So for some reason last night I was really craving some shoddy B-Fantasy, to the point where I would have been willing to do embarrassing things to get my hands on a Mercedes Lackey...
What's that? B-Fantasy? Oh, it's the same concept as B-movies - formulaic, low production value, flat characters - just with fantasy literature. Basically, what normal people think of when they think of fantasy, with the teenage protagonist who has to save the world from the Dark Lord and runs all over the countryside learning magic and eating stew. Etc.
Anyway, since all I brought with me to my apartment was some beautiful magic realism and some weird children's genre-benders, I was stuck. See, books are like food. Sometimes you want to go out to a fancy restaurant for steak and shrimp alfredo, or whatever you order (that actually sounds really good right now...) and sometimes you just want to heat up some Kraft mac and cheese in the microwave, because that's what you grew up on, and even if as an adult it disgusts you intellectually, and you can't bear to read the list of ingredients, it just tastes so bad, but so good.
But since I didn't have any to read, I started listing and categorizing and researching to try and pin down what makes B-Fantasy B-Fantasy. Because apparently when I want mindless entertainment, I have to analyze it.
I started doing a little research, and here are my findings thus far. Mostly is it some half-assed hypotheses and some Wikipedia trawling, but I intend to reasearch the matter further, I really do.
B-Fantasy was inspired by Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (1954), and augmented by LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy (1968). From LOTR we get the epic quest, magical macguffin, underdog hero, and Dark Lord. After Earthsea, the protagonist is allowed to use magic, and magic becomes institutionalized. However, many other aspects of Eathsea, such as the protagonist aging, did not catch on. The first Dungeons and Dragons manual was published in 1974, which codified the Fantasyland setting and rules for the narrative. This I need to look into further, but currently I blame D&D for making every fantasyland need 3races+2 - elf/dwarf/human, and two of the author's own creation; usually one of the extras is evil, and the other is unimportant to the plot. No one besides Tolkien wrote about the elves until D&D! (needs fact-checking)
1977 saw The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks, and also the Star Wars movie. I try not to mix fantasy and scifi, but Star Wars has the traditional epic narrative wth the whiny hero that all B-Fantasy uses, and is a potential forerunner. Shannara had 3races+2, and all the trappings of LOTR, except instead of quiet little middle-aged hobbit protagonist, it had a dopey teenage male protagonist, likely in reflection of the anticipated audience. It is also serialized; while Tolkien stopped with a trilogy, a prequel, and a manual, if Brooks isn't dead then he's still writing to this day.
Now we come to the 80's, which is the birth of B-Fantasy proper. David Eddings, I kid you not, saw the emerging market and decided to jump on it for the money - literally, created a formula and cranked out books for profit. He ditched the races (though they still remained prevalent elsewhere), instead creating a multiracial and paradoxically racially uniform world of humans (everyone of every race is the same as each other member of the race), and added meddlesome deities. Also, the hero is allowed, in fact required, to use magic. There is also the annoying crossdressing spunky princess love-interest. Like Leia but less badass. Oh, and she hooks up with the teenage protagonist.
1983 - Tamora Pierce sees the spunky crossdressing redhead princess and decides that she needs her own story, thus bringing about the start of feminist fantasy that tries too hard. Also the practice of making fantasyland be America with a medieval veneer, though Eddings hinted at that with Sendaria and I can't believe I remember the name of that country. Hero's homeland, go figure. Also has institutionalized magic (school of magecraft and blah blah), rather than random wizards who just float around organically to make plot things happen. Wizards become working-class.
1984, ten years after the first Dungeons and Dragons manual was published, the Dragonlance series is born. It was based off of a D&D campaign. No, honestly, it was. We have races, we have quests, we have institutionalized magic and meddlesome deities. For the most part, they do ditch the dopey farmboy, replacing him with the naive warrior, who is supposed to be all troubled and dark, but is really just naive and angsty. Also, the focus is more on the quest group than any one hero. It still has very black-and-white morality.
In 1987 Mercedes Lackey published her first book. So here we have feminist fantasy, and clique fantasy. I have to backtrack a little for that. In 1967, Anne McCaffery started the Dragonriders of Pern series. So we have a special clique of people with special powers whose job is basically to be heroes. This solves the problem of how to keep having the same person solve all the problems; it's their job, because they are telepathically linked to a magical critter. Because that totally makes sense.
Now we come to the 90's, which may be the Golden Age of B-Fantasy. Most of these series started in the 80's, but gained momentum throughout the decade and eventually came to dominate the 90's. There was still some very original stuff in the 80's - Kushner's Swordspoint, Diana Wynne Jones's everything, Suzette Hardin Elgin's Ozark Trilogy about a planet that was colonized by the South and people who ride flying Mules (it's good stuff). In 1990, however, Robert Jordan published the first book in The Wheel of Time.
What did WoT do that other books didn't? It's basically the same setup as Eddings' Belgariad. Teenage farmboy whisked away from his home by a wizard, told it is his destiny by birth to save the world from the newly reawakened Dark Lord, oh yeah and he has magic powers. All I can say is that Jordan made it bigger (800 pages per volume, minimum), he made it better (the world at least makes slightly more sense and is more memorable than Eddings'), and he made it with love. He kept writing even when he was dying, because he loved those books so damn much. And I can tell you a hundred things that make the books awful (don't call me on that, please), but I can at least understand why they are so loved.
Lately, however, there has been a mainstream movement away from B-Fantasy. Conflicts have become less idealistic, between the innocent and the Evil, and more political, between the jaded older warriors and the forces of society - kind of like the teenage hero grew up. I won't be able to say much about George R. R. Martin, because I haven't been able to get through more than three chapters, but I think he is the key to this movement. The current generation of writers grew up on B-Fantasy, and are too jaded with it in today's society.
Other books like David Anthony Durham's Acacia (2007) have similar political orientations - I can't talk much about this one either because I ran into the same problem as Martin, though in Durham's case the last straw was not "I don't know which of these characters I'm supposed to care about" (though there was an element of that) and more "That is the stupidest fencing lesson I have ever read." Then there are more direct criticisms such as E.E. Knight's Age of Fire series (2002), which is basically what Wicked did to Oz, only to Dragonlance. Sure, there are still throwbacks like Eragon (2002), but the mainstream voice of fantasy is shifting from a teenage coming-of-age quest to multiperspective stories of human conflict. Though in fact this sort of storytelling started in the 80's as well, with the Mannerpunk movement started by Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint. It did not gain momentum until just recenty, though.
And of course there are all the little splinter genres like Feminist Fantasy, which I touched on a little, and Queer Fantasy (people say that fantasy is really homophobic, but I think that the fantasyland setting actually makes it easier to include gay characters without stigma; again I point to Swordspoint), and I've already ranted about Dragonrider Fantasy, which is actually a subcategory of Animal Companion Fantasy or perhaps as a genre rather than a device, it would fit better under Heroic Clique Fantasy - you have this world where there is this institution of heroes, be they dragonriders or Jedi or what have you, and every book/trilogy is about a different one whose turn it is to save the kingdom/world/continent. Then there's the Supernatural Ensemble, which I'm not sure belongs in fantasy proper - technically its roots are in horror.
But right now, I still just want to read a magic pony story.
Showing posts with label Nostalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nostalgia. Show all posts
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
What Was I Thinking?
Hello Hello! I'm still here. I don't know if you are, though. Ah well. I don't take blogging seriously, like some people I've met. I believe I'm going to consider this my training blog, so that when I'm a published writer and people actually care what I have to say, then I'll know how to say things worth saying.
Blah blah blah aside, I'm doing better and worse on the writing front. Worse, because I haven't written anything of significance in...well, I'm not even sure. Since I decided to finally put that nameless Baleful Polymorph that I'd been working on since high school out of its misery and be DONE WITH IT FOR REAL THIS TIME. I am now free to work on my multitude of side stories that are all so much more interesting!
...
...
You know, despite being a hideous monster with a broken plot that had gone through so many versions it didn't even know what it was anymore...I don't really feel the same sort of dedication for anything else. Maybe it was just my age, and now I realize it was crap, I'm hard pressed to come up with something new that isn't. At this point I'm tempted to take it out of storage, dust off the pieces, and see if there's anything I can stitch together. But I can't. It's dead. As it should be and it's time to move on.
I did say I was doing better, though, and here's why: I'm taking Creative Writing. Yep. I displaced some poor Creative Writing major who won't be able to take any actual CW classes for another semester. Eh. They have so many generals and literature components they won't really fall behind. It seems that a lot of the people in that class aren't CW majors either, so it's a nice laid-back atmosphere for me to finally rid myself of this damn phobia.
For those who haven't been following, I have an absolute terror of sharing my writing with other people - what I like to term "page fright." What I noticed the first time I had to read a poem in that class, however, is that it was mostly physiological. I was twitchy and tense and kept fidgeting with a yo-yo while I took deep breaths and tried to keep my vision from blurring. You know, like I was on the verge of a panic attack. Only I wasn't actually scared. It was weird. And they liked my poem. Better than some of the others. A lot of the others. I'm not going to say there are some bad writers in that class, but some are better than others.
So I think I'll be able to kick this habit, since it seems to be a Pavlovian reflex more than an emotional response. Problems: It's exhausting. Writing a poem every week. Reading twenty poems a week. What was I thinking? I'm a prose writer. I'm sick of poetry, and we're not even halfway through the poetry unit. There's only one short story required for the class, and - best part - the professor will not accept fantasy.
Now, if his rationale had been that traditional High Fantasy requires a great deal of worldbuilding that does not work well in short works - okay. I can accept that. But no, he just doesn't like fantasy because he thinks it's crap. This guy, by the way, writes crime fiction. Murder mystery detective stories. Room to judge? I don't think so. He also refuses trashy paranormal romance - but you know that several girls are going to write trashy mundane romances anyway.
Does it matter if a stupid girl is in love with a stupid angsty hipster or a stupid angsty vampire? At least if there's a vampire, you know that someone's going to bleed eventually. And you know, just bcause a story is a paranormal romance does not mean it has to be trashy - people just write with that assumption. The thing is, there are some good mundane stories about lovers - The Time-Traveller's Wife, The Gargoyle - okay, I lied when I said mundane. But this just proves the point I was going to make anyway! Fantastical elements do not automatically make a story crap! It is how you use them that determines the quality of your story.
Better stop now, I'm rambling. I shall return anon!
Blah blah blah aside, I'm doing better and worse on the writing front. Worse, because I haven't written anything of significance in...well, I'm not even sure. Since I decided to finally put that nameless Baleful Polymorph that I'd been working on since high school out of its misery and be DONE WITH IT FOR REAL THIS TIME. I am now free to work on my multitude of side stories that are all so much more interesting!
...
...
You know, despite being a hideous monster with a broken plot that had gone through so many versions it didn't even know what it was anymore...I don't really feel the same sort of dedication for anything else. Maybe it was just my age, and now I realize it was crap, I'm hard pressed to come up with something new that isn't. At this point I'm tempted to take it out of storage, dust off the pieces, and see if there's anything I can stitch together. But I can't. It's dead. As it should be and it's time to move on.
I did say I was doing better, though, and here's why: I'm taking Creative Writing. Yep. I displaced some poor Creative Writing major who won't be able to take any actual CW classes for another semester. Eh. They have so many generals and literature components they won't really fall behind. It seems that a lot of the people in that class aren't CW majors either, so it's a nice laid-back atmosphere for me to finally rid myself of this damn phobia.
For those who haven't been following, I have an absolute terror of sharing my writing with other people - what I like to term "page fright." What I noticed the first time I had to read a poem in that class, however, is that it was mostly physiological. I was twitchy and tense and kept fidgeting with a yo-yo while I took deep breaths and tried to keep my vision from blurring. You know, like I was on the verge of a panic attack. Only I wasn't actually scared. It was weird. And they liked my poem. Better than some of the others. A lot of the others. I'm not going to say there are some bad writers in that class, but some are better than others.
So I think I'll be able to kick this habit, since it seems to be a Pavlovian reflex more than an emotional response. Problems: It's exhausting. Writing a poem every week. Reading twenty poems a week. What was I thinking? I'm a prose writer. I'm sick of poetry, and we're not even halfway through the poetry unit. There's only one short story required for the class, and - best part - the professor will not accept fantasy.
Now, if his rationale had been that traditional High Fantasy requires a great deal of worldbuilding that does not work well in short works - okay. I can accept that. But no, he just doesn't like fantasy because he thinks it's crap. This guy, by the way, writes crime fiction. Murder mystery detective stories. Room to judge? I don't think so. He also refuses trashy paranormal romance - but you know that several girls are going to write trashy mundane romances anyway.
Does it matter if a stupid girl is in love with a stupid angsty hipster or a stupid angsty vampire? At least if there's a vampire, you know that someone's going to bleed eventually. And you know, just bcause a story is a paranormal romance does not mean it has to be trashy - people just write with that assumption. The thing is, there are some good mundane stories about lovers - The Time-Traveller's Wife, The Gargoyle - okay, I lied when I said mundane. But this just proves the point I was going to make anyway! Fantastical elements do not automatically make a story crap! It is how you use them that determines the quality of your story.
Better stop now, I'm rambling. I shall return anon!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
(Top) Five Books About Griffins
Why am I doing all these lists? Because I'm bored! And I read too much! And I've been watching a lot of Nostalgia Chick videos! And because I can! And because I just finished a griffin book.
I like griffins. You may have guessed from the title of this blog, even though it is a word I got form watching a spelling bee years ago and apparently means messy handwriting and has nothing to do with griffins. The thing is that griffins are way underdone, especially compared to, say, dragons, or wolves. So instead of being a "Top" Five, this is really just a list of the five books about griffins that I've read and ranked.
5. The Griffin Mage Trilogy - Rachel Neumeier
This one I only read a couple years ago, but I had to do a library search by "griffins" because I could remember neither title nor author, nor the names of any of the characters, nor exactly what happens. I only read the first book, Lord of the Burning Sands. So let's see. There's this girl, who's an orphan, and lives on a horse ranch (points for not making it a generic farm) and then a bunch of griffins swoop in and make the area a desert because they have some kind of Grogromon effect on the environment. And then they kidnap the girl because she has some special magic. And...stuff happens, and there's a big fight at the end. Oh, and there was some sub-plot with this soldier boy, and apparently certain humans have a kind of magic where they can control a particular type of animal, and the big twist at the end is when the soldier boy discovers he can control griffins. Which makes them animals or what? They seemed pretty sentient.
What I did not like about Neumeier's griffins is that she focused on making them savage and unhuman, which to me made them uninteresting.
4. The Fallen Moon Trilogy - K.J. Taylor
I was at the new bookstore, and I felt like I had to buy something, so when I saw The Dark Griffin I was like "Hey! I like griffins. It can't be too bad." And it wasn't. More on that later.
My first big hurdle reading this was when I realized that people are riding these griffins. They're bond creatures. But it is fairly integral to the plot, so I got over it. And I mean, I had a griffin-rider fantasy when I was, like, twelve, so I can't really judge. The prose isn't the best - it reads like a draft, but a draft by a rather good writer. It's like in the original draft she wrote "And then the baby griffin grew up on its own" and by the final draft had to wrack her brains for details that really didn't matter to the plot overall. And there there was the food. Literally. Her characters always eat "food." As in: "The food was plain but nourishing" or "His house had been ransacked, the food trampled into the floor." Again, it seems that she put it in as a placeholder, and by the time she got to later drafts was like "Crap. What do they eat instead of pizza and ramen?" Her answer: Bread. Cheese. Dried meat. Apples. Oh, and cabbage. That was the one original item mentioned, only the thing is, you don't eat cabbage raw. You have to cook it. So what do they do with cabbage in...whatever the country was called? Steam? Boil? Bake? Fry? Pickle? Or do they eat it raw? At one point the main character eats stew at an inn, and that's as excitingly detailed as it gets. Read Redwall if you need inspiration, girl.
The only real problem I had with the book, though, was the characters. They were so flat I could not tell that the one chick was the main character's actual established girlfried until they were having sex. This was about three or four conversations in, and I had been wondering if they were a pre-couple. There were so many times during the book I was practically shouting "Why are you doing that? You have no motivation! Real people don't talk like that! Real people don't act like that! Real people aren't motivated like that!" Namely the part where the main characters friends all try to help him feel better after his griffin dies (oops, slight spoiler, but it's fairly early on). And I'm thinking Dudes, his bond creature just died. Some 'verses don't have people survive that, though that's usually the telepathic ones (points for no telepathy). And the friends...you don't get any real sense of friendship. The author was just "Hey, main character must have social life (insert friends here)" None of them have a distinct personality and one can tell their only purpose is to be the failed support network. They are characters playing a role, not people. Also, more amusing than anything else - the one friend seems to be the only cop in town. I mean, it's implied that it's kind of a bigger city, but every single time the cops show up, Bran is there. Every. Single. Time.
I will give credit where credit is due, though, and say that the book has a very good plot. As in I want to read the sequel even though the characters are flat as paper. It's a Martinesque rather than a Tolkienesque story, meaning (I think; I'm just making this up and I've only read about three chapters of GRR Martin) that it is a human story with twisty political gimmicks, rather than a quest to destroy a Great Evil*. The main character is sent to capture a wild griffin and told "Oh yeah, you'll be fine" when really that sort of operation takes a specialized team, but he manages it even though his griffin partner dies. And there's a mini-conspiracy against him, and this racism subplot that makes it really obvious the writer is white. The second plotline follows the titiular dark griffin that he captured. On the whole though, it's a really intriguing story despite the blandness of the chracters. Plus there are references to Diana Wynne Jones, I swear there are. The oranges. The arena that is totally Costamaret. You don't...? Oh never mind, just keep reading.
(*Just read on author's website that it is supposed to be a villain origin story. I am intrigued. Library, y u no have sequels?! I don't like it so much I want to spend more money on it.)
3. The Black Griffin - Mercedes Lackey
Yes, I ranked a Mercedes Lackey book this high. I actually kind of like this one. Mostly because of the griffins. This book is about...um...a sort of masseuse/psychotherapist/companion who hangs around an army camp in the middle of a war. And so do a bunch of griffins. Okay, they're fighting in the war, but I think the reason I actually like this book is because it is more character driven, rather than trying to destroy the Great Evil. The war is there, but it is background to the story until the very end. The other books in the trilogy are meh at best - the second book could show them rebuilding after the war, except by then everything's kind of rebuilt and Lackey has to introduce a new conflict from the Other Continent. And the third book is a Disney sequel where the offspring of the main cast go off on adventures that are not nearly as interesting as the parents'. But the first book is solid.
2. The Firebringer Trilogy - Meredith Ann Pierce
Yeah, okay, the main focus in this series is on the unicorns, but the griffins are a major subplot, and there's one of the cover of the first book. They are shown as enemies of the unicorns at first, but then they are shown to have their own culture and traditions, and eventually make peace when the unicorns decide to drive the wyverns out of their ancestral lands instead of squatting on the griffins' ancestral hunting grounds (really, the griffins were only hunting them because they drove out the deer. It's all just a misunderstanding.). Only it gets a little weird when the one griffin has a romancey relationship with one of the unicorns, and it's implied that they have offspring, which is like, wut? I would kind of like to read something about that, though. The offspring, that is. Except it would end up being full of race-angst, so maybe it's better she left it at that.
1. Dark Lord of Derkholm/Year of the Griffin - Diana Wynne Jones
Of course I rank Jones at the top. Am I biased? Only because she's a damn good writer. Was, I mean. Fuck.
Book 1 of the...duology...introduces Wizard Derk genetic engineering wizard, and his genetically engineered griffin offspring. Plus the two human ones. The rest of the plot is about how the pseudo-medieval fantasyland is being exploited for tours from a parallel world. Wizard Derk is bullied into running the operations for a year, and his kids, griffin and human, all pitch in and help. The second book is after the tours are abolished, and follows one of the griffin children at college dealing with the aftermath of the tours. And yes, that makes it sound like a Disney sequel, except 1) Elda was around in the first book, she was just too young to do much, and 2) Even though it is technically less epic, it is still quite interesting - perhaps even more interesting. It's not a sequel, it's completely different, slightly related story. I like these griffins (okay, they were my first impression of griffins) because they are people, not talking animals or mysterious "others." Lackey actually managed to do that too. Huh. Whodathunk?
But I wanted another sequel, dammit! I wanted to see Elda and Flury hook up! That would have been so adorable! And I wanted to see the Other Continent. And now Jones is dead and there will be no more, ever!
Anyway, we have, in ascending order: Griffins as Grogromon, Griffins as bond-creatures, Griffins as created race, Griffins as...other race, and Griffins as created race AND other race on the Other Continent. Griffins as different magic-users from humans, griffins as the ONLY magic-users (I thought that was pretty cool, especially since the didn't spend a lot of time on exposition, just snuck it in there periodically), griffins as the same sort of magic-users as humans, griffins not exactly using magic any more than anyone else, and griffins as mostly the same sort of magic-users with cultural and personal variation.
Shortlist: Squire by Tamora Pierce, in which there is a griffin on the cover and the main character takes care of a baby griffin for a while which does absolutely nothing to further the plot. The griffins are just part of a magical ensemble and aren't really important. And it's Tamora Pierce.
That's about all I had to say about griffins. Or, well, books. I realize I may very well be obligated now to read Game of Thrones if I'm going to be making claims like that the Tolkienist movement has now split into Eddingsian and Martinesque factions. Or maybe I'll just stay with my indie-fantasy.
I like griffins. I've had a griffin story on backburner for years. Must write before they become the new dragons...do you think that could ever happen? There's been a lot of indie dragon deconstructions lately, so they might be on their way out.
Hmm.
I like griffins. You may have guessed from the title of this blog, even though it is a word I got form watching a spelling bee years ago and apparently means messy handwriting and has nothing to do with griffins. The thing is that griffins are way underdone, especially compared to, say, dragons, or wolves. So instead of being a "Top" Five, this is really just a list of the five books about griffins that I've read and ranked.
5. The Griffin Mage Trilogy - Rachel Neumeier
This one I only read a couple years ago, but I had to do a library search by "griffins" because I could remember neither title nor author, nor the names of any of the characters, nor exactly what happens. I only read the first book, Lord of the Burning Sands. So let's see. There's this girl, who's an orphan, and lives on a horse ranch (points for not making it a generic farm) and then a bunch of griffins swoop in and make the area a desert because they have some kind of Grogromon effect on the environment. And then they kidnap the girl because she has some special magic. And...stuff happens, and there's a big fight at the end. Oh, and there was some sub-plot with this soldier boy, and apparently certain humans have a kind of magic where they can control a particular type of animal, and the big twist at the end is when the soldier boy discovers he can control griffins. Which makes them animals or what? They seemed pretty sentient.
What I did not like about Neumeier's griffins is that she focused on making them savage and unhuman, which to me made them uninteresting.
4. The Fallen Moon Trilogy - K.J. Taylor
I was at the new bookstore, and I felt like I had to buy something, so when I saw The Dark Griffin I was like "Hey! I like griffins. It can't be too bad." And it wasn't. More on that later.
My first big hurdle reading this was when I realized that people are riding these griffins. They're bond creatures. But it is fairly integral to the plot, so I got over it. And I mean, I had a griffin-rider fantasy when I was, like, twelve, so I can't really judge. The prose isn't the best - it reads like a draft, but a draft by a rather good writer. It's like in the original draft she wrote "And then the baby griffin grew up on its own" and by the final draft had to wrack her brains for details that really didn't matter to the plot overall. And there there was the food. Literally. Her characters always eat "food." As in: "The food was plain but nourishing" or "His house had been ransacked, the food trampled into the floor." Again, it seems that she put it in as a placeholder, and by the time she got to later drafts was like "Crap. What do they eat instead of pizza and ramen?" Her answer: Bread. Cheese. Dried meat. Apples. Oh, and cabbage. That was the one original item mentioned, only the thing is, you don't eat cabbage raw. You have to cook it. So what do they do with cabbage in...whatever the country was called? Steam? Boil? Bake? Fry? Pickle? Or do they eat it raw? At one point the main character eats stew at an inn, and that's as excitingly detailed as it gets. Read Redwall if you need inspiration, girl.
The only real problem I had with the book, though, was the characters. They were so flat I could not tell that the one chick was the main character's actual established girlfried until they were having sex. This was about three or four conversations in, and I had been wondering if they were a pre-couple. There were so many times during the book I was practically shouting "Why are you doing that? You have no motivation! Real people don't talk like that! Real people don't act like that! Real people aren't motivated like that!" Namely the part where the main characters friends all try to help him feel better after his griffin dies (oops, slight spoiler, but it's fairly early on). And I'm thinking Dudes, his bond creature just died. Some 'verses don't have people survive that, though that's usually the telepathic ones (points for no telepathy). And the friends...you don't get any real sense of friendship. The author was just "Hey, main character must have social life (insert friends here)" None of them have a distinct personality and one can tell their only purpose is to be the failed support network. They are characters playing a role, not people. Also, more amusing than anything else - the one friend seems to be the only cop in town. I mean, it's implied that it's kind of a bigger city, but every single time the cops show up, Bran is there. Every. Single. Time.
I will give credit where credit is due, though, and say that the book has a very good plot. As in I want to read the sequel even though the characters are flat as paper. It's a Martinesque rather than a Tolkienesque story, meaning (I think; I'm just making this up and I've only read about three chapters of GRR Martin) that it is a human story with twisty political gimmicks, rather than a quest to destroy a Great Evil*. The main character is sent to capture a wild griffin and told "Oh yeah, you'll be fine" when really that sort of operation takes a specialized team, but he manages it even though his griffin partner dies. And there's a mini-conspiracy against him, and this racism subplot that makes it really obvious the writer is white. The second plotline follows the titiular dark griffin that he captured. On the whole though, it's a really intriguing story despite the blandness of the chracters. Plus there are references to Diana Wynne Jones, I swear there are. The oranges. The arena that is totally Costamaret. You don't...? Oh never mind, just keep reading.
(*Just read on author's website that it is supposed to be a villain origin story. I am intrigued. Library, y u no have sequels?! I don't like it so much I want to spend more money on it.)
3. The Black Griffin - Mercedes Lackey
Yes, I ranked a Mercedes Lackey book this high. I actually kind of like this one. Mostly because of the griffins. This book is about...um...a sort of masseuse/psychotherapist/
2. The Firebringer Trilogy - Meredith Ann Pierce
Yeah, okay, the main focus in this series is on the unicorns, but the griffins are a major subplot, and there's one of the cover of the first book. They are shown as enemies of the unicorns at first, but then they are shown to have their own culture and traditions, and eventually make peace when the unicorns decide to drive the wyverns out of their ancestral lands instead of squatting on the griffins' ancestral hunting grounds (really, the griffins were only hunting them because they drove out the deer. It's all just a misunderstanding.). Only it gets a little weird when the one griffin has a romancey relationship with one of the unicorns, and it's implied that they have offspring, which is like, wut? I would kind of like to read something about that, though. The offspring, that is. Except it would end up being full of race-angst, so maybe it's better she left it at that.
1. Dark Lord of Derkholm/Year of the Griffin - Diana Wynne Jones
Of course I rank Jones at the top. Am I biased? Only because she's a damn good writer. Was, I mean. Fuck.
Book 1 of the...duology...introduces Wizard Derk genetic engineering wizard, and his genetically engineered griffin offspring. Plus the two human ones. The rest of the plot is about how the pseudo-medieval fantasyland is being exploited for tours from a parallel world. Wizard Derk is bullied into running the operations for a year, and his kids, griffin and human, all pitch in and help. The second book is after the tours are abolished, and follows one of the griffin children at college dealing with the aftermath of the tours. And yes, that makes it sound like a Disney sequel, except 1) Elda was around in the first book, she was just too young to do much, and 2) Even though it is technically less epic, it is still quite interesting - perhaps even more interesting. It's not a sequel, it's completely different, slightly related story. I like these griffins (okay, they were my first impression of griffins) because they are people, not talking animals or mysterious "others." Lackey actually managed to do that too. Huh. Whodathunk?
But I wanted another sequel, dammit! I wanted to see Elda and Flury hook up! That would have been so adorable! And I wanted to see the Other Continent. And now Jones is dead and there will be no more, ever!
Anyway, we have, in ascending order: Griffins as Grogromon, Griffins as bond-creatures, Griffins as created race, Griffins as...other race, and Griffins as created race AND other race on the Other Continent. Griffins as different magic-users from humans, griffins as the ONLY magic-users (I thought that was pretty cool, especially since the didn't spend a lot of time on exposition, just snuck it in there periodically), griffins as the same sort of magic-users as humans, griffins not exactly using magic any more than anyone else, and griffins as mostly the same sort of magic-users with cultural and personal variation.
Shortlist: Squire by Tamora Pierce, in which there is a griffin on the cover and the main character takes care of a baby griffin for a while which does absolutely nothing to further the plot. The griffins are just part of a magical ensemble and aren't really important. And it's Tamora Pierce.
That's about all I had to say about griffins. Or, well, books. I realize I may very well be obligated now to read Game of Thrones if I'm going to be making claims like that the Tolkienist movement has now split into Eddingsian and Martinesque factions. Or maybe I'll just stay with my indie-fantasy.
I like griffins. I've had a griffin story on backburner for years. Must write before they become the new dragons...do you think that could ever happen? There's been a lot of indie dragon deconstructions lately, so they might be on their way out.
Hmm.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Quoth the Rowling, Pottermore
Sorry about the title. Couldn't resist. Despite which, I still don't have a clue what Pottermore is.
I am the Harry Potter generation, defined here as someone who 1) waited for a letter from Hogwarts, 2) went to a midnight book release. So I read it. I liked it.
Then it became popular.
If HP had not become so popular, I can see two ways my life might be different. 1) I would like it more than I do now, treasure it for its nostalgia purposes, immerse myself in the world. Or 2) I'd stick it in the back of the shelf and forget all about it.
As far as stories go, it is rather forgettable. There's a kid who discovers he has special powers and has to stop some evil dude from doing evil stuff. The characters are rather bland, rather stupid at times, and the magic stuff (wands and broomsticks etc.), which start out as delightfully whimsical, become more narmy as the series grows darker.
That last paragraph could get me burned at the stake. Or at least accused of being a snob (why yes, I am still bitter).
Stop hating on Harry, he says. It's just a kid's book.
Just a kid's book.
So too is Warriors. So too is Artemis Fowl. So too is almost...every...single...frickin'...thing...by DIANA WYNNE JONES. And did I mention Narnia?
The problem of the matter is that Harry hits puberty. Narnia is like a roller coaster; you must be less than this high to ride. Rowling, with a book series that spanned seven years, had two choices: She could pretend puberty does not exist and keep her target demographic as 8-10 year olds. Or she could anticipate her aging readers and transition her books to YA.
And that, I think, is why HP became so popular. It aged with the readers. Not well (see Potter Puppet Pals Wizard Angst), but it is the only series I can think of that started out with a child protagonist and ended with a teenager that was written to act like a teenager. While most other books have to rely on new generations after the old one ages, the HP generation stuck with those books.
I can't think of many other reasons HP became so popular, though I suppose I could hazard a few more guesses...
-The action took place in a school. Everyone knows about schools. But this was a magic school, so it was interesting. Fantasy stories have a tendency to take the reader away from the familiar and recognizeable. Lots of forests. Castles. Places most people don't live.
-The magic was very generic. Nix had his light magic (or bells, but Sabriel isn't as nostalgic to me), Duane had her mystical Speech, Jones had...whatever Jones had. But to the average layperson, the connotations that go with the word "magic" are still waving a wand and mumbling a few funny words. So an ordinary person (for want of a better term) could pick up HP and recognize the magic.
And that's it. I mean, does anyone really care about any of the characters' personalities? Besides Sirius, that is? No, because the characters simply play their roles as Designated Hero with a saving-people thing, Designated Sidekick who backs him up in everything, and Designated Smart One who dispenses plot-relevant information and gives advice for the hero to ignore. Oh, and Designated Love Interest to...be fallen in love with. Though in all fairness, Ginny seems to be able to do a better job getting Harry to listen to reason than Hermione does.
I did not realize I was quite this bitter. I know that the world is not fair, and that Jones, who is the superior being, will never be as rich or famous as Rowling. And I wouldn't want her too. I would rather keep her private, personal, something I can form an instant connection over with a person. And I have resigned myself to the fact that HP has altered the face of fantasy forever. If I say I like fantasy, I usually hear a response like "Oh, like Harry Potter? Like Lord of the Rings? Like Terry Pratchett?" And the answer is no; like Sarah Monette and Diana Wynne Jones and Galen Beckett and Meredith Ann Pierce. Books by people who like magical stuff, but don't feel bound by genre constraints or the expectations of the readers.
Dammit, I guess I am a snob. I still remember those few years when fantasy was mine, and the choice was to feel like a freak for reading about magic, or to be proud of being different. So when the public eye turned on my secret niche, the only choice was to seek deeper obscurity. Or maybe I'm just irked that for most people, HP is the definition of fantasy, when it is so much more than that.
I am the Harry Potter generation, defined here as someone who 1) waited for a letter from Hogwarts, 2) went to a midnight book release. So I read it. I liked it.
Then it became popular.
If HP had not become so popular, I can see two ways my life might be different. 1) I would like it more than I do now, treasure it for its nostalgia purposes, immerse myself in the world. Or 2) I'd stick it in the back of the shelf and forget all about it.
As far as stories go, it is rather forgettable. There's a kid who discovers he has special powers and has to stop some evil dude from doing evil stuff. The characters are rather bland, rather stupid at times, and the magic stuff (wands and broomsticks etc.), which start out as delightfully whimsical, become more narmy as the series grows darker.
That last paragraph could get me burned at the stake. Or at least accused of being a snob (why yes, I am still bitter).
Stop hating on Harry, he says. It's just a kid's book.
Just a kid's book.
So too is Warriors. So too is Artemis Fowl. So too is almost...every...single...frickin'...thing...by DIANA WYNNE JONES. And did I mention Narnia?
The problem of the matter is that Harry hits puberty. Narnia is like a roller coaster; you must be less than this high to ride. Rowling, with a book series that spanned seven years, had two choices: She could pretend puberty does not exist and keep her target demographic as 8-10 year olds. Or she could anticipate her aging readers and transition her books to YA.
And that, I think, is why HP became so popular. It aged with the readers. Not well (see Potter Puppet Pals Wizard Angst), but it is the only series I can think of that started out with a child protagonist and ended with a teenager that was written to act like a teenager. While most other books have to rely on new generations after the old one ages, the HP generation stuck with those books.
I can't think of many other reasons HP became so popular, though I suppose I could hazard a few more guesses...
-The action took place in a school. Everyone knows about schools. But this was a magic school, so it was interesting. Fantasy stories have a tendency to take the reader away from the familiar and recognizeable. Lots of forests. Castles. Places most people don't live.
-The magic was very generic. Nix had his light magic (or bells, but Sabriel isn't as nostalgic to me), Duane had her mystical Speech, Jones had...whatever Jones had. But to the average layperson, the connotations that go with the word "magic" are still waving a wand and mumbling a few funny words. So an ordinary person (for want of a better term) could pick up HP and recognize the magic.
And that's it. I mean, does anyone really care about any of the characters' personalities? Besides Sirius, that is? No, because the characters simply play their roles as Designated Hero with a saving-people thing, Designated Sidekick who backs him up in everything, and Designated Smart One who dispenses plot-relevant information and gives advice for the hero to ignore. Oh, and Designated Love Interest to...be fallen in love with. Though in all fairness, Ginny seems to be able to do a better job getting Harry to listen to reason than Hermione does.
I did not realize I was quite this bitter. I know that the world is not fair, and that Jones, who is the superior being, will never be as rich or famous as Rowling. And I wouldn't want her too. I would rather keep her private, personal, something I can form an instant connection over with a person. And I have resigned myself to the fact that HP has altered the face of fantasy forever. If I say I like fantasy, I usually hear a response like "Oh, like Harry Potter? Like Lord of the Rings? Like Terry Pratchett?" And the answer is no; like Sarah Monette and Diana Wynne Jones and Galen Beckett and Meredith Ann Pierce. Books by people who like magical stuff, but don't feel bound by genre constraints or the expectations of the readers.
Dammit, I guess I am a snob. I still remember those few years when fantasy was mine, and the choice was to feel like a freak for reading about magic, or to be proud of being different. So when the public eye turned on my secret niche, the only choice was to seek deeper obscurity. Or maybe I'm just irked that for most people, HP is the definition of fantasy, when it is so much more than that.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
In Memoriam: Diana Wynne Jones
Diana Wynne Jones: 1934-2011
Funny how Death always comes in waves.
This one, at least, I was expecting. She had cancer for a few years, and knowing I was in the midst of a deathwave, I already somewhat expected it to happen about now. That doesn't make it any easier. I have read quite literally every one of her books (except maybe one or two obscure ones)
If Jacques was my gateway to fantasy, Jones was my addiction. She taught me how magic works, and how cats talk, and about parallel dimensions, and how to blend science fiction and fantasy until one isn't sure what the difference is any more. And more than any of that, her characters are more like people than any other writer I know of can manage. The children are children and are sometimes selfish, the adults are sometimes helpful, sometimes well-meaning but useless, sometimes merely useless. Yet you still have to love all of them.
Sarah Monette (another one of my literary heros) says it best here.
In my own writing, I would have to say that Jones is my top influence. I want to build a world that is whimsical yet plausible, with large parts unexplained but that somehow makes sense. Nor are any but the most plot relevant aspects of magic ever explained - after all, it's freaking MAGIC.
Howl's Moving Castle made her if not popular, at least somewhat known in mainstream. I have to point out that I was a fan long before that. And then, the way Harry Potter took my private love of fantasy and made it mainstream, the movie made Howl's Castle known to more than a select few. It feels something like a betrayal when that happens. You were once mine, and now I must share you. Even though a private love is lonely. I once fell in love based solely on an association with a book, but that is a topic for another time.
Diana Wynne Jones wrote in a way that I will never be able to, and I'm okay with that. That does not mean I am going to give up writing. It just means that I am going to try harder than ever to write MY book. And it will be for Jones, and Jacques, and Lloyd Alexander, and every single author whose books I have read, the good and the bad, and every single person who has ever given me a story. But Jones will not be able to read it. She won't even know that I loved her so much, or that she had more than passing resemblence to an English teacher of mine.
So what is the moral of this story? Meet your heros before they die? A generation of greats must pass to make room for new ones? In the face of death, carry on so that the lost ones did not live/die in vain? I don't know. All I know is that I love her books and I could not stop writing if I tried.
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