Fantasy Fiction

The Special Effects You Don’t See

/ Nicola | Thoughts on Fantasy / 6 Comments
Image: Barn from The Landing Short Film

Image from the short film The Landing

A fleet of space ships swoops into battle, a dragon flexes its wings, a superhero uses their incredible powers… in films and TV shows, these are the kind of scenes where you’re likely to comment on the amazing (or not so amazing) special effects. Their very nature, as things that don’t exist, will make you more inclined to scrutinise them, and decide whether you are impressed or unimpressed by how they have been brought to life on screen.

What we rarely notice are the copious special effects that re-create real things. Continue reading →

A Terrible Beauty

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An interesting post about antique rifles over at mctuggle.com – it seems it wasn’t only sword-smiths that put effort into intricately adorning and crafting their weapons of choice. If medieval fantasy lovingly describes the inscriptions and ornamentation on blade hilts, I can imagine more contemporary fantasy describing the intricate woodwork and metalwork on some of these.

Mike's avatarM.C. Tuggle, Writer

Weapons hold a special place in all cultures. The tradition of a special bond between the weapon and its owner is one we see often in history, folklore, and literature. Think of the samurai’s katana, Thor’s Mjölnir, Arthur’s Excalibur, Bilbo’s Sting, and Davy Crockett’s Ol’ Betsy.

This morning, I attended a presentation at the Charlotte Museum of History on the Mecklenburg Longrifle, a fine and highly sought-after weapon produced here in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Michael Briggs, the author of The Longrifle Makers of Guilford County and The Longrifle Makers of Forsyth County & Davidson County, displayed some breathtaking pieces from his personal collection, and generously identified and discussed longrifles that audience members brought in.

Audience
Author Michael Briggs examining a longrifle.

North Carolina had nine different schools, or regional styles, of longrifles. Those distinctive styles were the outgrowth of the culture of the settler population. The predominant Scots-Irish and…

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What Did Tolkien Think of Fantasy Fiction?

/ Nicola | Thoughts on Fantasy / 7 Comments
Hobbit Hole. Photo by Trey Ratcliff (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

We all know J.R.R. Tolkien wrote fantasy fiction. He was the brilliant mind behind The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, a creator of intricate and enthralling new worlds, and one of the founding fathers of the genre. You can rarely talk about fantasy fiction without mentioning Tolkien… but I think his skill in writing fantasy was not the only thing that made him the legend he is today.  Continue reading →

Genre is Not a Dirty Word

/ Nicola | Thoughts on Fantasy / 5 Comments
Photo by Ian Collins (CC BY-ND 2.0)

I’ve encountered quite a few fantasy and science fiction authors – famous and popular ones at that – who, when asked about their decision to write in the genre, say something along the lines of “oh, well, I just write what I write and someone slots it into a genre later, I don’t think about what genre I want to write in”. There’s often this additional implication that ‘genre’ is a dirty word – that is the oppressive tool of publishers and bookshops. Books get hemmed in and categorised by this evil notion of genre, and their authors get pigeon-holed as ‘fantasy writers’ or ‘crime writers’.

Frankly, I never understand this. I love the word genre.  Continue reading →

Sex Scenes in Fantasy Novels: When Do They Work?

/ Nicola | Thoughts on Fantasy / 8 Comments
Orchid at the Pittsburgh Botanic Gardens, 2011. Photo by Nicola Alter (CC BY SA 4.0)

Growing up, most of the fantasy novels I read didn’t have sex scenes. Perhaps they had a little romance, maybe some kissing, but nothing I would classify as a proper sex scene, or even an illusion to a sex scene. A few, of course, did have scenes that were a little raunchy… but I remember finding those awkward and out of place. Continue reading →

Learning a Fantasy Language? Apparently There’s an App for That

/ Nicola | Thoughts on Fantasy / 5 Comments
Galadriel’s Lament. Photo by Roberta Cortese (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

I work part time at an institute that runs classes in a whole range of foreign languages. Real-world languages, that is – like French and Arabic and Japanese. On our feedback forms at the end of each course, we ask students to suggest any new languages that they would like us to offer in the following year. One day a colleague came to me, confused, with a feedback form in hand, and asked:

Continue reading →

Public Declarations of Love: Fantasy Romance vs Romantic Comedy

/ Nicola | Thoughts on Fantasy / 11 Comments

Image: kiss scene from the film Never Been Kissed

So I just got back from Germany last week – a trip home that unfortunately involved about 22 hours in a plane. Most of those hours were spent in an awkward half-sleep fostering a sizeable collection of neck cramps. The rest were spent bingeing on movies.

On flights, I usually find myself watching one of three things: romantic comedies, Bollywood epics, or YA fantasy films… because these are things I enjoy, but also simply because my boyfriend point-blank refuses to watch them with me. Those hours of solitary viewing are a chance for an uninterrupted dose of romance, melodrama, and teenage heartbreak, without any judgemental eyes looking on.

Continue reading →

How the Last 300 Years Have Changed Fairy Tales

/ Nicola | Thoughts on Fantasy / 3 Comments

Movie Poster: Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters

In high school I remember having to sit through a Disney cartoon rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1994) for a unit we were doing on fairy tales. It told the usual story – Goldilocks comes to the bears’ house, tries the porridges, the chairs and the beds, falls asleep, and then runs away when the bears come home. Unfortunately, in this version they extended the story. Goldilocks and the three bears become friends. Then an evil circus man captures the bears and Goldilocks must save and free them. Oh, and since it’s Disney, they also add an obligatory annoying sidekick animal to provide some comic relief. I think it was a rabbit.

Continue reading →

The Power of “What If?” Premises in Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Image: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

There’s no doubt that a really good “what if?” scenario – a fascinating premise that envisions a society or world with a pivotal difference to our own – is a big hook for a speculative fiction book or film. An intriguing premise will almost always entice me to go see the film at the cinema, particularly a science fiction film.

On the whole, science fiction does these “what if” scenarios really well (especially dystopian sci-fi), and the concepts are memorable. I’m sure many people could guess which popular science fiction films the below scenarios refer to: Continue reading →

The ‘Ye Olde’ in Epic Fantasy: 6 More Archaisms and Why Authors Use Them

/ Nicola | Thoughts on Fantasy / 6 Comments
First Lines of Beowulf. Photo from Wikimedia – Public Domain

Last week I listed some English archaic forms often seen in epic fantasy novels: things like “here be dragons” and “unsavoury louts they were” and “prithee”. This week I’m continuing with a few more ‘ye olde’ words fantasy authors like to throw into the mix, as well as having a look at why they do it.

So without further ado, and again with the help of Susan Mandala’s Language in Science Fiction and Fantasy: The Question of Style, here are the remaining 6: Continue reading →