Fantasy Books

Just the other day at lb square, while I was eating, I discovered who died in the latest book of harry potter. Well, the girl was at the food counter, and she was talking to her friends who were sitting at the table 15 feet away (we were actually closer to the talking girl than her companions), so I was not really ‘eavesdropping’ on their conversation. Not that I really care about who died, I was just curious to see who, probably so I could could spoil the surprise to whoever reads the book. I wasn’t that affected you see, but if I were a fan, I think I’d get mad – a close comparison would be beginning the book Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin, when somebody suddenly tells me that **** died (it actually took me 10 minutes to decide not to reveal the guy’s name).

I like fantasy books. Not harry potter though. It just plain sucks. I once had book 1 in my hands, then immediately got turned off. Must be the large children book print. Or the children book sentence structures. I don’t really know. All I know is that the books suck. Too childish, too fantastic. You see, I have a preconceived idea of fantasy setting which I don’t like to deviate from. My first encounter with fantasy worlds was probably back in grade 5 or 6, when a neighbor gave me a rule book for a D&D game. It was really just a supplement, and I couldn’t even understand half of what was being said. I didn’t even have RPG dice back then so I couldn’t even play the game. But the game came with miniatures, instructions to make paper huts, paper walls, had drawings of dragons, elves, ogres, and other fantastic creatures – I enjoyed the game kit so much, even though I never really got to properly play it according to the rules.

High school and video games also introduced me more to the world of D&D back in high school, but the first ‘real’ fantasy book I read was a dragonlance book lent to me in 2^nd year high school – and I immediately loved it. The book was just a collection of short stories set in a fantasy world – and if not for a 30 min introduction by my friend on the pecularities of that world (what creatures lived there, how magic worked, who the gods were, etc), I’d have been quite lost. Even now, I still read dragonlance and forgotten realms (similar to dragonlance, different world, but same ideas, same publisher, same pool of authors) books – these are both good book series, with lots of different stories from different authors.

Now those are what I call ‘proper’ fantasy worlds. Most of the ideas in those books came from Tolkien’s LOTR – actually when I read the LOTR series, I realized what rip-offs my favorite book series were. Here are some of my accepted ideas of a proper fantasy world.

• Dwarves are short, stocky, bearded, gruff warriors about 3’6” to 4’6” in height – usually carrying a battleaxe and drinking ale. I don’t like them to be small colorful cheerful creatures with pointed ears, are only up to your knees and live in burrows the size of anthills (think dwende).
• Elves are slim, slender, and graceful with pointy ears about 5 feet in height – usually carrying a bow and living in the forest. What the hell kind of elf is Dobie? He’s ugly, stupid, and looks (and probably smells) like an old shoe. If I wanted an elf in my house, it’d be a beautiful and slim elven princess who I’d require to wear see-through silk gowns (someone prettier than arwen though).

I also don’t like it when elves have facial hair. I recall another fantasy series by Terry Brooks which is an even more direct and blatant ripoff of the LOTR series (you know, the epic quest, the powerful bauble, the old and wise guardian, being chased by monsters of the night, blah blah blah) – at least the dragonlance and forgotten realms books have their own stories – Terry Brooks must have patterned his first book on Tolkien’s work. Either that, or it was just a coincidence.

Anyway, one book in the series had a cover of the main character in a bridge with another major character. The other character was bearded so I just assumed him to be just another typical human warrior. Only when I was reading the book did I realize that the bearded fellow was an elf! What a turn-off. Then I realized that in the book there was no reference of an elf scratching his moustache or beard, so well, what the hell.

I guess you can imagine why I don’t like harry potter, aside from its being too childish.

Of course I still read other fantasy books – in fact, I’m usually open to other fantasy book series. One other series I’ve truly enjoyed was A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. IT’S A MUST-READ! Really. I can’t recall another series written so well and uniquely. Truly enjoyable. Unfortunately, the only copies I’ve ever laid eyes on were the copies lent to me by a friend. But, if I ever see those books on sale, I’d grab them. The book I mentioned above, Storm of Swords, belongs to this series.

Another fantasy series (probably the only fantasy series not introduced to me by a friend) was the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. I recall when I bought the book – I was looking for dragonlance and forgotten realms books as usual, and finding none, went around, when I saw Book 1 of the series. I thought, what the hell, as long as I get something to read. I picked them up and what do you know? It was quite good. However, the Book 1 I got was actually 2 books – some dolt decided to create ‘young adult’ versions (with larger print) of books in the series – probably because these ‘young adults’ has short attention spans and couldn’t handle the ‘mature adult’ versions with 600+ pages. I see the logic here. Some may find that reading 600+ pages would be like a chore, so publishers decided to sell these guys the same content, but IN TWO PARTS – each an easy to finish 300 pages each.

Wheel of Time books are really that long. One even has over 1000 pages! Each book is quite thick too, all of the books in the series are more than two inches thick. And there are ten books already (not including the prequel) – each picking up where the previous book left off so you have to read all the books in order. And Jordan is still creating several more. Talk about epic. But the books are damn good. I’ve lost sleep reading many of these books. Some problems though:

• Too many characters. Jordan provides a glossary/list of characters at the end of each book, but this just isn’t enough. I once found myself in a situation where I came across a name I could recall, but just couldn’t remember who that person was or what his place in the story was. Then I tried to scan the previous book – but had to quit because it’s too hard to find a name in a book of 800 pages. So I just continued reading on hoping that some reference on who that guy was supposed to be came up.
• Too many things happening. I’ve read the 10^th book months ago. I can’t recall more than half of what happened in those 10 books.
• Too hard to read again. I once tried to start reading again book 5 which I really liked – but there were too many references to events/people from book 4. And hell if I’d have to start reading again book 4 – it would just mean I’d have to read 3 then 2 then 1. Of course, I do want to read the whole series again from books 1 to 10 – but I don’t want to go through the same long experience again.

Don’t get me wrong though. Robert Jordan is a terrific writer. He does. However, have a tendency to compress all the action in the last hundred pages or so. Usually, the first 700 pages would be slow, even dragging at times, but would be essential to building up the story. Then the pace would quicken – sometimes so much the excitement really does build up then suddenly the book ends, and you end a 800 page volume wishing it were longer. Talk about cliffhangers. Every time I finished a book, I’d immediately start the prologue of the next one. But one really does get immersed in the books. I recall almost shouting in excitement at the ending of Book 6. Ask anyone who read the series, chances are they know what I’m talking about.

I’ve also read other fantasy series, one which was also good, but whose title I’ve forgot – just that it had a Kahlan something as a main character. I don’t read Magic the Gathering books though. A habit I still have when going to book stores is looking for dragonlance books even if I have no intention of buying as they are too expensive – but in second hand bookstores, I’d immediately grab them. Not all dragonlance books are good though, I just love the series enough. Two of the last dragonlance books I have were bought second-hand only recently. One sucked – I’ve finished it and I didn’t lose any sleep over it (one of my criteria for judging how good a book is: would I rather sleep or continue reading the book?). The other also sucked. I’ve bookmarked page 20, and it’s been there for over a month now – what a waste of a good bookmark.

Another passion I also have (when it comes to reading materials) is nonfiction. History, especially, would you believe?

But that’s for another post.