Is there a dickens of Fantasy?

[Garren Jacobsen]

I have always wondered wha the title asks. Is there a Charles Dickens of fantasy? To put it in other words, someone who uses fantasy to reflect real world human ills and conditions? In many of the popular writings I can see elemets of it, as found in RJs Wheel of Time and the obvisous relation to politics in the real world and Daes Dae'Mar in the WoT world. Yet there never seems to be a fantasy novel that can do what other authors did.

My other follow-up question to this is can fantasy do what dickens did with his gritty realism?

Now I realize of course that Dickens and others like them are a rare breed. However I wonder if there are fantasy novelists that can do what they did. Influence society by use of symbols, motifs, and other such literary devices.

 

[Map the Dragon]

By asking this question, do you mean...is there someone practicing in the art of fantasy who can write sentences that last pages, who can describe the wizard's oak desk over the course of a chapter, or who gets paid by the word, thus is willing to serialize to realize a better payday?

In trying to answer your questions honestly, though, I can't think of a fantasy author who delves into the condition of the human condition as much as a Dickens-type. Ann Rand comes to mind, but she's more of a distopian author than anything else. Then there is Huxley and his works like Brave New World, but that is also something of a distopian sci-fi piece. Both of these authors are considered literary masters and get studied at the middle school-college level.

I think it might be easier to find the Dickens of Sci-Fi in greats like Phillip K. Dick or others who explored what it meant to be human.

In terms of normal fantasy as a genre, dare I say JK Rowling? I know her prose doesn't reach the exulted heights of diction, syntax, and structure, but she (moreso than others) explores the vast array of human suffering and other emotional traits that serve to make us human.

 

[fcbkid15]

I would say Tolkien. I mean the original LoTR books dove into such great detail about things it was, well, detailed. He would go on for a chapter explaining the history of a mountain The Fellowship visited. I don't think he dealt with human ills and conditions, someone else would have to answer that if he did.

 

[Dante Sawyer]

Tolkien wrote to escape from the human condition. Things that he witnessed while in war (shooting German teenagers his own age) made him question if there really was a "good" or "evil" side to the world. He saw those he killed as being no different than him, save for being on the other side of the conflict. He wrote LotR to establish true "good"s and "evil"s, leaving no room for grey area. It was somewhat of a tool he used to deal with PTSD. I actually learned all this from my AP Psych teacher. She was really into LotR and we did a unit on PTSD and Return of the King was a film we watched.

 

[fcbkid15]

Okay, so I was wrong. But what is PTSD?

 

[Dante Sawyer]

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

 

[Leuco]

When I received my first pink slip sometime near the beginning of the Great Recession, I started writing. Now that it's published, I think it's a very apt reflection of what our country has been going through the last couple of years. It's a story of a kingdom divided into two, broken by secrets and sin; heroes torn between their obligations and their desires; and a new generation forced to cope with the mistakes of the old.

Before the king's death, they helped establish a fellowship of peace-- now they threaten to tear it apart. They are the Guardians of Valinon.

Through conspiracy and religious rhetoric, Canidae rose from the ranks to become the savior of Valinon's desolate masses. Exploiting their fear and frustrations, he wages a bloody crusade to destroy everything the Guardians have fought to build and replace it with the shadow of his own ambitions.

Ursidor was once the king's most loyal friend, but after his scandalous affair with the queen becomes exposed, he is forced into exile from Valinon. Now, resurrected as king of the neighboring alpine region of Veredon, he rules his people as a cold, iron-fisted tyrant trying desperately to defend his kingdom from the invasion of both man and monster.

Leuco is a former Guardian-turned-outlaw still trying to escape form his dark, mysterious past. He is driven by his quest for redemption and the burden of protecting his people. When the old fellowship threatens the realm with civil war, he finds himself thrust into a violent struggle against his former allies who now want him, and those he cares for, dead.

Also caught between the opposing forces are Leuco's idealistic protege Bo, a young reformed pickpocket aspiring to follow in his mentor's footsteps; Ruse, the brooding prince of Veredon burdened by the sins of his father; Nephia, the orphaned princess of Valinon turned devil-may-care adventurer bent on reclaiming her throne; and Maria, the forest's outcast half-elf guardian and reluctant protector of her human kin. Together, their united strength will help quell the burning firestorm of the past and shape the future of their shattered realm.

Nearly every character in the book is a representation, an archetype, if you will, of some form of ideology: radical right and radical left-- except, of course, for the protagonist who is being torn between the two. At its core, The Guardians of Valinon is an existential allegory for the ideological extremes that currently threaten to tear our nation apart-- a fantasy-based depiction of what you'd find in the news on any given day.

There's a lot more to it, and I'd love to talk more about it, but maybe you should just check out the sample pages online, and see if it's worth your while.

If you read all that, thanks!

 

[Joe the Gnarled]

Leuco, I have to ask: To which country are you referring? We have members from many different countries, and I think most would say your summary describes their own country.

I am however intrigued by your book. I may have to check it out when I get home.

 

[Leuco]

Sorry all! I guess that was rather ethnocentric. I didn't mean to sound like the stereotypical American tourist.

If you PM me your email I'll be happy to send you a pdf.

 

[Joe the Gnarled]

Did not mean to call you out like that. My e-mail add is on the way.