Why I love fantasy. And our newest fantastic giveaway!
So I just finished book two of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, The Great Hunt. It was a fantastic read, and reinforced my huge, enormous, colossal love for fantasy. Jordan really stepped up the intrigue in the second installment. While I loved the first book, I was a bit worried that the series might devolve into a reductive battle of good and evil. But in The Great Hunt, he shows that there are many more factions than we had believed, and even within those factions there is infighting as goals clash. And that’s what I love best about epic fantasy – the fully imagined worlds with rationally motivated power struggles, even (especially?) in the presence of tremendous evils like The Dark One.
But now I have to put my Jordan reading on hold! Brandon Sanderson is launching his own epic fantasy series (even while he’s finishing Jordan’s series)! I’m about 1/2 through the massive The Way of Kings, and so far it’s thrilling! A culture he describes exacts an interesting method of racism – the family lines with light colored eyes form a noble class, while those so unlucky to have black or brown eyes are in the bottom of the caste system. It’s a great allegory to the equally arbitrary discrimination based on skin color.
So. Why do you love fantasy? The fifteen most interesting comments (including a mailing address, or email, so I can contact you) will receive a complementary Advanced Reader's Copy of The Way of Kings!
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Way of Kings has a very nice cover. Did I mention I'm really devouring the Moorcock "Hawkmoon" reprints?
June 8, 2010
7:09 pm
No! And I just looked it up. 208 pages? That's a fantasy book? Pshaw! I think fantasy books, by definition, can't be read in one sitting. And that book's cover looks a bit video-gamish, which isn't awful. How many books are in that series?
June 9, 2010
9:13 am
That just means you are only counting fantasy novels from the last couple of decades; the phonebook fantasy novel is NOT the norm-- you need to put a little pulp in your diet!
I'm not actually sure how many there are; unlike modern fantasy, these dudes just wrote until people stopped buying.
June 9, 2010
4:48 pm
Hah, Phoneobook Fantasy, I like it. But you're right, I rarely have enough time to read backlist!
June 10, 2010
11:29 am
Fantasy provides me with the escape that I crave. It introduces me to exciting realms, transports me to another time and place and allows me to be swept away from my mundane existence and experience adventure.
June 16, 2010
10:15 am
****PLEASE AND THANK YOU INCLUDE CONTACT INFORMATION :) ****
June 16, 2010
10:26 am
Fantasy, like fairy tales, teaches us that monsters can be vanquished, that unwanted children can grow into kings and queens, that humanity is flawed but can overcome those flaws. It can be a wonderful confidence builder; it can teach us how to live in the world we live in by teaching us how others live in the worlds they live in.
June 16, 2010
11:32 am
Fantasy takes me to another world. I love it!
June 16, 2010
12:05 pm
I have always loved fantasy because it challenges and stretches my imagination. I get to experience worlds and cultures that bear some or no resemblance to my own, from the comfort of my favorite chair.
June 16, 2010
4:27 pm
My third high school involved long bus rides (6:15am to 8:30am) (3:15-6:30) Since I had an hour to kill on either side of the school day I worked in the library - anything to stay away from the aliens - and read whatever I found to and from. That was the year I discovered Andren Norton's Beast Master - the original, thank you, Clement's Needle, The Stars Our Destination. Lots of science fiction and fantasy from the 50's, both sides of the pond. The librarian introduced me to Conan - the jocks suffered by comparison! By the time we moved to high school #4 and I had to choose which 10 books to keep it was truly tough. Since Andre's passing I don't buy as many in hard cover as I used to, but it is amazing how the piles on the floor waiting to be shelved seem to keep growing. And then someone seems to put out old favorites with really great covers just as my old friends are falling apart. Lets see, Lackey, Gilman, Pierce, Briggs, and that is recently, with new titles due, I hear. It is a lovely addiction.
June 16, 2010
4:36 pm
If you don't feel comfortable leaving contact information, please email it to me at benjamin.rubinstein (at) macmillan.com
Thanks!
Ben
June 17, 2010
10:34 am
Take me to a land of far away
Where I can escape the pressures of today.
Fantasy and other lands evermore.
Oh book take me away to a distant shore.
Plots sometimes without reason
Twists across centuries or sometimes just a season.
Oh book you are such a pleasure
Oh book you have become my treasure.
June 19, 2010
7:36 pm
I forgot to leave my email address at shawneeheights@hotmail.com
June 19, 2010
7:42 pm
I love fantasy because it takes me away from the ordinary problems of my life and allows me to be more than I think I can in real life. It causes me to think in ways I haven't thought before. An added bonus is that it gives me something in common with the teens and pre-teens in my life.
June 24, 2010
11:06 am
Are we sure it's 208 pages? It was described as "massive". I'm really interested in reading how eye racism would be portrayed, especially since I'd end up at the bottom at the caste system. Brown eyes unite!! At any rate, the reason I love fantasy is because it gives me a look at a different world. I also envy how an author could come up with so many little details. It's fun to imagine myself in their world. Probably not the best explanation (I did mention that I envy writers), but it's true. bernardi [dot] fam [at] gmail [dot] com.
June 24, 2010
9:17 pm
I don't love fantasy; is this the book to win me over?
June 30, 2010
8:58 pm
I love fantasy because of the need it creates to reinforce the shelves in the fantasy section. (Credit for this joke to Unshelved)
October 21, 2010
3:00 pm
I love fantasy because it gives me hope to move on, in a way it keeps me from going crazy in my time of need, it is my escape fom the world I live in;the world that carries so much dread.
heartbreaker4668@sbcglobal.net
November 24, 2010
7:12 pm
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