I have a guilty secret. A dirty secret.
It is a serious and irreparable character flaw, and while I have resigned myself to the nature of this defect, I am very careful about when, and with whom, I reveal this particular shortcoming.
This is because I have learned over time that this “weakness” of mine reduces me, in the eyes of most people, to an intellectual pygmy. A philistine.
I have weathered no small amount of contempt and disdain over the years thanks to this…appetite.
The dreadful truth laid bare? Here it is:
I like fantasy novels.
Yes, I know: the shame. The guilt. But I can’t help myself. It’s like kleptomania: compulsive and unstoppable.
The fact that 95 percent of novels penned under the banner of ‘fantasy’ are utter – utter - drivel does not deter me.
The fact that I have only managed to read the first book in the most famous fantasy trilogy ever published (its demon spawn line the bookshelves of airports and cheap bookstores everywhere), does not faze me. I continue, much to my own amazement and chagrin – and against my better judgement - to be seduced by the genre.
I think Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea was my downfall. I was 12 years old when I first read this novel, and was absolutely enthralled by it. I was spellbound by its dark atmospherics and enchanted with the tale of a world permeated with dangerous and unpredictable magic.
I have been searching for that thrill ever since.
With varying degrees of success, it has to be said. When it comes to fantasy, ‘disappointment’ is the word that most often springs to mind.
It was with some interest, then, that I came across a review on Salon about a newish fantasy writer named Steven Erikson, who, the reviewer alleged, was single-handedly re-energizing the genre.
Books are so cheap here in Canada that I thought nothing of whipping out and buying the first book in Erikson's epic series The Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Fantasy is one of the best forms of fiction - possibly because it is liberated from traditional structures and ideas. If you like fantasy, may I recommend Terry Pratchett to you. Excellent, trenchant, comic fantasy like nothing else
2 - Kirsten
Thanks for your recommendation Aaman. I have read some Terry Pratchett and like him a lot. If you like Pratchett, though, then Erikson will be a revelation to you. He is so far beyond and out of the stratosphere....
3 - Steve S
Fantasy has always been my weakness too. It was the Lord of the Rings that got me started when I was probably about 12 or 13.
I fell in love with the DragonLance Chronicles and then read about 2 dozen books based on the Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun and D&D game settings, but it got to be overkill, too much and I quit reading fantasy for years. I'll always love Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman collaborations though. Robert Jordan was good but after the second book in the Wheel of TIme, it got to be too long too.
This series sounds good, but 10 books at 1,000 pages each? That's like reading the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica series. Should any series be able to maintain readership that long, I would be amazed. Not even Stephen King could do that.
Angus Wells is probably my favorite writer, although he often gets slammed for being too cheesy/flowery/melodramatic. I don't see it though, his books are classics to me, top of the list.
I haven't had time to read fiction for about 10 years, if I am able to get back to it soon, I will probably give this a try based on your review.
4 - Bryce Eddings
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