Epic fantasy (repost)

Reposted from 9/29/2007

Epic fantasies usually begin in medias res, in the middle of things. Consider, for example, how much history comes before we meet Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings, and I'm not just talking about its prequel, The Hobbit. The Silmarillion will give you a better idea. In this eon-long context, the One Ring can be seen as merely a loose end that must be tidies up before it and its master can destroy all of Middle-earth, smashing sundry lives in the process including those of various innocent hobbits.

This pattern runs through much of modern fantasy. The past is a looming shadow that shapes the present and threatens the future. Characters thus totter between light and dark, between simple, everyday life and cosmic destruction, on a scale that sometimes boggles the mind even of their creator. P.C. Hodgell, the introduction to Blood & Ivory

P.C. Hodgell is one of my all-time favorite fantasists. She wrote God Stalk, which is not so well known but which is in my top three favorite books of all time list. Go read it and the sequels if you want to read something truly unique. Her world is not a Tolkein deriviative; it's fresh, new, fascinating.

And what she has to say about the looming history of an epic fantasy is so true. I've always had the sense of this, but hadn't ever put it so well.

And you can find information on Professor Hodgell here.

Comments

[fairyhedgehog]

I was looking at God Stalk in the library yesterday but I had the feeling that it was a religious book. I'm guessing I was wrong.

[pacatrue]

Thanks for the reminder about Hodgell, WW. This post also made me think that one way to get ideas would be to genre-hop the memes/conventions. What I mean by this is: what would it be like to take this overwhelming sense of history that permeates so much fantasy and put it into other genres, such as contemporary fic or mystery?

[writtenwyrdd]

I've been doing that with my vampire novel...part of the reason I have a massaive tome...Too much stuff and chaachters and plot! I'd come to the conclusion that complex backgrounds mean EPICS.