Fantasy

[Dan Hocker]

Dan and All,
I’m probably something of an anomaly here because I’m way more into Fantasy than Horror, though my favorite is when they are blended together.

You're not as much of an anomaly as you might think (whistles innocently)

[RJK1981]

Also enjoy Douglas Niles and Richard A Knaak. There are still others whose name escape my mind at the moment

[JJ Holden]

Oh, hell yes.


Steven Erikson
George RR Martin
Joe Abercrombie
Glen Cook

There are more, but these are the ones I've read recently, in fact I've just finished book 10 of the Malazan series (The Crippled God) and ~phew~ that was a long haul over a sprawling epic, and it was worth every minute I spent on it.

Erikson's characters are simply amazing. And not just the classic heroes like Anomander Rake, Trull Sengar and Ganoes Paran. What about Tehol Beddict? Kruppe? The undead female sea captain Shurq Elalle? And the Adjunct? Wow.

[jester05jk]

Tolkien
Feist
Jordan
R.A. Salvatore
S.P. Somtow

[peteOcha]

3 "no"... REALLY?!

[PaulB]

Absolutely and I am one of them. As a genre I find it difficult to stomach what gets called fantasy. Obviously the argument could be made that many of the horror stories I read could be called fantasy.

[srboone]

Absolutely and I am one of them. As a genre I find it difficult to stomach what gets called fantasy. Obviously the argument could be made that many of the horror stories I read could be called fantasy.

Right you are. China Mieville said in an interview that sci-fi, fantasy and horror are the same thing. Trying to separate them is fruitless. All three take irrational and illogical occurrences and situations and treat them rationally and logically. When you read his stuff, that idea makes a lot of sense.

[TerryE]

Right you are. China Mieville said in an interview that sci-fi, fantasy and horror are the same thing. Trying to separate them is fruitless. All three take irrational and illogical occurrences and situations and treat them rationally and logically. When you read his stuff, that idea makes a lot of sense.

Another example is most of Ray Bradbury's work. He's most often called a science fiction author, but most of his stuff is more space fantasy. There's little science to his fiction. I'd say Farenheit 451 is science fiction, and Something Wicked this Way Comes (and some early stories) is straight horror, but most everything else is fantastic with space or horror trappings. And I think that's wonderful.

[divemaster]

I must be the anomaly. I'm a big sci-fi and horror fan, and I enjoy a good story, but the "Fantasy" genre pretty much leaves me cold. And when I say sci-fi, I'm referring to the Golden Age--stories and novels written from the late '30s to about the mid-50s. Now when you go to the science fiction section of the bookstore, it is almost 80% fantasy I think. Dragons and swords and such. I'll pass.

However, as mentioned above, there are fantasitcal elements to much of what I do like. Huge fan of King's Dark Tower series, but much of that is because King writes so well and gives you such fleshed-out characters that the genre doesn't really matter.