Titling Words I Am Bored With

[barbarienne]

I know there are certain words that are overused in fantasy titles. It even has a title generator to lovingly mock it

Comments

[chaosvizier]

"Prepositional Phrase" (not just "of", but most prepositions) is everywhere. Reminds me of many of Steven Seagal's movies - Out for Justice, Marked for Death, Under Siege, Under Siege 2: Siege Underer, Above the Law, or On Deadly Ground (but, notably, not The Glimmer Man).

I guess "thing of thing" is a pretty old concept. "War of the Worlds", "Lord of the Rings", most books in the "John Carter of Mars" series, and so on. Makes me miss Jules Verne and his "exactly what it says on the tin" style of titling. "Well, let's see, the main characters plan to travel around the world, and it will take them eighty days... hmmm... I think I'll call it 'Around the World in Eighty Days'. Ha! They'll never see that coming! Double ha!"

[barbarienne]

Lookit you trying to school me on prepositional phrases. You're so pretty.

When I say "of" is the problem, I mean "of" is the problem. That specific prepositional phrase.

Game of Thrones, Storm of Swords, Clash of Kings, Winds of Winter

The Name of The Wind, The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Lies of Locke Lamora, Republic of Thieves, Thorn of Emberlain

The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, Shadows of Self, The Well of Ascension

Eye of the World, Memory of Light, Towers of Midnight, Fires of Heaven, Crown of Swords, Lord of Chaos, Path of Daggers, Crossroads of Twilight

The Grace of Kings

(And that's just the big names in Epic Fantasy. Holy crap, all the self-publishing dudes follow the same pattern. Amazon is a morass of this.)

Seriously, thank Crom for Joe Abercrombie, or else Epic Fantasy would all be the same damn title.

[chaosvizier]

I am not even remotely mentally qualified to school you on anything. ;-)

But yes, "of" in particular is abundant. I forgot about all the Robert Jordan titles you listed. Now that you mention it, you see this a lot in computer games. World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Path of Exile... there's a bunch there too.

I haven't noticed an abundance of "glass" or "bone" in titles, but you do see more titles than I do.

Note to self: write a book entitled "The King's City of Glass and Bone". Voila! Four pet peeves in one! I AM AN INCOMPETENT GENIUS

[barbarienne]

Glass and Bone seem to be appearing in fantasy other than Epic.

A few years back I postulated "The Earl's Pirate Bride" as the perfect romance novel title.

No, no, your perfect title will be "The Bone City of Glass Kings."

Or "The Glass City of Bone Kings," which sounds vaguely dirty. Now I need to write that as a short story.

[lizziebelle]

Aw rats, my current WIP is the last one. But it's a ghost story, not really a fantasy. And it's actually [Thing] of [place]. Do I get a pass? ;)

[barbarienne]

NONE SHALL PASS.

Though at least you're not writing Epic. Probably less of a problem outside that genre.

[sartorias]

Bone was in the Zeitgeist before Cassie Clare used it.

How about Shattered and Shadow?

[barbarienne]

Shadow has been in the zeitgeist waaaaay too long.

Shattered less so of late, I think.

[sartorias]

I'm seeing shattered swords, crowns, bones, hearts, shadows everywhere.

[kateelliott]

[barbarienne]

I like BLACK WOLVES because even though those are fantasy-oriented words, I don't see them so much in titles. Also: concrete image! Bonus points awarded!

THE DEAD EMPIRE is a great title!

[barbarienne]

Yes, this is exactly my problem. If I can't tell the titles apart, then what's the point?

(I also thought of the Zelazny books, but since I'm lamenting a current trend, I stuck to more recent titles.)

I'll give it to Rothfuss and Lynch that at least they have interesting things before and after the "of."