3rd August 2004, 7:55 AM
GR, I agree with you completely on how I think of fantasy and sci-fi. I can rationalize what others think about it and why htey do, but what you said is the way I always divide the two up in my head.
DJ, I know exactly what you mean. I hate when authors blow the entire story by explaining what just happened or what is going to happen next. I've noticed Tolkien will stop in the middle of telling the story, explain what is about to happen and how it all resolves, and then goes on for the next 50 pages giving you all the details of everything. It makes me so frustrated! Somebody should have told Tolkien about spoiler tags.
bountyhunter, thanks for the info. I'll check those out. I was real skeptical about anything not written by Robert Jordan for a long time because I had read other fantasy stuff that just didn't come close and I assumed that was the different between the best and the rest. Then I read Tolkien and decided he was okay too ;), and since then I've been gradually branching out. After reading Ender's Game, I am very willing to try new authors.
Quote: If they want to convey things like that, the direct approach is just plain bad to me. Tell about these effects via the CHARACTERS, and SUBTLY is the key! For example, instead of saying "Thus Loxi'mar, having caste the legendarian spell of Lighterra, slowly seeped into madness", just show the guy acting weirder and weirder. And, instead of explaining what happened later on in retrospect, either via narritive or a bunch of characters convienently stating the obvious, just make it clear via good storytelling what happened so it doesn't NEED explaining.
DJ, I know exactly what you mean. I hate when authors blow the entire story by explaining what just happened or what is going to happen next. I've noticed Tolkien will stop in the middle of telling the story, explain what is about to happen and how it all resolves, and then goes on for the next 50 pages giving you all the details of everything. It makes me so frustrated! Somebody should have told Tolkien about spoiler tags.
bountyhunter, thanks for the info. I'll check those out. I was real skeptical about anything not written by Robert Jordan for a long time because I had read other fantasy stuff that just didn't come close and I assumed that was the different between the best and the rest. Then I read Tolkien and decided he was okay too ;), and since then I've been gradually branching out. After reading Ender's Game, I am very willing to try new authors.