When people ask me what kind of book I wrote/am currently writing, I tell them, “it’s a fantasy novel.” And many of them go, “oh! that’s very interesting!” I admit, it isn’t an everyday occurrence that you know someone writing fantasy. There’s so many genres of fiction out there, not to mention non-fiction books, that there aren’t that many fantasy writers in most neighbourhoods.
Even then, within fantasy alone, there’s a lot of different types. So when I say I’m writing fantasy, I’m sure some people immediately think of a geeky guy with glasses, a magic wand, and a hot female classmate. Others will imagine stuff involving huge dragons and ice zombies. A few might think wizards and warlocks, and there’s even sci-fi fantasy where magic meets technology. There’s just so much that it’s hard to describe exactly what my writing is about.
The easiest way, I suppose, is to think of it like a cross between Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia, and Game of Thrones.
Lord of the Rings because it set the foundation for the most commonly known fantasy “races”, namely humans, elves and dwarves, as well as those on the other side, like orcs and trolls. I decided to go with these, rather than inventing some new types of creatures, which would inevitably end up as just rip-offs of these types. “Oh, the so-and-so are just elven knockoffs,” someone would probably say. I was more interested in plot, so I decided to jump in straightaway using familiar archetypes and just get moving.
Narnia, because I love the general tone of the books, where there’s danger and mystery but always a hopeful and optimistic air about it all, that evil won’t triumph in the end, and the protagonists will grow and learn something by the end of their journey. I don’t quite have talking animals, but a lot of the themes in my book are inspired by the work of C.S. Lewis.
And finally, Game of Thrones, because I absolutely love the wit and humour of George R.R. Martin’s series. More importantly, magic plays a minimal role in it, unlike other books in which wizards and spells and runes and demonic creatures take centrestage. I like that GoT is really like a drama set in a fantasy realm, with petty family feuds and treacherous court officials, ruthless kings and brave knights. It’s like a compelling soap opera where key characters get killed off regularly, and once in a while you get dragons. The rest of the time, it’s humans and their very relatable flaws, weaknesses, aspirations and moments of heroism. Great stuff.
I do admit, I’m a little bit of a lazy reader, and I haven’t gone through some of the best fantasy work out there, such as David Eddings, Robert Jordan and the like. I like to sample a broad range of stuff, and I’m a huge history buff, so my shelves are actually stocked with way too many non-fiction books rather than the things I ought to read if I actually want to improve as a fantasy writer.
I will brag about something though, my wife and I got married with a Lord of the Rings themed wedding, so that hopefully gives us a bit of street cred!
