All posts filed under: Fantasy posts

Who will take Tolkien’s place?

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Over the past week and a half, I have posted several articles on the Lord of the Rings.  I don’t think anyone can deny the importance of Tolkien’s work to the fantasy genre, but maybe it is time to start looking beyond Middle Earth, to find the next great classic fantasy novel.  There have been several pretenders to the throne, various novels or series of books that for a time have come close to the popularity of Tolkien’s work, but so far, none have lasted the test of time.  I can’t possibly list them all as there are far too many but I will go through a few of the past, present, and future claimants to the throne… The Dragonlance series by Weis & Hickman – Back in the 1980’s, before computer video games hit their prominence, the game fantasy enthusiasts played was Dungeons and Dragons: a role-playing game played with character sheets, dice, and active imaginations.  The popularity of this game was in part fuelled by the massive popularity of the Dragonlance fantasy series …

Middle Earth since the films…

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picture from digitaldomain.com Despite being known primarily as a lover of books, I think I should make it clear from the start that I love Peter Jackson’s three films that make up his adaptation of the Lord of the Rings.  I don’t think Tolkien’s classic work could ever be completely captured in its entirety on film, but I really don’t think that anyone else could have done it any better – they really are fantastic. I could try and nick pick here and there, how I wished they’d portrayed a particular part, this way or that, but I won’t bother – the film adaptation is just that, an adaptation, and it is a very good one. The films have done a lot for the fantasy genre as well.  They showed how the incredible advances in in CGI meant that virtually any imagined concept or world can now be achieved via the medium of film.  It used to be thought that fantasy novels could only be achieved in either books or animation because of the limitations …

Sunday update!

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I hope you have been enjoying the series on The Lord of the Rings this past week.  I started off with a post on my own memories of when I first read the trilogy and followed that up with a piece on what separates Tolkien’s work from other novels.  I could leave it at that, but I would like to write one more post on how our perceptions on the three books have changed since the films have come out, and what the legacy of The Lord of the Rings is likely to be, since the three film’s incredible success at the box office.  I will also try and look ahead, at other fantasy novels that may one day be considered classics and take their place alongside The Lord of the Rings at the top of the genre.  This will come out on Wednesday. Roman Mask An update on my own novel Roman Mask.  I still haven’t managed to work out what has happened to the three missing reviews from my blog tour which were supposed …

Why the Lord of the Rings is still such a great book!

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Because the Lord of the Rings was brought to the forefront of everyone’s attention by the release of Peter Jackson’s magnificent set of films, it is easy to forget how great the books are.  For anyone interested in fantasy novels, The Lord of the Rings is still the most important book you can read, and here are a few reasons why. Picture from Reddit.com Depth.  Middle Earth is incredible.  Not just because Tolkien envisaged such a land of rivers, mountain ranges, great forests, and towering ancient cities, but because of the depth and detail he used.  Well researched languages, myths and legends that go back millennia – only a selection of which made it into the pages of the trilogy.  New types of animals, races, and magic all imbue Middle Earth with its own mysticism.  If you research the history of any of the lands great cities in Tolkien’s other writings you will find details on who founded the city, why it was built, and the great battles fought for it.  No other author has …

The first time I read The Lord of the Rings.

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I was eleven years old, when I first read The Lord of the Rings, and it changed my life.  I’d been a sporadic reader up until that point, occasionally reading a book when bored, or reading something to appease my parents.  But I soon realised as I slowly made my way through all three volumes over a long hot summer in the mid-eighties, that The Lord of the Rings was different.  This was a book that I loved. So much so, that from that point on I became an avid reader.  I was then always known to be the boy with a book in his hands, desperately wanting to recapture that feeling of complete immersion in a world far removed from my own.  Be it fantasy novels or historical, throughout university and beyond, the sight of me carrying a book or with a novel stuffed in a coat pocket or bag was so common that it was only remarked upon on the rare occasion it was missing. The attraction of escapism is obvious, but this wasn’t …

Coming up on the site soon!

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Coming up! It occurred to me recently that although I have highlighted and written about a number of fantasy novels, apart from the odd mention here and there, I have missed out the two most famous works in the Genre.   They are of course The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.  Possibly the reason I have avoided writing about them up until now is that since the films and the TV series have come out, so much has been said about them, I wasn’t sure I could offer anything more.  However, I now realise that was ignoring the elephant in the room, and to have a site which discusses fantasy novels, and not include these great books is ridiculous. So this week I will start of writing some pieces on The Lord of the Rings, the book that I first read at eleven and did more to spark my imagination than anything else in my life.  It lead to a lifelong love affair with reading and …

The Liveship Trilogy by Robin Hobb. A master author at the top of her game.

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The Liveship traders of Bingtown operate to the south of Six Duchies – the land we visited with Hobb for her Farseer novels.  However, don’t expect the same characters to pop-up or a continuation of the raids from the Red Ships.  This is a very different story, and although the lands and novels are intrinsically linked, you need no knowledge of the Farseer novels before you embark on this series.   We meet a new cast of well-crafted characters and a set of books that possibly represent Hobb’s most accomplished work. The story revolves around the Bingtown traders, a group of families who prosper on the Cursed Shore – a land where life is made difficult by the acidic waters of the Rain Wild River that runs from far inland into the sea near their town.  The secret of their prosperity is their Liveships.  They are crafted from Wizardwood that comes from a secret source far up the Rain Wild River and give their ships a great advantage over their competitors, not least because only ships …

Process of building a character #books #writingtips

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If you want to write a novel, you will need well rounded and believable characters to pull your readers along with the story.  For readers to care what happens at the end of a book, you will need to forge a connection between them and your characters. Different authors will have a variety of different approaches to constructing characters for their novels.  Some will take a more ad-hoc approach, and develop them along the way.  But for myself, if I am going to create realistic characters, it is important to map out their characteristics at the planning stage of a novel – after all, you wouldn’t start writing a book without knowing what your plot is going to be, so why should the characters be any different?  They are just as vital to your novel so it is worthwhile spending some time on character development before you start writing.   These are the stages I go through when putting my characters together – you can play around with the order, nothing here is set in stone. picture from …

10 Great features of a castle #writing #fantasy #history

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You can’t beat a castle to form a dramatic setting for a novel.  If you are writing a story from the past, you can steep it with the historical detail so beloved of the genre.  Equally, if you are writing a fantasy novel, you can let your imagination run free as you create a great stronghold.  One of my favourite aspects of George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones is the number of incredibly expansive and spectacular castles, all uniquely different, that form the seats of power for all the great families. If you want some pointers where to start, here are 10 to get you going. picture from lookandlearn.com Battlements and Machicolations.  A few crossbowmen along the battlements go a long way to deter any but the most determined attacker, but if necessary, you can have machicolations – stone boxes that project from the wall and had holes in the floor – ready to pour boiling oil, rocks, or any other nastiness down on the poor unfortunates below. picture from travelblog.org Arrow slits.  Such a simple …

Calling all authors and book reviewers…FREE marketing! #bookmarketing #authors

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picture from youtube.com My own novel ‘Roman Mask’ is about to appear on a blog tour of historical fiction websites, through the end of August and throughout September.  It has made me appreciate how important it is for authors to gain the exposure necessary to get a new book up and running.  As I have a website of my own, it only seems fair to make the same offer to other authors in need of marketing their own novels.  So you will see there is an extra tab on my site called ‘Submissions’.  This shows how you can submit a post to my website promoting your own work, providing it is a fantasy or historical novel.  It is completely free of charge; I just need a post that tells the readers something about your novel – it could be the inspiration behind writing the book, or why you were interested in a period of history, or anything really that tells us something about the novel.  I will then post this with a description of the …