Fantasy Novel Exam

[kippurbird]

According to the site, if you get one yes then you should ditch the novel, however some of the questions I think are just silly in regards to that. (Like the planed series ones)

The Exam

1. Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages? No.
2. Is your main character a young farmhand with mysterious parentage? Alec is a young noble with

Comments

[ambientfiligree]

Yeah, I'm not seeing the reason why a book about someone from our world being transported to another world is an automatic fail. A lot of the other questions are pertinent (aside from the ones thrown in for a laugh), but that one struck me as particularly senseless.

Also, gold is really, really heavy. I doubt it would be an issue in your story, since you're pretty genre savvy. But you can see how small a kilogram of gold is here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Goldkey_logo_removed.jpg

[kippurbird]

Maybe he didn't like the Chronicles of Thomas Convent? A lot of them are pertinent but I don't think that one simple yes should be an automatic fail. Maybe a point based one like the Mary Sue test would be good.

Whenever I think about the weight of gold I always think about the Pinky and The Brain episode where they try to rob Fort Knox. They get all the way in and then find that the gold is to heavy to move. Brain ends up saying something to the effect of "I seem to have forgotten to take into consideration the mass of gold" after the two of them get squished.

[rurounitriv]

He's probably read too many self-insert fanfics. :P

[kippurbird]

Or wrote them.

[dracorn_adagio]

Yeah, that doesn't seem like a very accurate test. A lot of the questions are "do you use this cliche" without regards to how it's used. Stephen R. Donaldson has already been mentioned, and one of my favorite series takes place in a country called Ile-Rien. Nothing inherently wrong with forgetful wizards or magical artifacts or prophecies, it's when they start to build up without any kind of actual originality that they become a problem.

[kippurbird]

Indeed, as TVtropes has taught us in all of its time sucking glory.

[canadianevil]

Um, I think this quiz is full of shiiiiiit.

But that could be my intense crankiness speaking.

[kippurbird]

No. It is full of shit.

[canadianevil]

Seriously, ditch the novel for ONE 'yes' answer? Sounds like someone got bored with cloned fantasy novels.

[easol]

Particularly the "trilogy" thing. Come on, all trilogies suck? Better than endless endless UNENDING doorstopper series with spinoffs and prequels and sequels...

[jacedraccus]

R A Salvatore, Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Raymond Feist, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms...

This guy REALLY has issues with modern fantasy in general, I think.

Heck, even Tolkien would potentially fail this test... I wonder if that's the point.

[the_norseman]

I'd tend to agree there, I mean my novel is quite non-traditional (or rather very traditional) and yet I have dwarves. I'm too self-conscious to really fill out a quiz like this though.

[jacedraccus]

Even if I answered yes on any of these, it'd be "Yes, but...". Like.... I have dwarves. They only physically resemble generic fantasy dwarves.

[kippurbird]

I had that problem with the elves. I mean they're referred to as the Fair Folk or Fey in my stories but that can also refer to elves.

[acdragonmaster]

65. Do you not realize it takes hours to make a good stew, making it a poor choice for an "on the road" meal?

Now, this question is just splitting hairs. The "stew" the question is talking about is stew in the formalized sense, where you take a bunch of ingredients, put them in sauce, and and let them, well, stew for a few hours. However, many people often use the term "stew" to basically mean "any random combination of foods boiled together too thick to be soup". Or as wikipedia says, "a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy." In which case, yes, it is in fact a good "on the road" meal, and in fact possibly your only on the role meal, depending on your resources and cooking ability.

[lemon_m]

Plus, it says good stew. Who said it had to be good? most of the time it's just made to have something in the stomach and move on.

[acdragonmaster]

Well, and "good" is pretty variable, too. With a more tender meat such as from small animals and birds, some good vegetables, and the right spices, you probably could whip up a pretty taste stew over the fire in about a half-hour or so. It's only the stews with tougher meats like beef and that are cooked slowly that take forever and a day to make. Never underestimate human ingenuity and all.

[kippurbird]

Sam made stew.