OT: good fantasy books

[djo]

Mr_Matt said:
Out of curiosity what do you look for in a fantasy? I find it impossible to find a good original fantasy these days. Everything is Orcs, Elves and wizards(BORING). Dominions is like the only fantasy game without those and I absolutely praise it because of that. Although, it has dwarves... grr

Writing is tough (I've tried). Good luck with that.

What do I look for? Tough to answer, because it's tough to generalize about writing. No sooner do you swear off adolescent coming-of-age fantasies with magic and swords than Gene Wolfe writes The Wizard Knight and you have to take it all back and admit there's something left in the subgenre.

So I'll answer twice but maybe it's the same answer, twice. First, it shouldn't be derivative. It should be its own thing. Erikson's massive Malazan series isn't like anything that came before it, not really. Brust writes about elves, but they ain't Tokein's, or D&D's, or anyone else's. And when you pick up China Mieville, you probably haven't seen anything like it, ever. So, for fantasy, originality is key. (I mean, look at Patricia McKillip. Every darn book, she uses wizards, elves, dragons, forests, castles, and somehow she turns each one into a work of art, because she puts them together like no one else. Plus, her prose is absolutely beautiful.)

The other way to say that answer is to paraphrase a quote from Wolfe as related by Brust (I can't find the reference): the key to writing is to show the reader something cool, over and over. Skip the parts that aren't cool.

OK, and a third, less philosophical answer: as I get older, I find that characterization matters more and more. Doesn't have to be "realistic", just richely detailed, interesting, and believable within the story.