Recently, I’ve been reading George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novel ‘A Game of Thrones’. It’s actually a really good book, but there’s something about it that sets it apart from other fantasy books that I have read. In fantasy series such as Eragon and the Lord of the Rings, the world is obviously distinguishable from our world in that it has elements such as Magic or otherworldly races. This reliance on unrealistic things is much less pronounced in A Game of Thrones, and in fact, everything so far that I’ve read has not relied on this kind of stuff. Sure, there’s been some mentions of Dragons, but apart from that, I can really imagine the events of the book happening a long time ago on Earth. In fact, the main plot of the story seems to generally be a political battle.
So today, I thought I would talk about what I think goes into making a good fantasy novel.
Characters
In a fantasy novel, I think characterization is really key. Obviously, the characters probably aren’t going to be exactly like a normal person these days, and I think it’s really important to establish that so that it is considered the norm in the story, and doesn’t come as a surprise to the reader when it comes into play. I think that A Game of Thrones actually does this really well, and all the characters and their key character traits are introduced very soon.
Plot
The great thing about writing fantasy stories is that they really allow your imagination to roam free when making a plot. However, I don’t think it’s a good idea to allow it to roam too far, or you may lose your grounding. The last thing you want is for you to lose track of reality as we know it and stretch your story to the limit where the reader can scarcely relate to the story. This happened to me when I first read Lord of The Rings, and I think that that’s a slight problem. The sheer number of races and complex dynamics of each of the races are easy to lose track of. The climax should also not seem to tacky, for example having the protagonist suddenly realize he has an incredible power. That cliché is overused, and it really irritates me.
Themes
Most of the fantasy series I’ve read embody the primal conflict between good and evil, love and hate, or something of the sort. While fantasy is a really good medium for exploring this theme, I think it might be interesting to do something else. You could, for example, write about two tribes/civilizations which develop in very different ways and somehow interrelate the two. It would also be interesting to make a fantasy which doesn’t have any magic, or new races, but is just about a new civilization of humans and their development. The great thing about fantasy is that it is a beast which can be tamed in any way you see fit and used for any purpose.
Conclusion
You should know that fantasy isn’t my favorite genre of books. I like it, sure, but I prefer things like mystery or thriller. My reason for this is very simple. Of the fantasy books I’ve read, they are at their core very similar stories. In a sense, they all inspire each other and so sometimes it seems like if you’ve read one of them, you’ve read all of them. That’s why it was such a joy to read A Game of Thrones. The style of fantasy is so different to anything I’ve come across, and this makes for a really interesting read.
Until next time 🙂
Abzonnian Ramblings 