Fantasy buff Lee Braff is the editor of Heartland Boating and also one of my longtime writing buddies. She sent me the following after checking out my article, “Navigating the Fantastic: Rules for Writing Fantasy,” and gave me permission to put it up here as a guest post.
From Lee Braff:
What a great article on a Web site I knew nothing about! Great going!
But you left out Sociological Fantasy, or maybe Satirical Fantasy, the pre-eminent practitioner of which is Terry Pratchett’s ( Sir Terence David John Pratchett, I find) DiscWorld series.
It began more than 20 years ago as humorous fantasy and has evolved and evolved until really, it’s our world. Sort of. The primary character is now Sam Vimes, who’s a watchman (policeman) of the New York/London/Tokyo city, Ankh-Morpork. (Ankh’s on one side of the river, Morpork’s on the other). Some of the funniest books are about the changes in the Watch—trolls joining, for example, or dwarfs, or Yoiks! female dwarfs.
It is, of course, deeply deeply British, which is probably why I love it so much.
Just now I Googled Terry, which I haven’t done in a while, and to my horror, discovered that he’s been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.
Anyway, just read him, OK? “Pyramids” is a good one to start with, or “Equal Rites.” One’s about Egypt and physics, and the other is about witches.
All bests, Lee
Sue’s Response (edited slightly so it makes sense to the world at large):
I didn’t consider Satirical Fantasy as a separate subgenre from Comic Fantasy.
I know Pratchett’s name but haven’t read him. I wonder if my husband reads him — if so, we have some of Pratchett’s work around here. But that would also explain why I haven’t read him. I prefer fantasy to science fiction and my husband loves science fiction so I would assume if he is reading a book it must be science fiction.
Both of the books you recommended are available as audio books from the library so I’ve put in a request. Neither one is actually in at the moment so I take that as a most excellent sign!
Thanks for taking the time to tell me about a great author.
–SueBE
