Incanus
Auror
I like Elric OK. But the poor quality of writing throughout makes me a little less inclined to pay too much attention to Moorcock. The term Sword and Sorcery was coined by Fritz Leiber for the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tales. These run circles around Elric, leaving Moorcock in the dust in my estimation.
But yeah, balance is the thing. World building miminalism certainly has one thing going for it: less work involved. For myself, I respond to fantasy that shows that a lot of work went into it--the flimsy or breezy varieties are sometimes OK here and there, but the heavy stuff almost always wins out.
I really like Saigonnus' "racecar driver in a pinto" analogy. Gotta remember that one. I think that's how I responded to Joe Abercrombie--The Blade Itself had two or three really interesting characters (as well as two or three totally uninteresting ones), the plot was mediocre, and the world... barely anything at all, almost non-existent: the racecar driver was on a skateboard. Being a slow reader, I'm unlikley to read anymore based on that alone.
But yeah, balance is the thing. World building miminalism certainly has one thing going for it: less work involved. For myself, I respond to fantasy that shows that a lot of work went into it--the flimsy or breezy varieties are sometimes OK here and there, but the heavy stuff almost always wins out.
I really like Saigonnus' "racecar driver in a pinto" analogy. Gotta remember that one. I think that's how I responded to Joe Abercrombie--The Blade Itself had two or three really interesting characters (as well as two or three totally uninteresting ones), the plot was mediocre, and the world... barely anything at all, almost non-existent: the racecar driver was on a skateboard. Being a slow reader, I'm unlikley to read anymore based on that alone.