Currently reading . . .
A little while back I got an excellent collection of modern sword & sorcery stories called "Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery
."
I'll admit I bought it entirely on the strength of the fact that it has a new Glen Cook Black Company story in it. I'm a huge fan of Glen Cook, and a completist, so it was almost unavoidable that I'd get it.
Nicely, though, it had short stories by a lot of authors I hadn't run into before. Even more nicely, they largely (if not completely) avoided the tropes of fantasy novels I dislike a lot:
- happy magical elves (see Tolkein)
- songs (see Tolkien, most people who emulate Tolkein)
- the "special kid" syndrome (see Jordan especially)
- the "nothing bad happens to nice people" syndrome (see too many authors to count)
- the 10,000 characters you can't keep track of syndrome (see most epic fantasy novels, and sadly George R. R. Martin, who I otherwise like . . . but dude, I already forgot who all those people are).
I picked up a few and I'll try to discuss them here in my journal. The one I am reading right now is Dawnthief
, by James Barclay. It does have elves (boo!) and lots of characters (double boo!) but it also has a good pace, dark magic, people acting like actual people, and a reasonable plot so far. Even the most Author's GMPC Syndrome-looking character doesn't seem to be.
It was really nice to pick up a collection and learn that yeah, in fact, there are a lot of good fantasy writers out there, and ones who write the darker/grittier stuff I generally prefer. It's partly what has put me in the mood to do a series of Dungeon Fantasy games.
."
I'll admit I bought it entirely on the strength of the fact that it has a new Glen Cook Black Company story in it. I'm a huge fan of Glen Cook, and a completist, so it was almost unavoidable that I'd get it.
Nicely, though, it had short stories by a lot of authors I hadn't run into before. Even more nicely, they largely (if not completely) avoided the tropes of fantasy novels I dislike a lot:
- happy magical elves (see Tolkein)
- songs (see Tolkien, most people who emulate Tolkein)
- the "special kid" syndrome (see Jordan especially)
- the "nothing bad happens to nice people" syndrome (see too many authors to count)
- the 10,000 characters you can't keep track of syndrome (see most epic fantasy novels, and sadly George R. R. Martin, who I otherwise like . . . but dude, I already forgot who all those people are).
I picked up a few and I'll try to discuss them here in my journal. The one I am reading right now is Dawnthief
, by James Barclay. It does have elves (boo!) and lots of characters (double boo!) but it also has a good pace, dark magic, people acting like actual people, and a reasonable plot so far. Even the most Author's GMPC Syndrome-looking character doesn't seem to be.
It was really nice to pick up a collection and learn that yeah, in fact, there are a lot of good fantasy writers out there, and ones who write the darker/grittier stuff I generally prefer. It's partly what has put me in the mood to do a series of Dungeon Fantasy games.