Fantasy Stories

[Rach101]

I was just wondering what are parts of fantasy stories everyone liked, and what were the essentials to a good fantasy story, aswell as any good fantasy books you may have enjoyed.

 

[Hara]

Favorite Authors/series

Robert Jordan/Wheel of Time series
Terry Goodkind/Sword of Truth series
Raymond Feist/Midkemia series

Kind of hard for me to say what "parts" I like the best, or what is essential to a good story other than I like alot of detail and a lengthy story. (although Jordan has carried that concept way too far)

 

[lmw80]

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis!

 

[deli_conker]

One essential to any story is believable characters.
So many characters are so overplayed that I usually lose interest because I've read about them in other books. May have had a different name or been in a different situation in the other book, but the character(s) is still identicle. Come up with something original. There's only so many Star Wars and Lara Crofts that I can take.

 

[Rach101]

One essential to any story is believable characters.
So many characters are so overplayed that I usually lose interest because I've read about them in other books. May have had a different name or been in a different situation in the other book, but the character(s) is still identicle. Come up with something original. There's only so many Star Wars and Lara Crofts that I can take.

Excellent! What other characters do you think have been overplayed? Personalities, etc.

Also what point of view do you like to read.
So far I've been leaning towards third person limited rotating, any thoughts?

 

[riccinbru]

Fantasy, or fantastic?

Fantasy

Robin McKinley
Jane Lindskold

Fantastic

Tanya Huff
Jim Butcher

I read more SF than fantasy, probably for the reason that deli_conker pointed out. So much of it feels the same, with the same characters, doing the same things. McKinley's rewritten fairy tales are fairly good (though Spindle's End needed another rewrite and a serious edit), and Lindskold has a great series that I really need to read more than the first book of. As for fantastic, Huff's Vicki Nelson series is great, because I've visited Toronto, and I can totally believe her world, and Butcher has fun with his definitely-not-perfect-and-all-seeing wizard in Chicago. I like stories I can relate to, with characters that do or are something new and interesting, but that are well written. Books with too many POV changes, bad sentence structure, or huge plot holes that are visible on a first cursory read are just a waste of my time, really. I don't enjoy reading them. I should really read David Weber's fantasy, since I enjoy his SF so much...

V-

 

[malkore]

pretty much anything by R.A. Salvatore (especially the Dark Elf novels that feature Drizz't)

 

[Toirtis]

I am particularly fond of stories that occur within or alongside the 'normal/real' world, such as most wriiten by Charles deLint, Tom Dietz, etc.

 

[kyektulu]

Im a HUGE fantasy fan!

I have been all my life, my fave authors are:

Margret Weis, tracey hickman, david eddings, david gemmell, maggie furey, raymond e. fiest, terry goodkind, chris bunch, melanie rawn... oh goodness too many to mention.....

Rach101 if u want a good fantasy forum come and check out

http://www.chronicles-network.com

its my fave fantasy/sci fi forum, everyone is great there.

 

[bosk1]

Krektulu lists some very good authors. For quite a few years, I read every fantasy/sci-fi book I could get my hands on. Then I began my career, and then a family, and my free time disappeared. But I always seem to find my way back to Tolkein. He just did such a fantastic job with Lord of the Rings that few seem to match up. Several years ago, after a few attempts, I finally read through the Dragonlance Chronicles (Weis & Hickman). What had stopped me before was that it just seemed like a cheap Tolkein ripoff that someone penned just after playing Dungeons & Dragons. However, after making myself read the first 50-100 pages, I got hooked and found the whole series to be quite good.

But back to one of the original questions: What are the essentials of a good fantasy story? For me, there is only one: If you can write good power metal songs about it, then it's a good fantasy story.

 

[sdellin]

I love anything with wizards, elves and all of the "other people", sorcery, dragons, etc. I agree that it has to be believable, has to make some sense.

Weis & Hickman - Dragonlance Chronicles
J.R.R. Tolken (of course) - Lord of the Rings
Harry Turtledove

 

[deli_conker]

Keep in mind that "fantasy" doesn't necessarily wizards and dragons. It can be a myriad of things. Star Wars is in that genre. The "science" of it works like magic and there is no explanation of it whatsoever. Fantasy...

Excellent! What other characters do you think have been overplayed? Personalities, etc.

Also what point of view do you like to read.
So far I've been leaning towards third person limited rotating, any thoughts?

There's a lot of characters that are cliche. It's easier to list them as archetypes rather than individual characters as they are played and played again. Even better would be to list individual traits that are portrayed differently than they would exist in "real" life.

• The hot, rich girl that has nothing better to do with her time than risk her life to save the world --- out.
• The lone wolf who although shunned by everybody around him, somehow feels obligated to save those that ostracize him --- out
• The kid who's technical prowess allows him to make all manner of gadgets that --- can't even finish this one, out
• There's many more. These are just my top pet peeve characters.

Basically keep it real. Honestly, one of the things I use when I write is sayings about people. When thought about, you'll find that they are very often based on truth. For instance "Never fight a guy who is uglier than you; he has nothing to lose". That may sound kinda funny, but it is very true on many levels. Society favors the beautiful (sorry, but this is true). The ugly guy has most likely had to fight (or at least work hard) for everything he has. He's used to fighting and will put up a much stronger fight than somebody who has been given things. I use the term ugly very loosely though as it is a comparative word to begin with. But you get the idea.

As far as perspective is concerned. I just go with who's point of view makes the most sense. Think of perspective as your camera. If it makes sense to use wide angle to show the whole scene then do it. If you want to get up close and personal from a single character's perspective, then do it. If you do it correctly and cover the "seams" so to speak, you can really bring a sense of suspense and mystery where there may not have been any before.

Another thing to think about is correctly writing the antagonist in your story. Being able to write a character that people "love to hate" is harder than writing a character that everybody likes. Victoria Ash in the Vampire Clan Novels is probably the best written character that falls into this category that I know of. There's 13 books in the series and she's in a few of them. Very well written character.