6 thoughts on “Real Fantasy

  1. One issue I had with this essay is how cliched the author’s response is. Another gritty, neo-noir reimagining of genre fiction? How daring! I mean, it’s not like this sort of thing hasn’t been done before . . .Report

  2. Yes. I just read a review of the book (I’m about two chapters in) and he basically says just that: the author tries to do something new, but it’s too late – it’s been done. And when you strip away all the grit and sensationalism you’ve got little left. I may shift course and read something else. Orson Scott Card’s recommendations seemed very good at the Corner yesterday. Warbreaker looks like a good read.Report

  3. When someone asks, like Morgan, why on earth anyone would want to read “something like that,” I’m inclined to think he is probably missing something. Or a lot, in the case of Tolkien’s works. A good many of us adults actually enjoy “all the overwrought prose, the nauseous paeans to class-bound rural England, and the endless bloody elven singing.” Not to mention everything else Tolkien was doing with all the languages he invented. That said, I do play videogames, so my sense of what qualifies as “adult” may be suspect.Report

  4. I just finished The Steel Remains last week, and, eh. It was pretty good, I guess, but it certainly wasn’t something that made me think “if only Tolkien had written like THIS!” And it isn’t that dark. If he was going for dark, he’s still light-years (pun not intended, but not ignored) behind, say, Glen Cook’s Black Company books.

    I also had the same reaction as Kyle to the claim that no one “adult” would want to read Tolkien, because Mr. Morgan does not care for it. Which, ironically, is a comment I have seen my 6-year-old make: she cannot even conceive that someone would like to eat asparagus, merely because she doesn’t like it.Report

  5. Sort of off topic, but I’ve been re-watching Babylon 5 (which I hadn’t seen since its original run in my mid-90s late childhood), and one of the things I’ve noticed is that it’s very strongly influenced by Tolkien – but in all the best ways. (The space-opera setting probably helps though.)Report

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