"Think J.R.R. Tolkien with a sharper, more satiric edge..."Now, I realize that the book reviewer for the Houston Chronicle is unlikely to moonlight doing brain surgery or teaching literature courses at Dartmouth, but please!
This is the problem, I guess, with being tossed in the literary ghetto known as "genre fiction"; your reviewer takes a peek between the covers, sees a dragon, and says "Oh, it's like those hobbit books..." Except, of course, that the only thing that The Lord of the Rings and the Discworld novels have in common is that they are printed on paper and were written in English.
Professor Tolkien certainly never set out to write a fantasy novel; in fact, the genre didn't really exist as we know it when he started putting pen to paper. He was a professor of linguistics and literature who created a language in his spare time, and then made a world with a history and a mythos in which the language could exist. As far as he was concerned, he was just writing literature to amuse his fellow profs over beers at the pub, where they would presumably say things like "Excellent use of foreshadowing there, what? I believe that foreshadows me having another pint."
Terry Pratchett, on the other hand, began Discworld as sketch comedy for people who already spoke the lingo of the by-now-well-established fantasy genre and its role-playing offshoots. It's full of clever inside jokes, plays on various hackneyed tropes, and gentle goring of sacred cows. It has since grown into something more complex, but even at its deepest, remains essentially lighthearted. It is about as close in intent, content, theme, and tone to LOTR as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is to Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. (...and I think that dedicated readers of all four will find my comparison apt, nicht wahr?)
But, hey, it's genre fiction, so when your reviewer with an Associate's in English from a Cowtown VooTee notices the dragon, Tolkien is the automatic comparison. This is why if I ever write anything involving a sword or a raygun, I'm doing it under a pseudonym.
Actually Tam, the comparison to HHGTTG and Foundation made me sit back and go "wow". Spot on.
ReplyDeleteSide gripe: Bookstores which put fantasy stuff in the sci-fi section. Grr.
Nevermind the Sci-f-/horror link that some books stores and the that channel on TV seem to have.
ReplyDeleteMust appeal to someone on TV but for me it's an instant "change channel", if I want Horror on TV there's C-span of congressional deliberations.
yeah, I hate the fantasy and sf are mixed in the bookstore.
ReplyDeleteAlthough lately, there seems to be a lot of overlap. there seems to be more and more sci-fi/fantasy, and less and less sf.
As far as he was concerned, he was just writing literature to amuse his fellow profs over beers at the pub, where they would presumably say things like "Excellent use of foreshadowing there, what? I believe that foreshadows me having another pint."
ReplyDeleteI could totally see that. The highlight of a work trip to London 3 years ago was the completely necessary, no-way-was-I-gonna-miss-it pilgrimage to Oxford, and lunch (including a couple of pints, natch) at the Inklings' haunt, the Eagle & Child pub.
Back when we had both the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post, the Chron was the conservative paper with the crappy features staff, and the Post was the liberal fishwrapper that had a features staff that actually read fiction for enjoyment.
ReplyDeleteNow that the Post is gone, the Houston "Barnacle" is now the liberal birdcage liner with the crappy features staff. I wouldn't even use it for wrapping fish anymore... it gives even 3 day old mackerel an off-taste.
Aww. And I so enjoyed the story that LOTR/Hobbit (the prequel)/Farmer Giles of Ham started as bed time stories for his kids.
ReplyDeleteAnother LOTR comparison is Elizabeth Moon's Deed of Paksennarion (Sheepfarmers Daughter, Divided Allegiance, Oath of Gold - do *not* start Divided Allegiance until you have Oath of Gold *in hand*). Only DoP has a more personal theme, more first person, more spiritual aspect of good vs. evil. And a lot more military fiction (swords,archery, polearms).
A while back Hastings stuck one of Kelley Armstrong's releases (horror) in the SF shelf. And it looked pretty good - I think they call this 'urban noir', werewolves and vampires and sorcerors living under the modern, unaware society. How to compare this to, say, Anne Bishop and the recent Patricia Briggs lines with similar tone, and similar focus on story telling rather than the bent erotica of Laurell K. Hamilton or other twisted horror stuff? Bishop, Briggs, Armstrong all write very good fantasy.
Part of the reason, I think, that SF and Fantasy get mixed so often, is they often use the same publishers, the authors so often cross over between genres (is Pern SF or Fantasy, or does it depend on which book you look at?). What chaps me is shelving young adult SF/Fantasy separately - with separate shelving rules. Talk about an effective way to stifle the market for young adult SF/Fantasy authors. There *is* more to life that J.K. Rowling.
As for dragons, I like Asprin's Myth Adventures (at least the first half dozen), Tamora Pierce's YA The Immortals quartet (Wild Magic, Wolf Speaker, Emperor Mage, In the Realm of the Gods), Christopher Rowley's Bazil Broketail and following novels, and the second Robert Frezza 'McLendon's Syndrome' book, VMR Theory (Vampire Master Race theory, that humans are too stupid to be succeeding so there must be a master race behind them, pulling the strings. The *Plixxi* breed a bunch of flying beasts from intoxicated dumbbats, spoofing McCaffrey's Pern dragons. Just one vignette in the midst of silly space opera.) Again in YA, Patricia Brigg's Dragon's Princess and Talking with Dragons, and Jane Yolen's dragon books.
Speaking about dragons, what's your opinion of Nomi Novak's series set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars? These books appear to fall effortlessly from her young fingers ... appealing to both young and mature readers.
ReplyDeleteAs her dragons are intelligent and vocal, they're really not like the Pern offerings.
As for Patrica Briggs, I recently fell into her fantastic novels ... good for young readers, too.
From what I can tell from reading his writing-on-writing and the earliest Discworld books, DW started as Pratchett's vengeance upon the swathes of terrible Tolkien-inspired fantasy, with sideswipes at McCaffrey, Robert E. Howard, and others along the way. So it's sort of like Tolkien in that he started out meaning to gore the stuff that was like Tolkien in the poor-imitation way...
ReplyDeleteThen at some point he looked at the tropes he was lampooning and thought "Hey, these can be made to do a LOT of other things they mostly haven't been used to..."
Okay Tam, I've heard you talk about this Discworld stuff for a while now, how do I get started? I own almost too much Tolkien, a ton of Asimov, and assorted Adams works, but nothing by this Pratchett fellow you go on about :)
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, I went to look it up, and there's a crazy amount of books associated with Discworld. Where should one start, and in what order should one progress through them?
Casey
It makes me wonder why the marketing people at Pratchett's publisher picked that particular tease line. A hardcore Tolkien fan might bypass other Pratchett books if he or she discovered it differed.
ReplyDeleteWriters for daily newspapers and marketing people make decisions quickly. Sometimes the choices don't make sense later. Daily deadlines have to be met, for better or worse.
In newspapers, I was judged primarly by how fast I could crank out column inches using the company's style guidelines. Speed edged out quality. The research and reporting took a back seat to generating text.
Where should one start reading Discworld? No fear - Google has the answer.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-1-5.jpg
Casey - try to find dates of publication, and read in sequence.
ReplyDeleteOr, try the first two and then continue in just about any order.
Or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld
and go to "reading order"
Not sure if "Night Watch' series counts seperately from "Discworld" group, can be read separately. But a [long] sample -
Swing, though, started in the wrong place. He didn't look around, and watch, and learn, and then say, "This is how people are, how do we deal with it?" No, he sat and thought: "This is how people ought to be, how do we change them?" And that was a good enough thought for a priest but not for a copper, because Swing's patient, pedantic way of operating had turned policing on its head.
There had been that Weapons Law, for a start. Weapons were involved in so many crimes that, Swing reasoned, reducing the number of weapons had to reduce the crime rate.
Vimes wondered if he'd sat up in bed in the middle of the night and hugged himself when he'd dreamed that one up. Confiscate all weapons, and crime would go down. It made sense. It would have worked, too, if only there had been enough coppers - say, three per citizen.
Amazingly, quite a few weapons were handed in. The flaw, though, was one that had somehow managed to escape Swing, and it was this: criminals don't obey the law. It's more or less a requirement for the job. They had no particular interest in making the streets safer for anyone except themselves. And they couldn't believe what was happening. It was like Hogswatch [Christmas Eve - ed.] every day.
Some citizens took the not-unreasonable view that something had gone a bit askew if only naughty people were carrying arms. And they got arrested in large numbers. The average copper, when he's been kicked in the nadgers once too often and has reason to believe that his bosses don't much care, has an understandable tendency to prefer to arrest those people who won't instantly try to stab him, especially if they act a bit snotty and wear more expensive clothes than he personally can afford. The rate of arrests shot right up, and Swing had been very pleased about that.
Admittedly, most of the arrests had been for possessing weapons after dark, but quite a few had been for assaults on the Watch by irate citizens. That was Assault On A City Official, a very important and despicable crime, and, as such, far more important than all these thefts that were going on everywhere.
It wasn't that the city was lawless. It had plenty of laws. It just didn't offer many opportunities not to break them. Swing didn't seem to have grasped the idea that the system was supposed to take criminals and, in some rough-and-ready fashion, force them into becoming honest men. Instead, he'd taken honest men and turned them into criminals. And the Watch, by and large, into just another gang.
"Night Watch", ISBN 0-06-001311-7 2002
Could have been worse. . a clip saying "what a great summer beach read!" - Kathie Lee Gifford.
ReplyDeleteCheck the upper fireplace shelf between the stone bookends - Stealth Pratchett novels.
This past Spring I went to Pratchett's home page. He has been diagnosed with early onset Alzeimers. I enjoy his books and pray that new medicines will help him. I nursed my mom through this disease and it robs you of everything. Pratchett is an amazing writer. Check out the "Wee Blue Men".
ReplyDeleteAs a Houstonian and an avid Pratchett reader, I die a little inside when I see that absurd comment.
ReplyDeleteI must apologize to rest of you for my city’s laughable excuse for a newspaper. Well, not really a newspaper. Think Denny’s Kids Placemats, but with less content.
I must also apologize to bird lovers everywhere for the mass of avian suicide victims whose careless owner’s line cages with this foul silent killer. Countless budgies, finches, and parrots (oh my) are victims of our local “news”paper. They either succumb to the ennui that comes from seeing the horrid writing and lose the will to live; or simply implode from the frantic rate of defecation they try to maintain to cover the stench of the daily rag whose major sales pitch is, “Buy us, we have coupons!”
My only question left is: Why the frack does the publisher use that quote??? WHY? I can only think that Mr. Pratchett ran across the nonsense one day, snorted milk though his nose, and said, “Oh yes… I must use this. THIS is priceless stupidity, this is. It MUST be preserved”
ArthurCW