Without further wait here is Jacobs' fabulous guest blog. Please leave a comment as we can all discuss and don't forget to stop over to Jacobs' blog to say hello...
The floor is all yours Jacob.
Fantasy: Where Are We Going?
It's easy enough to say fantasy's going somewhere - but where exactly are we going? Let's take a brief look, starting with one brief (if flawed) assumption:
We're moving away from the epic fantasy.
Which, admittedly, on the surface, is true - but we'll come back to our much-maligned epic later. It's evident that the genre as a whole.jpg)
is moving away from the serious, Tolkienesque-epic. Likewise, it's now rare that fantasy's heavyweight contenders use the generic races - you're not seeing Erikson re-enacted with dwarves, are you? (There are exceptions, of course.) In fact, we're moving towards predominantly human-based fantasy. Human conflicts, human wars - human morals. We've got books like Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, which, although featuring many races, focuses around a human empire - the Malazan.
What else? We're certainly seeing more crossovers between fantasy and other genres - like Neil Stephenson's excellent Anathem (an eclectic blend of science, science fiction and the fantastic), and more fantasy-crime novels in the urban fantasy genre, like Jim Butcher's popular Dresden Files. Urban fantasy as a genre is growing, too. Then we've got another shift - towards moral relativism. We're moving away from the moral absolutes of yesteryear, and more towards our more solid fare: shades of grey and our complex moral conflict. I'll mention Abercrombie here, too - and much as I hate to succumb to fanboy-ism, I'll have to mention Erikson as well.
It's easy enough to say fantasy's going somewhere - but where exactly are we going? Let's take a brief look, starting with one brief (if flawed) assumption:
We're moving away from the epic fantasy.
Which, admittedly, on the surface, is true - but we'll come back to our much-maligned epic later. It's evident that the genre as a whole
.jpg)
is moving away from the serious, Tolkienesque-epic. Likewise, it's now rare that fantasy's heavyweight contenders use the generic races - you're not seeing Erikson re-enacted with dwarves, are you? (There are exceptions, of course.) In fact, we're moving towards predominantly human-based fantasy. Human conflicts, human wars - human morals. We've got books like Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen, which, although featuring many races, focuses around a human empire - the Malazan.What else? We're certainly seeing more crossovers between fantasy and other genres - like Neil Stephenson's excellent Anathem (an eclectic blend of science, science fiction and the fantastic), and more fantasy-crime novels in the urban fantasy genre, like Jim Butcher's popular Dresden Files. Urban fantasy as a genre is growing, too. Then we've got another shift - towards moral relativism. We're moving away from the moral absolutes of yesteryear, and more towards our more solid fare: shades of grey and our complex moral conflict. I'll mention Abercrombie here, too - and much as I hate to succumb to fanboy-ism, I'll have to mention Erikson as well.
What else? Well, on the shelves now, you'll be seeing - in a month's time - The Gathering Storm, part of the continuation of Jordan's epic fantasy - and there'll most likely be a rise in similar books, too. The epic fantasy certainly isn't dead, either. It's merely adapted away from absolutes and our generic fantasy world. And the rest of the genre is diversifying, too - we've got classics with mythological monsters, we've got a boom in steampunk. Fantasy is diversifying, and fast - and it's continuing to grow faster than we can predict it. So that means by the time you've read this post - I'm wrong! So just take a look at your local bookstore instead, and see for yourself the changes.
Jacob - Drying_Ink
