Day 10: Fantasy Novels

[mousme]

It's June 10th, and I have a few minutes before I have to go to work here in Moncton, where I am replacing the operators who normally work here so they can attend the funeral of our fallen officers and get some much-needed time off to recover from last week.

hells_half_acre has asked me to talk about fantasy novels I have enjoyed, and I am almost at a loss where to start. While my reading habits have taken a major hit in the last few years, before that I used to read a lot. Like, hundreds of books a year. At my peak I was reading three to five books a week. I'm also a big fan of genre fiction, with a particular penchant for sci fi, fantasy, and mystery series. So to say that I have read a fair bit of good fantasy in my day would be putting it mildly.

I suppose I shall start by pimping out my friend's YA urban fantasy novel Trial By Fire. I believe the ebook is currently available for free on Amazon, and the sequel just got released this month. Even when they're not free, they are very reasonably priced. I have read the first book and tremendously enjoyed the story of Jade, who spontaneously starts setting things on fire with her mind, and the trouble that ensues when she discovers the previously unknown-to-her world of magic users. It's a classic story of self-discovery told with some interesting new twists and interpretations, and so I encourage anyone who has an interest in that genre to give it a try.

Okay, on to other books I have enjoyed. I think I shall stick with series, since once I find an author I like I tend to stick with their books until I've exhausted them all.

Just before she and forthright moved to Toronto, curtana gave me all her books by Katharine Kerr in the Deverry series, and I think I read them all within about five days (there were about 14 books in the series at the time). Now, most of you probably already know that I am a sucker for redemption plotlines, and this series is basically 20-odd books of all the characters making up—literally—for mistakes made in past lives.

The fantasy itself is fairly standard Celtic-based stuff, with magic that feels very reminiscent of old-school D&D and lots of warriors and priests and knights and castles and dwarves. What's interesting about it is not the mechanics of the settings, but the notion of Fate (or Wyrd, as the author calls it), and the idea that not only are souls reincarnated from one life to the next, but that people's actions in life have consequences that can stretch into their future lives, inextricably linking their souls with other people's souls.

The other aspect I particularly liked was that, as the series went on, it began feeling less and less like an all-white, Tolkien-esque cast. Don't get me wrong, I love Tolkien with much love, but we all know he was pretty racist and his books were not really all about diversity and including other cultures. :P The Deverry novels, as time went on, began introducing other people and other cultures from lands that are decidedly Not White, and developed those cultures in really interesting ways. Kerr introduces Elves early on in her work, but contrary to Tolkien's Elves, they are a nomadic folk who live on the plains and breed horses. They have a long, complex history, including a time when they did live in majestic cities and have a culture closer to one which Tolkien might have approved of, but History Happened, and it's been over a thousand years or more since then.

In short, Kerr obviously devoted a lot of time and effort into developing the history of her world, as well as creating complex and varied characters, each with their own motivations and feelings and to whom I couldn't help but become attached. The novels span hundreds of years, usually alternating between a current timeline and a "flashback" timeline to the past life of one of the main characters, and Kerr weaves her narratives together seamlessly.

So if you are a fan of reincarnation stories, Celtic myth, and solid world building, these are the books for you.

I can't write a post about fantasy without mentioning The Dresden Files. Jim Butcher has created the kind of character I love to bits in Harry Dresden, in books that can basically be summed up as "Raymond Chandler Decides To Write Supernatural Mysteries." The tone is that of noir detective fiction, but there are vampires and werewolves and magic and monsters!

Or, as Harry himself puts it: "Paranoid? Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face."

Jim Butcher has been honing his craft for over a decade now, and it shows in his writing. His early novels especially feel like, well, a D&D campaign put into book form, but they are so much fun that I can't really hold it against him. He also does something which is guaranteed to rev my engine, and that's to beat his main character to an absolute pulp on a regular basis. What can I say? I like my heroes best when they're on the floor and bleeding, and then pick themselves up and carry on.

Butcher also has a fantastic supporting cast of characters. Yes, his main character is a white dude, but the secondary characters are just as important and are interesting, diverse, and incredibly engaging. They also all get put through the wringer, though that's mostly because it helps to further our hero's angst-fest a lot of the time. ;)

I have not caught up with the series, so I'm not sure what's happening these days, but I am pretty sure that things will get worse before they get better for Harry. That's kind of how he rolls.


Another fantasy series I read many years ago and which I plan on re-reading soon is the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanyenko. The premise is a familiar one, in which Others (magic users, supernatural creatures, etc.) must pick their allegiance to the Dark or the Light side of magic. Again, though, it's in the details that the magic really happens in these books.

I suppose the seduction of these books for me lay in the setting. It's rare, as a North American, that I get to read anything so fully steeped in Eastern European culture, in this case Russian culture in particular. My mother, as you probably know, is Romanian, but we have a lot of Russian in our family, and so there is a distinct feeling of nostalgia and belonging for me when I read these books. The atmosphere is just… so Russian, for lack of a better way to describe it.

I particularly liked Anton Gorodetsky, the hapless protagonist of the piece, who starts out as not much more than a slightly dissatisfied public servant who also happens to have a little bit of magical skill. Not enough to distinguish himself, but more than enough to make him have to work for his keep. So he works for the Night Watch, who are on the side of the Light. They work the night shift, since that's when the Dark side are awake and operating, and they keep an eye on the Dark to make sure they don't get up to too many shenanigans. So what he does is basically what I do, except with the supernatural involved, and far fewer phone calls. ;) In essence, I found it immensely gratifying to watch him evolve from a nobody into a magician who could hold his own and who went from resigned apathy to actively seeking out alternative ways to keep the world from ending.

The appeal also lay in the notion that the Light and the Dark side were opposite sides of the same coin, and that they mostly work together (and sort of against each other) in order to preserve balance. If one side gains too much strength too quickly, it throws the whole universe out of whack, and so both sides are invested in keeping each other in check.

Last but not least, I feel I should talk about the Téméraire series by Naomi Novik. It combines several of my favourite things: historical fantasy, the Napoleonic wars, gentlemen being gentlemen, gentlemen being soldiers, and dragons.

Seriously, what's not to love? The basic premise of the novels is: how would the Napoleonic wars have turned out if dragons had existed in the world?

Also, these novels are the best love story between a man and his dragon I have ever read. Of course, I haven't read that many of them, but my point still stands. The very real affection that lies between Téméraire the dragon and Captain Will Lawrence, the man who saved him when he was an egg and raised him as his own, sacrificing his own career as a naval officer in the process, is quite possibly the most touching thing I have ever read. Their very real pain and grief when they're separated is heartbreaking, and when they are reunited it's always joyful.

Novik has done a lot of work on her world building, too, which doesn't hurt. She knows her history inside and out, and her affection for her characters is palpable. Now, I've been a fan of Bernard Cornwell's historical novels since I was a teenager, and her writing style is very reminiscent of his, though considerably less, uh, flourish-y than he tends to get when describing battles.

So there you have it in a nutshell: all the things that really make me love a good fantasy, which are essentially all the things that make me love books in general. Good world building, solid writing, characters to whom I can relate, and themes of friendship and self-discovery and redemption.

And on that note, it's time for me to go to work. See you on the flip side, LJ!

Comments

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Thank YOU for the great prompt!