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Mar. 27th, 2007 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkelf105Man, I had to send back The Crimson Sword today. I got fifty pages into it and just couldn't go on anymore. I picked up this book because I have had a hankering for swords and sorcery and dark lords and elves and magic items and such, except well, I can't do it anymore. It's not that these types of fantasies are badly written, because they're not, I read The Da Vinci Code and Eragon. But unlike The Da Vinci Code, which though written by a hack, had decent enough pacing and action and characters, these books are all the same. That's not necessarily bad, I am reading them because they are similar to what I have read before, but, my god, if you are going to imitate the others that have gone before, discard what they have done wrong.
The Crimson Sword was compared to Terry Brook's Shanara stuff. Okay, I could never finish a Terry Brooks novel, but there was a reason for that. It's not that Mr. Brooks is a bad writer, he's not, but he's also not particularly good either. But his writing is nothing special or fresh, so his stories had better be, right? But they're not. They take every fantasy cliché and trope ever...and add absolutely nothing fresh or new or unusual to them. And since his stuff is epic, the characters are nowhere near cool enough to sustain my attention through a 1000+ pages of fantasy series. If you are going to do epic, m'friend, make sure your story is so cool that people will keep reading despite a lackluster writing talent, or your characters are so awesome that they make up for it. See, that's the key. Good writers can get away with doing cliché and trope because they're writing, is, well, good. And apparently some one took the time to professionally edit their work. So-so writers, without a good editor, had better stand on how good their stories are, or else they will crash and burn....which is what happens in most fantasy novels. And I'm not saying that fantasy sucks, because people are reading and buying so these writers must be doing something right for some one, but I am pointing out that editing can save a story from internet wank.
Crimson Sword is a point in case. If this had been edited a little better, I might have been able to finish it and enjoy it, as it had potential. But because no one went, um well, lets see, in the first ten pages we introduce an awesome assassin...except said assassin doesn't think like an assassin or act like one......and then he kills a king that no one likes and no one guards and people are surprised and point at how exceptional the assassin must have been to get inside the castle....except before this point, the author spent fifteen pages going on and on about how no one guarded this king and it was a piece of cake to get into the castle...so, some one serious enough about assassinating this king would probably have known that, so why waste the money hiring the best assassin in the land, when it really only required the bribing of one of the king's own men to execute? Because I know, from what the author has previously implied, the big baddie has commissioned this assassination, but because of a few inconsistencies that could have been fixed with a little editing (and I mean minimal. Cut a few sentences here a few expository sentences there voila! Fixed) but because no one fixed it, all of the bad guys seem, less I dunno, competent. SO FIX THE INCONSISTENCIES. They king's palace was fiercely guarded, the assassin was cool and professional and didn't take time to play mind games with the guards that could have cost him his mission....and you still could have had the king not well liked and squandering money....
There's more. When we are first introduced to the main character.....Well lets do a fantasy I.Q. quiz
Was he:
A) white, young, brown haired, a woodsman who wasn't good with a bow and kinda likable in an All American way and human
B) an older skinny librarian who crochets is an elf and makes poisons
C) nut-brown, older, female, a grandmother and a town guard who also plays a mean hand of cards and is a centaur
D) black, gay and a veterinarian who like bows, too, and happens to be a gnome
If you guessed A, you are correct, and no, unfortunately, none of the other choices appear in this or any other fantasy novel I have read recently. And the thing is, all the other characters introduced after this, are either some variation on this theme, are female, which means they aren't a character, or a bad guy, which means that they're evil, and still not a character, despite have the interesting character trait of being evil.
And his first fight scene, against trained soldiers, he used a branch he picked up off the forest floor, against them....and kicks ass, not just barely escapes with his life which would have been the better scene......And I have seen this character before. He is the main character in: The Sword of Truth series, the Shanara books, The Wheel Of Time, countless Forgotten Realms novels, and pretty much every R.A. Salvatore book that was ever written with the exception of the Drizzt books.....and even when the main character is black, skinny and non-human, he still manages to make the same clichés and scenes that every other fantasy writer does. But I can read the Drizzt books because the characters, with the exception of poor Innovindil and Catti-brie, are really, really interesting. Mr. Salvatore just needs to hang out with some more women, and then his female characters would be good, too.
And this is what I mean. No one can give people talent, but with editing, mediocre writing, becomes readable and the stories aren't lost under boring clichés. I read fantasy to see things I have never seen before....but being an American, I fear change, so I am often attracted to books that are written in the same vein as other works I have enjoyed. But if they all keep repeating the same things, the good as well as the bad, I am bound to get cranky. Go ahead, write fantasy the way everyone else is, just....edit out the stuff that was bad, the stuff that's in every other goddamn fantasy ever. Think outside the box while inside the box. Instead of a young kid, let’s do an old man, instead of woodsman, let's make him a healer or vet, or better yet an older woman. But if that automatically makes you think that the main character can now be an older woman protagonist who is also a healer, you have missed the point of my rant, and I shall have to kick you shins. The older woman should be the woodsmen. I have never seen an older woman woodsman (er, person?) before. I have seen the Wise Old Healer Woman before. See? Change it up.
Crimson Sword is a point in case. If this had been edited a little better, I might have been able to finish it and enjoy it, as it had potential. But because no one went, um well, lets see, in the first ten pages we introduce an awesome assassin...except said assassin doesn't think like an assassin or act like one......and then he kills a king that no one likes and no one guards and people are surprised and point at how exceptional the assassin must have been to get inside the castle....except before this point, the author spent fifteen pages going on and on about how no one guarded this king and it was a piece of cake to get into the castle...so, some one serious enough about assassinating this king would probably have known that, so why waste the money hiring the best assassin in the land, when it really only required the bribing of one of the king's own men to execute? Because I know, from what the author has previously implied, the big baddie has commissioned this assassination, but because of a few inconsistencies that could have been fixed with a little editing (and I mean minimal. Cut a few sentences here a few expository sentences there voila! Fixed) but because no one fixed it, all of the bad guys seem, less I dunno, competent. SO FIX THE INCONSISTENCIES. They king's palace was fiercely guarded, the assassin was cool and professional and didn't take time to play mind games with the guards that could have cost him his mission....and you still could have had the king not well liked and squandering money....
There's more. When we are first introduced to the main character.....Well lets do a fantasy I.Q. quiz
Was he:
A) white, young, brown haired, a woodsman who wasn't good with a bow and kinda likable in an All American way and human
B) an older skinny librarian who crochets is an elf and makes poisons
C) nut-brown, older, female, a grandmother and a town guard who also plays a mean hand of cards and is a centaur
D) black, gay and a veterinarian who like bows, too, and happens to be a gnome
If you guessed A, you are correct, and no, unfortunately, none of the other choices appear in this or any other fantasy novel I have read recently. And the thing is, all the other characters introduced after this, are either some variation on this theme, are female, which means they aren't a character, or a bad guy, which means that they're evil, and still not a character, despite have the interesting character trait of being evil.
And his first fight scene, against trained soldiers, he used a branch he picked up off the forest floor, against them....and kicks ass, not just barely escapes with his life which would have been the better scene......And I have seen this character before. He is the main character in: The Sword of Truth series, the Shanara books, The Wheel Of Time, countless Forgotten Realms novels, and pretty much every R.A. Salvatore book that was ever written with the exception of the Drizzt books.....and even when the main character is black, skinny and non-human, he still manages to make the same clichés and scenes that every other fantasy writer does. But I can read the Drizzt books because the characters, with the exception of poor Innovindil and Catti-brie, are really, really interesting. Mr. Salvatore just needs to hang out with some more women, and then his female characters would be good, too.
And this is what I mean. No one can give people talent, but with editing, mediocre writing, becomes readable and the stories aren't lost under boring clichés. I read fantasy to see things I have never seen before....but being an American, I fear change, so I am often attracted to books that are written in the same vein as other works I have enjoyed. But if they all keep repeating the same things, the good as well as the bad, I am bound to get cranky. Go ahead, write fantasy the way everyone else is, just....edit out the stuff that was bad, the stuff that's in every other goddamn fantasy ever. Think outside the box while inside the box. Instead of a young kid, let’s do an old man, instead of woodsman, let's make him a healer or vet, or better yet an older woman. But if that automatically makes you think that the main character can now be an older woman protagonist who is also a healer, you have missed the point of my rant, and I shall have to kick you shins. The older woman should be the woodsmen. I have never seen an older woman woodsman (er, person?) before. I have seen the Wise Old Healer Woman before. See? Change it up.
So in summation: novel isn't just a book. It also means a new kind; different from anything seen or known before: a novel idea. So by definition, shouldn't a fantasy novel be the novel-est of all?
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