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Hello lovely Steemians
Its time for another episode of Read Between The Wines - Anything and everything book related and maybe a little bit of wine as well!
Epic fantasy - the sword and sorcery type - not the 50 shades type - has always been my thing. In fact at one stage I'd written about 26 chapters of a fantasy novel and who knows I might get back to it one day.
I wouldn't be the first to start an epic tale and not finish (though in fairness to me I don't have legions of fans hanging on for decades waiting for the next book) Yes Mr G. R. R. Martin I AM looking at you and I'm kinda past your story now anyway because Benioff and Weiss are actually doing a pretty good job finishing it up for us!
But in seriousness, I can't imagine the majority of your career being taken up with the creation of a single world and the characters that inhabit it.
They give the word epic a whole new meaning!
Just to be clear - I use the word Epic to denote a sub-genre of fantasy as opposed to epic meaning great - though obviously a lot of it is. A lot of it is also needlessly wordy and full of itself - but why waste time reading that.
Chloe Smith of Fantasy-Faction.com describes Epic Fantasy perfectly
For most people, even most well-read, card-carrying members of the fantastic-fiction-reading community, these words conjure an image of a very specific type of fantasy story. It does not take place in a recognisable version of the world we all (I hope) wake up to every day. It has warfare. It has magic. It has heroes. The heroes carry swords. Most importantly—-at least to the knee-jerk definition of epic fantasy—-the story is long. Long as in “use-the-piled-series-as-a-bedside-table” long.
Here are some of my old school favourites - they take commitment to write and commitment to read.
- The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
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Originally planned as a six-book series, The Wheel of Time spanned fourteen volumes, in addition to a prequel novel and a companion book. Jordan began writing the first volume, The Eye of the World, in 1984, and it was published in January, 1990.
This series has been my nemesis! It was so long between efforts to read this book I've started it about 6 times. I started again last year and have managed to get to book 10. This year is the year.. I am never starting it again.. and it's not really a re-read sort of story! I started the series in 2003 - 15 years and still going!
Jordan died in 2007 while working on what was planned to be the twelfth and final book. (the fear all Game of Thrones Fans have) He prepared extensive notes so another author - longtime fan Brandon Sanderson could complete the book according to his wishes. During the writing process it was decided that the book would be far too large to be published in one volume and would instead be published as three volumes.
That really is commitment - being told you have less than a year to live and spending that time ensuring your story got finished! RESPECT!
Amazon announced om March 1st they are developing this for TV which if they do in the manner of Game of Thrones - then it will absolutely wipe the floor with GoT! This will be amazingly epic.. I'm more concerned it will come out like Xena though.. and credibility as a serious show will go out the window! I'd be much more confident with HBO behind the wheel. Hope they give it the treatment it deserves. And at least the story is finished!
- The Riftwar Cycle by Raymond Feist.
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The majority of Feist's works are part of The Riftwar Universe, and feature the worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan.[1] Human magicians and other creatures on the two planets are able to create rifts through dimensionless space that can connect planets in different solar systems. The novels and short stories of The Riftwar Universe record the adventures of various people on these worlds.
I had the good fortune to meet Raymond Feist at the Sydney Writers festival many years back and listen to him talking about world-building - so critical in fantasy and science fiction where - yes entire worlds can be created from scratch - but they have to be believable and work. The world of Midkemia actually began as an alternative universe when he and his friends were playing RPG.
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There are over 30 stories set in these universes, either written or co-written by Feist. Luckily he does break them into mini series so while helpful it's not essential to have read all of them.
I started these in 1994 - I'm still going.
- Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind
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The Sword of Truth is a series of twenty novels .The books follow the protagonists Richard Rahl, Kahlan Amnell, Nicci and Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander on their quest to defeat oppressors who seek to control the world and those who wish to unleash evil upon the world of the living. While each novel was written to stand alone, except for the final three that were intended to be a trilogy, they follow a common timeline and are linked by ongoing events that occur throughout the series.
Don't judge a book by it's movie - or in this case it's New Zealand made campish TV series! - Though if you were a fan of Hercules and Xena you'd probably be okay with it.
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Of course since the these fantasy classics have been written there are an absolute slew of (thankfully) shorter but still epic fantasy series, but I'll leave them for another day. After all that thinking about sword, sorcery and battles it feels like I should go have a mug of ale!
Til the Next Adventure Shine on With Love and Light
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Source: Wikipedia