One thing that wrecks the fantasy (Spoilers for the Shannara series)

direbadger

Have you ever read a fantasy novel and one concept the author brings in, even a tiny one, ruins the whole illusion for you?

My experience was

Spoilers for the Shannara series!

I read the Shannara series by Terry Brooks and mostly really enjoyed it but one smallish thing irked me to point of not being able to take the world he had created seriously and hence not enjoying the books as much as I could have. It wasn't that it was out of the blue - he hinted at concepts such as genetic engineering and its possible pitfalls earlier in the series, but towards the end of the (long) series the characters travel to an abandoned city called Morrowindle or something similar, and the author makes it plain that this is supposed to be a real-life city of our modern day, perhaps New York, thousands of years later in his present world of elves and magic. I hated the concept and it ruined the whole fantasy for me.

Any similar experiences?

Capt'n Midnight

The Helliconia series, Anything to do with Glossies.

Fenster

Well I think its fairly obvious during the scenes where you had the elves getting chased by a robot

But yeah, all his books stink

direbadger

Fenster wrote:

Well I think its fairly obvious during the scenes where you had the elves getting chased by a robot

But yeah, all his books stink

That wasn't a robot! It was the inevitable outcome of the meddling elves playing god with their genetic engineering a such!

I can't believe you read that far if you hated it though! I mean, looking back on the series I think it's lame too but at the time I quite enjoyed it.

I'm remebering more annoying stuff from it now though... I must do something that has rarely been attempted and go to this scary lake filled with EVIL SOULS and ask them questions - which angers them, but I'll never do it again. A couple of chapters down the line - back to the spooky lake, but never again. Then later on the character is stuck again so where does he turn? Oh yes, the scary lake :rolleyes:

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

The Helliconia series, Anything to do with Glossies.

I'm curious now...

Fenster

Actually I do a lot of reading at the library, I tend to pick up whatever crappy sci-fi or fantasy book I haven't read yet in between all the reference works. Unless its something absolutely terrible (like Hellconia) I usually slog it out. So nyah.

EDIT: Its been a while since I've read the Hellconia series, but its basically about a planet that's on a three thousand year orbit in a binary system. So you have a short summer and long winter, and cycles of civilization. Humanity blunders along, finds this planet and it turns into the ultimate soap opera for the folks back home. The author (Brian Aldiss?) basically ignores a lot of base scientifc elements in the name of the plot...which isn't that great to start with.

Having recently made a start on a "hard" sci-fi story I had in mind for a while, I can only snicker at stuff like that all the more. Meh.

IceHawk

Gemmell's more recent stuff makes references to satellites and genetic engineering as well. I found it fairly damn annoying that he goes to the trouble of creating this incredibly in-depth world and then implies it's just a post-apocalyptic Earth.
Why don't they just have a guy in a spaceship land, see some ancient landmark and fall to his knees, saying "YOU MANIACS. YOU BLEW IT UP. DAMN YOU. GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL."

direbadger

IceHawk wrote:

"YOU MANIACS. YOU BLEW IT UP. DAMN YOU. GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL."

Yeah, it's an ooold concept alright. It wasn't the clichédness (not a word, I know) of it that annoyed me, but like you said, the fact that this fantasy world which I was being absorbed in while reading was suddenly snatched away. And even worse, there was a "lesson" there I should be getting! :rolleyes:

Fenster

direbadger wrote:

Yeah, it's an ooold concept alright. It wasn't the clichédness (not a word, I know) of it that annoyed me, but like you said, the fact that this fantasy world which I was being absorbed in while reading was suddenly snatched away. And even worse, there was a "lesson" there I should be getting! :rolleyes:

A lesson, eh? God forbid you ever have to read anything by Terry Goodkind...

COMMUNISM IS BAD, OKAY?

Now picture that on every page of a ~500 page fantasy book.

direbadger

Fenster wrote:

A lesson, eh? God forbid you ever have to read anything by Terry Goodkind...
.

I think I have. Oh wait I haven't. A quick internet search reveals Gemmell as the author of Morningstar...

I'll be careful to avoid that Goodkind guy. Even though I've heard good things. I HATE authors banging on about their message.

ixoy

direbadger wrote:

I'll be careful to avoid that Goodkind guy. Even though I've heard good things. I HATE authors banging on about their message.

You have? I generally see Goodkind on lists of authors to avoid by anyone with more than a passing famiiarity with fantasy. He's an American-patriot through and through and really lets it show forcefully in his novels which, even without that burden, aren't very good at all to begin with. Avoid avoid avoid.

L.E. Modesitt Jr. had a sci-fi origin for magic didn't he? It wasn't too bad of a novel though.

Cronus333

Fenster wrote:

Well I think its fairly obvious during the scenes where you had the elves getting chased by a robot

But yeah, all his books stink

Have to agree with you there....