clockwork, periodically someone will recommend them, not necessarily the same someone.) I'm afraid that I won't be able to get out of reading the subtext and into the fantasy-magic in them.

[kate_nepveu]

Yeah, I agree about YA (though not about calling them "kidbooks", thankyouverymuch.)

1. _Winter's Tale_--but it's *hard* *work*, possibly even harder than _Lord of the Rings_, with that middle section of "every 50 pages, we will jump to a different set of characters!"

2. No graphic novels. Only introducing people to one set of reading protocols at a time.

4. But I don't _like_ _Swordspoint_.

5. _Spindle's End_ gets you fantasy-with-animals, too, though. _One for the Morning Glory_ is weirder than I'd want for a conversion effort (I mean, the vocabulary?), and _The Princess Bride_ ditto in different directions.

As for Dunsany and Macdonald--well, it's been a while since I read the first, so I don't recall how accessible it is; and I had a bad experience with Macdonald and won't be reading any more, so I couldn't say. But I wanted both fairy tales and their _revision_, which I don't think those get me.

[kate_nepveu]

1. You don't think _Lord of the Rings_ counts as dense sloggy?

4. It's my list, I have to like everything on it.

5. I should've said, gets you people who like animals.

[izhilzha]

I had a bad experience with Macdonald and won't be reading any more, so I couldn't say.

Really? Now I'm all curious, because Macdonald is one of my favorite fantasy writers (actually, I've used his Phantastes to convert people to this genre), and I don't find him too religious at all. In his realistic novels, sure (he *was* a preacher for his day job), but not in his fantasy, which I find for the most part deeply creative.

I'd be interested in knowing which of his books turned you off.

[izhilzha]

Sorry, that was me. Forgot to log in.

[kate_nepveu]

_The Gray Wolf_. I gave up on it not long after reading this passage of omniscient musing in one of the stories, which was so contrary to my way of thinking that I just couldn't go on.

"And may it not be believed of many human beings, that, the great Husbandman having sown them like seeds in the soil of human affairs, there they lie buried a life long; and only after the upturning of the soil by death, reach a position in which the awakening of their aspiration and the consequent growth become possible. Surely He has made nothing in vain."

[izhilzha]

I'd stay away from kidbooks, just because there's already a widespread perception (thanks to Harry Potter) that fantasy is an appropriate thing for kidbooks, not for real adult books.

Well, that perception has been around since Victorian times, you know. If anything, Harry Potter has opened the adult market up more to fantasy, imo. I do see your point, if you're trying to convert someone who just doesn't yet *get* the whole fantasy thing, and needs all the support they can get wading into it.

However, I would say that one should at least have some of the true classics of the genre waiting in the wings once the newbie shows signs of being interested...and so many of the most creative fantasy books out there are your so-called "kid books".

In fact, though I have read and enjoyed many adult fantasy books, I find that the YA fantasy tends to be much more involving, much more "fantastic" in the dictionary sense of the word, and much more sheerly beautiful.

*shrug* One opinion, from one obsessed fan of the genre. :-)

[kate_nepveu]

Ah, but it depends on what your newbie likes, hmmm? I wouldn't give Narnia as the very next thing to someone who loved _Jhereg_, after all. =>

(It occurs to me that _Spindle's End_ is also found in the YA section these days.)

[tomscud]

Winter's Tale - ugh. I'd go with LITTLE, BIG if I was selling to the lit-fiction crowd.

I also got a very favorable response from THE SCAR, of all things, from my Iain-no-M-Banks[1] reading friend.

[1] that is, the mainstream stuff, not the skiffy.

[corruptedjasper]

The first book of the 5 in the Lloyd Alexander series is The Book Of Three, so you might want to recommend that rather than The Black Cauldron, which is number 2 (although it's entirely possible there are omnibus editions named the Black Cauldron, since that's what Disney named the dismal animated adaptation)

[rachelmanija]

The problem is that The Black Cauldron is much better than The Book of Three.