Reflections on Fantasy Fiction

[ecosophia]

The other day I spent some time at the local public library, which is (thank heavens!) open to the public again. I had fantasy on my mind, because the night before I had finished a reread of Fletcher Pratt's classic fantasy The Well of the Unicorn. 

I'm not at all sure how many people remember Fletcher Pratt's two fantasy novels, The Well of the Unicorn and The Blue Star. They came out in 1948 and 1952 respectively, just before Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings; both are set in wholly imaginary worlds where magic is a constant presence; The Well features a wizard, and draws heavily from Scandinavian lore -- and if you're expecting the result to have anything in common with Tolkien's work, brace yourself, because it's a wholly different kind of fantasy.

The world of The Well of the Unicorn is more or less in the high Middle Ages, as distinct from the generic dark-age setting of Tolkien and most post-Tolkien fantasy; it's a world riven by bitter, complex, and highly realistic political conflicts; it's also a world in which the characters have romantic and sexual entanglements that are just as realistic as the politics. There are heroes and villains, but a distinct shortage of cardboard cutouts masquerading as characters. The Blue Star is even more unexpected, to those who only know Tolkienesque fantasy -- it's set in a world more or less parallel to early eighteenth-century Europe, and again, it's got subtle and intricate politics and a rousing, quick-moving, unexpected plot in which, ahem, you can't tell the Good People from the Bad People at a glance. 

So when I got to the library, I wanted to see what I could find in the way of recent fantasy fiction that looked good. It was not a successful quest. Partly, I pulled out four books in a row by four different authors that were about plucky young women rebelling against the conventions of their generically medieval societies, who of course just happened to be the most specially speclal person in the whole world, who alone could do blah blah blah. Partly, by the time I finished the cover blurbs of each book I glanced at -- and I don't just mean those four, either -- I could assign every character to his or her Dungeons & Dragons character class. (This is never a good sign.) I'm glad to say that the Dark Lord of the Month Club seems to have faltered of late -- Blorg the Bad, Evil Lord of Evilness, and his infinitely rehashed equivalents seem to have been given some time off -- but the Bad People are still very much in evidence, being Bad because they're Bad and because the plot won't stand up on its own without being propped up by that particular bit of dreary machinery. It was all very reminiscent of the Map of Clichéa. I ended up going home with a spy novel set in Mexico in 1914, a far more exotic and interesting setting than anything in the fantasy shelf. 

So I figure it's worth turning to my readers for help. Is there anything going on in fantasy these days that isn't just a rehash of a set of shopworn tropes?  Anything fairly new that has political conflict of some degree of complexity, characters who aren't clichés, and a setting that isn't either a well-known roleplaying game or some set of tropes with "-punk" slapped on the end?  Inquiring Druids want to know. 

Comments

Re: Fantasy, my favorite thing in the world despite its current woke boringness

[(Anonymous)]

Okay here we go.

Kushiel Series, by Jaqueline Carey: Technically the first one was written in 2001, but the later books were in the 2010s, so im counting it. Wonderfully strange alternate history/romance/political fantasy, with lovingly florid prose, interesting politics, magic, and AHEM some very, very prominent hanky-panky. One of my favorites, though if explicit sex is not in your wheelhouse, it can be very overwhelming. That said, it pretty much convinced me to abandon my sex-negative ways, and it has a very refreshing view of the material world as beautiful and sacred. Kushiel's Dart is book 1.

Robin Hobb was previously mentioned, I second it all.

A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland was a recent one. Set in an odd portmanteau of a bureaucratic East Europe-esque land, and a world of overflowing magic, it features a wandering storyteller, his apprentice, and their attempts to get him out of jail, deal with the deteriorating political and economic situation, and explore the true significance of stories.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is an intimate, fun exploration of a young person suddenly becoming Emperor and then having to navigate the pitfalls of an Imperial court in the full flower of its byzantine complexity.

Jo Walton is an excellent writer who most often does either Renaissance era or present day fantasy. She is very philosophical, with a Welsh/English wry touch, but a happy, kind manner all the same. Her books range from a trilogy about Athena going back in time and stealing people from the future to create Plato's Republic (even the gods err, I suppose) to a small-scale book about growing up in fairy-inhabited modern Wales, to a book about how characters come alive in the writer's mind. Oh, and how could I forget; a book about Savonarola with a wonderful, teeth-clenching twist!




Hmm, I honestly thought I could come up with more off the top of my head. The 2010s have been an odd decade for fantasy, that is for sure. Starting around 2017, I really began to notice and recoil from the new, mainstream-heralded but putridly woke crapola. Well, I'll keep thinking and looking through my collection, and if I think of any more I'll let you know!

-Derpherder

Re: Fantasy, my favorite thing in the world despite its current woke boringness

[ecosophia]

I'll pass on the Kushiel novels, because the whole BDSM thing leaves me cold. The others? I'll check 'em out. Many thanks.

Re: Fantasy, my favorite thing in the world despite its current woke boringness

[(Anonymous)]

For what it's worth, I really enjoyed _The Goblin Emperor_ and have reread it several times.

--David BTL