Day 161: My First Fantasy novel

Okay, for one, I am writing you from a PLANE!!! I am currently en route to Portland, OR for brew tour/grown up spring break. I’m not paying horrendous fees for the in-flight WiFi, but I am typing on a plane, which is a first.

Anyhoo, on Day 161, I finished my first ever fantasy novel!

I took the advice of the respondents to my first attempt at reading a fantasy book, and bought Neil Gaiman’s book, Neverwhere.

I can’t say that I loved it, mostly because I didn’t ever really engage with it. The whole “this is the world as we know it, and here’s a little story to show you how normal your world is and prep you for how fantastical this other world is” part was wonderful. I followed it perfectly. After launching into the “this is the new world full of awesomeness and terror and beauty and horror,” I just couldn’t keep tabs on the characters, the story line and the relationships.

I think this is partly due to the fact that I didn’t commit to reading the book for a long enough time to really get into the story before putting it down. The more I was able to read at one time, the more I got into it. If I only read one chapter, it was probably lost on me.

This helped me learn something about fantasy book readers. I’ve always known the fantasy-reading sort to be die-hard readers. Like, can sit down for hours and read, even in complete chaos, ever as absorbed in the first pages as in the middle pages. These kinds of readers are PERFECT for the fantasy genre because it does take a good amount of time and focus to really get a lot out of a fantasy book.

I fall into a different camp of readers. I read before bed, read when there’s nothing good on TV, read at Borders while having a coffee… sporadically, and in varying levels of commitment and distraction.
Another thing I learned had to do with the writers of fantasy book. I don’t blame them now for being so committed to trilogies and series. They come up with completely wild characters, worlds, rules that the worlds abide by, traits about people and places and animals, etc., that all must fit together and not contradict itself. Once they’ve created this world, it would almost be a shame to throw it all away on one book!

So those who end up reading fantasy books have learned about this particular world, have connected with its people and are committed readers, and the writers can continue to write in the world that these avid and committed readers love.

And while I can’t say I loooooved the book or anything, I am proud of myself for stepping out of my genre for a minute.

And now I’m on to The Light in August.

Go canon, go!

Day 151: Fantasy Revival

So a while back, I started reading a fantasy book, which I promptly put down due to much internal mocking and gave to Borders. Well kids, after a long hiatus, I finally bought a new fantasy book. The general consensus on the post comments for my fantasy reading challenge was that I needed to try Neil Gaiman (although all of your other comments were wonderful suggestions!), so yesterday I picked up a book I'm committing to--"Neverwhere."

The back cover had a review that called the book "urban fantasy," "a modern Alice in Wonderland" which I'm drawn in by. Mostly I'm hoping means that there are no "faeries" and "daemons" or that if there are, they aren't stated as such. We'll see how far I get. Asking a genre so defined by "faeries" and "daemons" to not be that is a stretch, I know.


So far, there's a girl named "Door" which is a name I hate. I'm not expecting everyone to be named Jennifer and John, but Door? No thanks. It's like "Price Hairstreak." WTF? Just call them Mestoliphious for all I care, just not a name that's a really random noun. It weirds me out.

I've also already lost track of a couple tertiary characters, but I'm thinking I'll get back on track soon. I'll give you a blog about how this goes when I finish, which may be a long time. It's a long book after all!

I am more positive about reading this book though. Believe me.

Day 49: What in Hael?

I have always hated fantasy novels, despite the fact I've never read a single one (except Harry Potter, which doesn't count because it's in a league of it's own).

I don't know if I could ever put my finger on why I never gave them a chance in the first place, but I can list a whole lot of reasons that I don't like them.

• I like books that are either nonfiction, philosophically interesting, award-winning or considered classics. P.S. "NY Times Bestseller" is NOT an award title
• I hate when anyone in America spells the word "fairy, "faerie," or demon, "daemon."
• I don't like gnomes, wizards, animal-human hybrids or Medieval power structures
• Unless it's Harry Potter, you should only be aware of one world, and it should not be called a "Realm" 

Due to these facts and countless others, you should be surprised when I tell you that on day 49 I started reading a fantasy novel.

Now, I am not one to invest much money in fantasy novels, so I picked this one up at the Dollar Tree. It was called "The Purple Emperor" from the "Faerie Wars Chronicles." Apparently this was a good book because the author was a New York Times Bestseller (you know how I feel about that).

The back cover started out with "When Henry Atherton returned to his own life in the suburbs of London, he thought all was well in the Faerie Realm..." Everything I hate all in one sentence (except the fact that he was not an animal-human hybrid, bummer). So I thought it was perfect for me to buy. If I'm going to buy a genre I hate, go all out, right?

So I was flipping through the book and ended up on A GLOSSARY PAGE. No piece of fiction needs a glossary page unless you are reading your first chapter book in third grade out of a textbook. Further, the Glossary had a "Key" to help you decode it--"FOL" Faerie of the Light, "FON" Faerie of the Night, "HMN" human.

I think that amounts to "FML".

Even better, while perusing the glossary, I came across this nugget,

"Hael--Polite Name for Hell."

No, "hael" is how the old ladies of the South say "hell."

I jumped into my cozy bed and opened to page one. There I was embarking on a story about how Lord Hairstreak (This author literally named a villain hair streak?) was trying to kill Prince Pyrgus who is about the become the Purple Empereor in the Fairy Realm (I will not stoop so low as to call it the "Faerie Realm"). Pyrgus's sister, Blue (yes, that is her name), is a fairy in love with Henry from London in the "Analogue World," but the portal between the worlds is closing! AH!

And then, after 100 pages, I started thinking to myself that I never gave this book a chance at all. Not even a little bit. I bought it at a Dollar Tree for $1.04, got it because the title was funny, and made fun of the content before I even started reading. This is the wrong way to approach a challenge. Maybe I should try reading something like "The Hobbit," or another classic to give a fair shot to the genre.

Sigh.

Anyone know of any well-written fantasy books that I should try? I'll attempt to make another "New Thing" out of finishing a fantasy book.