Reader Question Day #14 – Aragorn vs. Elric
Manwe asks, concerning Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time:
Have they (the Wheel of Time books) ever influenced your own work?
Somewhat, I suppose. I started reading them before I attempted to write seriously, so I suppose some degree of influence is inevitable. I think the main influence is that I want to write a series with a definite end in mind, which is why I want DEMONSOULED to stick to six books. (At least the first DEMONSOULED series – I might start a second after I finish the sixth one. And there’s a chance that SOUL OF SORCERY and the sixth book might get long enough to split them into smaller books, but I’m hoping to avoid that.)
Whose writing do you prefer…Robert Jordan, or the man who took over for him, Brandon Sanderson?
They both have their strengths. Jordan’s writing has every virtue except that of brevity. Sanderson’s a very good writer, but not quite as good as Jordan. (I think life experience might play into that, since Jordan was a Vietnam vet, and it’s a disturbing truth that people who go through unpleasant experiences are often better writers.) That said, Sanderson can finish things, which is a big deal. He’s also one of the very few modern fantasy writers that can write intelligently about religion. If you want to try his non-WOT work, I’d suggest starting with his MISTBORN trilogy.
Penny919 asks:
When is Ghost in the Storm coming out?
Soon, I hope. I’m writing chapter 10 of 29, so I’m about 1/3 done with the rough draft.
Who would win in a fight, Aragorn or Elric?
Aragorn, unquestionably. Elric is a drug addict wielding the cursed sword Stormbringer that is slowly devouring what little sanity he has left. Aragorn wields Anduril, the Flame of the West, the sword that shines with both the light of the sun and moon. And – more importantly – Aragorn waited for decades to wed his beloved Arwen, while Elric destroyed his homeland and his beloved due to the madness induced by Stormbringer.
The man with self-discipline will almost always defeat the man without it.
siddinavayan asks:
How can I calculate the date of Easter in Linux?
I’ve got you covered:
http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/screed/?p=3554
-JM
“and the sixth book might get long enough to split them into smaller books, but I’m hoping to avoid that.)”
Why? In the long run, it’s more money in your pocket 😉
“I think life experience might play into that, since Jordan was a Vietnam vet, and it’s a disturbing truth that people who go through unpleasant experiences are often better writers.) ”
Very true! Another excellent example, Tolkien (and Lewis for that matter), WWI had a profound impact on him.
“That said, Sanderson can finish things, which is a big deal.”
Hehe, not for long…his Stormlight Archives series, it’s going to be about 10 books long (each one almost 1,000 pages!) and they will be coming out over these next 10 years. I sounds like he is carrying on Jordan’s legacy, lol. Have you read the first book in that series? I have it, but have not read it yet.
“He’s also one of the very few modern fantasy writers that can write intelligently about religion.”
That is probably is because he is a religious man himself (Mormon). I find that in general, non religious people have trouble writing believable religious characters. Poul Anderson is an excellent exception to that rule, though an agnostic, he could write believable religious characters. Then again, Poul was not your average agnostic, he seemed to have an admiration for religion (the Catholic Church in particular), I have read this is because his vision of the world, the way one ‘responds’ to it, shared alot in common with the Catholic/christian way of ‘responding’ to the world in which we find ourselves.
“If you want to try his non-WOT work, I’d suggest starting with his MISTBORN trilogy.”
Got ’em! Just have not had a chance to really get into them yet. I have heard good things about them, though I’m not sure what kind of fantasy they register as…are they classic high fantasy, epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, or dark fantasy?
And as for Aragorn beating Elric, I agree! Certainly Aragorn, being the better man of the two, at least deserves to win 😀
Grr, typos!
should read:
“IT sounds like he is carrying on Jordan’s legacy…”
and
“That is probably because he is a religious…” (no double use of “is”)
“Have you read the first book in that series?”
I have, at the start of 2011. I though it was pretty good, and it does manage to stand on its own. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes from here.
“I’m not sure what kind of fantasy they register as…are they classic high fantasy, epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, or dark fantasy?”
I would say it’s an inverted high fantasy – the premise of the books is “what if the hero confronted the Dark Lord, and the Dark Lord won?” So it’s a thousand years later, and the world is ruled by the Dark Lord’s police state theocracy (the Dark Lord, of course, has declared himself God). So it’s not a subversion of the traditional high fantasy, but it is an interesting new angle.
That does sound pretty interesting, I may have to bump it up a few places on my “to-read” list.
I take it that the dark lord is defeated in the third and final book of the trilogy? So then what’s up with “Alloy of Law”? “Steampunk/western? What was Sanderson thinking of!” Those are the complaints I have heard about the new book. I wonder what made him want to take the series in that direction?
“I take it that the dark lord is defeated in the third and final book of the trilogy? So then what’s up with “Alloy of Law”? “Steampunk/western? What was Sanderson thinking of!” Those are the complaints I have heard about the new book. I wonder what made him want to take the series in that direction?”
It was (at least in my opinion) a fairly clever idea. Fantasy societies are almost always medieval, or at least pre-industrial. Why wouldn’t a fantasy world have technological development, with all its attendant good and evil?
“Fantasy societies are almost always medieval”
And thank God for that!! 😀
As a budding medievalist, this is one of my favorite elements of fantasy! So I’m quite happy with it, and I’d be quite remiss if fantasy as a whole stopped relying on it.
“or at least pre-industrial. Why wouldn’t a fantasy world have technological development”
Well there are several reasons. First is the dramatic impact the industrial revolution has had on pretty much everything. Not everyone has been too pleased with it, especially many of the early fantasy writers, like Tolkien, Lewis, and even REH. In Tolkien/Lewis’ case, their works were often subversive of it, as was much historic fantasy. So there is always that. Then of course there is the idea of magic, which is pre-industrial, and a world with magic may not need technology so much, or so it goes. Then there is that element of love of the past, and fantastical settings and myth, that just don’t seem to blend so well with a post-industrial age. I think there is a view behind all this: that the scientific, industrial age we live in has pretty much killed off all the fantastical, all the mythical in our world; wunderkind is dead.
As for me personally, fantasy and the past go together hand in hand, I have always seen it that way. Whenever the goblins start pulling out laser guns, I start rolling my eyes 😉
About as far as I’d go is Warhammer. There is tech there, but it’s a kind of Renaissance tech (powder guns/cannons), so it still has distant past feel to it.
I guess a fantasy society could develop more advanced technology, but I think alot of people would ask “but why should it?” Guns are great, but swords are better, and also there is a nobility that goes along with them, a chivalry that guns just don’t inspire. I think that is another reason why fantasy tends to take place in the past: chivalry, honor, a more heroic age, etc. The modern era has lost all that, and the industrial rev helped that along. I don’t hear it said much, but in alot of ways, the romance (the historic genre, not the kinky stuff in your local bookstore) is an ancestor of fantasy. With that in it’s blood, fantasy will always trend towards past settings (or at least the feel of one) rather than more modern-esque eras.
Well that was my two cents, make of it what you will!
At some point I would like to try a story describing what happens when those two worldviews collide. Like the “Communism in Middle Earth” series, or an exiled prince from a fantasy kingdom goes to Earth, finds guns, and takes them back to wage war.