Drizzt
Some friends of ours gave Ryan The Dark Elf Trilogy by Salvatore. I was bored, so I picked it up on a whim and started reading.
Wow. Salvatore can WRITE. And what's more, his hero has MORALS. That's not very common in fantasy. At least, not the fantasy I've had the misfortune of reading. His hero is Drizzt, a drow, which is a dark elf from Dungeons and Dragons. They have black skin and white hair, and see infrared. And they're stinking EVIL. They live underground and hate everybody.
So the hero, Drizzt, gets raised by his dad, who has always tried to have some morals. And Drizzt has some morals, too, because there has to be SOMETHING better than "look out for number 1". It's actually pretty refreshing to read, compared to a lot of other nameless fantasy I've chugged down.
Then I started thinking. Salvatore is just writing D&D fanfiction. And in that light, Drizzt is a self-insert of the worst kind. He's a nice guy, and the best fighter in the whole kingdom, and can use magic as good as a wizard, and is about to get a cool panther as a pet. And yet Drizzt is one of the most popular characters in fantasy EVAH.
When fanfiction gets published, it's no longer fanfiction. It's "extended universe".
Maybe I should pitch my fanfics to Sega as "extended universe" and see what they say. *cackles*
Wow. Salvatore can WRITE. And what's more, his hero has MORALS. That's not very common in fantasy. At least, not the fantasy I've had the misfortune of reading. His hero is Drizzt, a drow, which is a dark elf from Dungeons and Dragons. They have black skin and white hair, and see infrared. And they're stinking EVIL. They live underground and hate everybody.
So the hero, Drizzt, gets raised by his dad, who has always tried to have some morals. And Drizzt has some morals, too, because there has to be SOMETHING better than "look out for number 1". It's actually pretty refreshing to read, compared to a lot of other nameless fantasy I've chugged down.
Then I started thinking. Salvatore is just writing D&D fanfiction. And in that light, Drizzt is a self-insert of the worst kind. He's a nice guy, and the best fighter in the whole kingdom, and can use magic as good as a wizard, and is about to get a cool panther as a pet. And yet Drizzt is one of the most popular characters in fantasy EVAH.
When fanfiction gets published, it's no longer fanfiction. It's "extended universe".
Maybe I should pitch my fanfics to Sega as "extended universe" and see what they say. *cackles*