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Reading and Writing

I want fantasy to make sense. I want it to seem logical despite all it's ridiculousness.

I don't care if it is a world where dragons wear a tutu, smoke pipe and talk french; as long as you make me believe that this could very well be true!


I paint and write stories at: TheGrimBook.com
 
Certainly I want interesting characters and interpersonal relationships and all that good stuff, but I don't need to read fantasy for that. I also like escapism, but as has already been said, any genre can be escapist.

For me, a good fantasy is one that not only has interesting characters, but also an interesting system of magic, or something like magic. There are plenty of examples of magic being put to use, all of which have some bearing on the plot or on characterization. I want the magic to have its limitations, not be some awesome power that can solve any problem. The magic system needs to be self-consistent throughout the story; not that the system has to be fully defined up front, but nothing introduced later on should blatantly and irrefutably contradict what was done earlier.

I particularly like it when the magic system is instrumental in the story's climax, but only if the way the magic is used at the end of the story has been demonstrated or hinted at in the story's beginning or middle. I don't want any old arbitrary use of the magic system to resolve the main conflict, but I do like to see the magic system used at the end of the story in a way that I didn't exactly expect. It's a tall order, and only those authors who truly understand their own magic systems are going to pull it off in the way that will give me the high that I crave from a good fantasy.
 
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KBA

Dreamer
I love some of the basics (rags to riches; being lost then finding home again but in a better way than home was before; getting from powerless to powerful etc.) all being deliciously wrapped in a fantasy world I'd yearn to visit.
 
I made it sound like escapism but in the fantasy world fiction is real, I really meant innovation.
 

artsyChica

Dreamer
We're all writers of one skill level or another and given that, I was curious as to what people expect of a fantasy story? For me I guess I expect to be presented with the impossible yet somehow have the story come to a familiar logical end. That might seem like an obvious expectation of fantasy but what I really mean is that I read (fantasy) to see boundaries pushed, but I still need some realistic anchor. I'd love to read an excellent mindless and totally fantastic book if anyone knows of an actual good one btw. Anyway I wondered if anyone would care to share, and even hoped so as a means of 'marketing' research.

As in any genre, for me the best reads are character-driven stories. If I can't come to care about the characters, then those are the books that tend to get thrown across the room in exasperation.

That being said, when it comes to fantasy, it's the combination of well-written characters with believable dilemmas and issues set in a world that keeps me intrigued and interested. Give me a fantastical world with believable magic, intriguing culture and characters to care about, and I'm there.
 
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