How do you like your Fantasy?

[supervike]

There are many visions of the ideal Fantasy settings, but what are yours?

I suppose I fall into the traditional Sword and sorcery type....For instance, I tend to like the JRR Tolkien model, where magic is real, but not so easily defined.

At times dark and gritty, and not so \'fantastical\' as things such as the Dungeons and Dragons type worlds, where every other character is some sort of Mage.

I think the Conan saga does protray this well too. Magic is real, but largely mysterious and misunderstood.

So, what say you? What kind of FANTASY setting do you prefer?

 

[ScottRadom]

Originally posted by supervike
There are many visions of the ideal Fantasy settings, but what are yours?

I suppose I fall into the traditional Sword and sorcery type....For instance, I tend to like the JRR Tolkien model, where magic is real, but not so easily defined.

At times dark and gritty, and not so \'fantastical\' as things such as the Dungeons and Dragons type worlds, where every other character is some sort of Mage.

I think the Conan saga does protray this well too. Magic is real, but largely mysterious and misunderstood.

So, what say you? What kind of FANTASY setting do you prefer?

I\'m with you, my ignorant Lovecraft pimping friend!

My favorite fantasy right now is easily George R.R. Martin\'s \"Song of ice and fire\" series. It reads as unpredictable as real history, and magic exists, but doesn\'t cast lvl 20 fireballs into your face.

I just wish he\'d keep writing. Damn him! Every time I check out his site he\'s bitching about his NY football teams. Get back to the keyboard you!

 

[donga666]

Tolkien, that\'s it!

NO other fantasy writer has that level of depth.

SF, has more clever writers Azimov, Iain M Banks, Gibson to name a few... Having said that, I just read history books now (give me Steven E Ambrose or an Osprey publishing book any day!).

 

[Springbok]

Gritty, dark, steampunk!
I dont know what it is.... Theres just a little part of me that loves gears, cogs, grease and grimehttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AiYvlyRIar8

 

[BarstoolProphet]

I\'d have to say I\'m all over the place with my fantasy likes. So long as it\'s well written, not totally predictable, and the characters are fairly consistant with their own morals/alignment, then I\'m generally happy.

 

[hestan101]

i personaly dislike the tolkein books itensely, films are good. i do however love the hobbit, and al the bits et in the shire in the books. but for the main part, its stuff like\" the fight went on for another minute, until strider drove the orcs off\" and \"they traveled for another 3 days before making camp\". ui havent read the return of the king, but the battle for helms deep in the books is dire. its just so boring.
as for fantasy, i like dark stuff too, not where evrybodys called zardok and runs around shouting\"fear my wand of disitergration! for excelsior!\" sort of stuff

 

[waghorn41]

Tolkien for me, particularly The Silmarilion and Unfinished Tales

 

[Undave]

Didn\'t we have this one a while back? Poll linky

I like my fantasy worlds to be believable, everything has a plausible reason for being there. Probabaly one of the reasons I never got on well with DnD and other \"high\" fantasy works was that everything felt a bit random. Bizarre monsters with cruel and unusual biological features and stuff that seems crowbarred in just because it sounded like a cool idea at the time just don\'t do it for me. The \"but it\'s magic\" explanation only gets you so far before it all gets a bit silly... unless it\'s meant to be silly in which case roll out the level 10 Gazebo lol

My favourite fantasy settings are Feist\'s Midkemia and environs, Tolkien\'s world (but not his books), the Elder Scrolls Tamriel and bits of GW\'s Warhammer World.

Sci-fi, it\'s B5 all the way baby

 

[ScottRadom]

I\'m with the anti Tolkien sentiment. He crafted the brilliant grand daddy fantasy world with awesome characters, but his writing was lacking. How about some more singing! Ack. I also thought the filmed version of Aragorn was better as the reluctant hero vs. The book version who was a bit of a prick.

While it would be considered High Fantasy, the comedy disc world series I enjoy immensely. I haven\'t enjoyed any of the GW fantasy books I\'ve encountered (Some fun 40k ones though).

Anyone got some good reccomendations for fantasy?

 

[No Such Agency]

Originally posted by Undave
Bizarre monsters with cruel and unusual biological features and stuff that seems crowbarred in just because it sounded like a cool idea at the time just don\'t do it for me.

Yeah, I\'ve always had an interest in biology, so the random monsters that are not related to anything else always bugged me. Evolutionarily, unless each species is a one-off fabrication by a powerful magic user (a cheap cop-out IMO), there should be groups of species sharing traits etc., just like in the real world.

 

[A Luna]

Tolkien... undoubtly! Love all his works.

 

[airhead]

Sci-Fi - if it does not require suspension of total belief of physics.

Fantasy - Conan rules. Red Sonja is also up there.

\"modern\" like Tremors is fun. Most of the \"Made for Sci-Fi Channel\" is crap.

 

[hestan101]

like most of gw fantasy books, the malus drakblade are undoubtedly the best.
\"whats this Malus?\"
\"Its the Warpsword of khaine\"
\"the what?\"
\"a lightsaber on crack\"

 

[supervike]

Originally posted by Springbok
Gritty, dark, steampunk!
I dont know what it is.... Theres just a little part of me that loves gears, cogs, grease and grimehttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AiYvlyRIar8

I like that! Is that Interpol singing?

 

[supervike]

Originally posted by Undave
Didn\'t we have this one a while back? Poll linky

Yeah, it\'s been discussed a few times before...but I think it always makes good discussion, and my \'ideal\' is always changing.


That \'believable\' biology thing is something I really like as well. For instance, the \'fluff\' behind Tolkeins Orcs were that they were at one time kin to Elves...but generation after generation was twisted and ill-bred my the evil God to become what they are.

Still fantastical, but not as much as a floating ball of goo with a cyclopian eye, large mouth and tentacles that shoot fireballs.....Uff..

 

[Undave]

Originally posted by supervike
Still fantastical, but not as much as a floating ball of goo with a cyclopian eye, large mouth and tentacles that shoot fireballs.....Uff..

Oddly enough that was the very thing I was thinking of when I wrote that.

\"Hey lets have a giant floating head with one eye and no body at all\"

\"Tentacles! It\'s got to have tentacles!\"

\" Yeah, tentacles that shoot fireballs!\"

\"And lets have everyone with a clearly defined behavioural morality based on a sliding scale with two parameters.\"

\"Errr... yeah..... AND NINJAS! ninjas are cool\"

\"Ninjas? Where do they fit in?

\"Who cares? Ninjas are cool. Besides they can be magic ninjas.\"

\"Oh right... just so long as they\'re magic.\"

 

[Springbok]

Originally posted by supervike

Originally posted by Springbok
Gritty, dark, steampunk!
I dont know what it is.... Theres just a little part of me that loves gears, cogs, grease and grimehttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AiYvlyRIar8

I like that! Is that Interpol singing?

Indeed, I love the atmosphere of it all!

 

[Infidel Castro]

I\'ve not read very much along the fantasy lines for a while apart from a bit of Pullman and a bit of Michelle Paver (it\'s more along the Ice Age stuff with a twist of magic). Both are for children and both were pretty evocative. Kids have got it good

Recently, apart from classic 20th Century fiction, a Billy Bragg autobiography and my Book of British Birds (amazing it is!), I\'ve been reading a lot of Robert Rankin. I\'d put it closer to strange fiction rather than fantasy, but my god is he clever (and funny). If you get a chance, go pick up his stuff. I like the idea of the normal world mingling with the occult (but not in a Buffy way - it\'s the Rankin way. Read it and see what I mean).

As far as the Fantasy settings go though, I agree that Feist has put a good couple of worlds in place. Pratchett is better again, and Tolkien is important in that he got my juices flowing. Every fantasy world is judged against his, and rightly so.

I must add Swift\'s Gulliver world to that as well.

Donga mentioned Iain M Banks, and he\'s done a blinding job in creating a beautiful Sci-fi future. I even think he\'s put a lovely here and now in place as well with some of his fiction writing. The guy is class.

 

[ScottRadom]

Originally posted by reverend
Donga mentioned Iain M Banks, and he\'s done a blinding job in creating a beautiful Sci-fi future. I even think he\'s put a lovely here and now in place as well with some of his fiction writing. The guy is class.

I like Ian M. Banks, but the book where homeboy turned his sister into a chair was good but BIZARRE (State of the art?). He sure builds great settings though.

 

[boristfrog]

I\'m reading Stephen Erikson\'s Malazan books at the moment, and although I will happily say that book one was hard going for the most part, when it worked it was good. Book 2 (Deadhouse gates) has to be my fav fantasy book to date. He has a sense of realism to the characters that allows for ordinary and heroism to work without feeling stupid or too contrived. Magic exists but there\'s not a spell for every occasion, (Ursula le guin!).

I\'m just about to start on George R Martin, but the dragon on the book cover isn\'t filling me full of hope at the moment.