Fantasy Fiction for Beginners: No Elves Please
I'd like to recommend some Fantasy and Science Fiction titles for those who’ve never read in the genre but might like to dabble a little – after all, in this post- “Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings” era of endless film versions of graphic novels, boy wizards and vampire hotties, Fantasy and Science Fiction are more mainstream than ever before. Don’t be misled by the endless covers with sword-wielding knights and magical ladies in flowing gowns – there’s lots of elf-free material to choose from!
All those dukes and damsels come from a propensity in Fantasy writers to look to “Earth history” for source material. In fact, the medieval trope became so pervasive that Ursula K LeGuin wrote a ‘how to’ for aspiring writers called From Elfland to Poughkeepsie, offering advice that mostly boils down to: If Tolkein did it, it’s been done, find something fresh to say.
There are, however, true masters of this kind of Fantasy fiction. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s best-selling Mists of Avalon, a re-telling of the Arthurian legend through the eyes of the tale’s women, is probably the most famous example. But my personal favourite is David Gemmell’s Troy series: Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow, Troy: Shield of Thunder and Troy: Fall of Kings.
I tend to approach any retelling of Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey with great trepidation. Being a true Fantasy geek, I grew up reading everything I could about the Trojan War and Greek mythology, spending many a lazy afternoon fighting mighty battles with the great heroes of the Bronze Age. As a result, I know enough about the actual history of the era to know when someone’s just making stuff up, and I can vouch for this: Gemmell’s done his research. Indeed, as a testament to his obsessive need for absolute historical accuracy, when Gemmell died prematurely in 2006, leaving book 3 of the Troy trilogy unfinished, his wife and research assistant Stella was able to use his notes to finish Troy: Fall of Kings (much to the relief of Gemmell’s heartbroken fans). The result is a slightly wobbly opening to book 3, but truly one of the most satisfying endings I’ve read.
David Gemmell works from the premise that all myth has some basis in fact, and so takes the facts of the Trojan War and builds them into a near-perfect example of Heroic Fantasy fiction. All of the key players are present (Odysseus and Andromache are my personal favourites), all set accurately in their history of trade disputes and ruthless ambition, all brought vividly to life. The mythological elements are here too, brilliantly elaborated: the Trojan Horse in Gemmell’s telling is the Trojan cavalry, and the twist of that tale makes this re-imagining of the famous artefact immensely satisfying (and surprising, which I didn’t think was possible).
Gemmell is a wonderful writer – his prose has a crisp simplicity to it – but for me it’s the character development that truly makes these books compelling. Heroes, in Gemmell’s world, rarely sleep easily: it is not possible to be a great warrior and an effective ruler without also being ruthless, often murderous, and frequently dishonourable. Gemmell’s heroes try, and try again to do right and be just but circumstances and fate (and history) demand hard decisions. Never do any of these characters take those decisions lightly. Gemmell navigates these inner struggles with a sure hand, keeping the reader fully engaged with sympathetic and very human characters without falling into the ‘dark and broody’ tone that seems to dominate this sort of storytelling.
Now, for ‘beginner’ Fantasy readers: but for the fact that Gemmell is a Fantasy writer, I’d be hard pressed to call the Troy trilogy Fantasy fiction. The majority of Gemmell’s work is true Fantasy fiction set in ‘otherworlds,’ so the Troy series was marketed (and shelved) with the rest of his titles; but the actual Fantasy elements in these particular books are slight. I’d say Troy is more in keeping with the Historical fiction traditions, exemplified by writers like Pat O’Brien or Pauline Gedge. Try these books out, and if you find, as I did, that you really enjoy David Gemmell’s writing, his other works are just as fun, well-written and although he sets his stories in Fantastical worlds, they are built just as compellingly on the foundations of historical research and an understanding of the human heart.
Review courtesy of Jackie, TPL staff.
One thought on “Fantasy Fiction for Beginners: No Elves Please”
Great list! Definitely what I was searching for when I googled “No Elves Please” lol! My one critique–it’s impossible to call an afternoon of reading “lazy” these days as only 1 out of 10 people read now; you were being more productive than most of us 😉