Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Official Guest Post: What if Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Other Genres Collided? by J.V. Hilliard

An Official Guest Post by J.V. Hilliard, author of the most excellent Warminster Series:

What if Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Other Genres Collided?

Fantasy is one of the more expansive, all-encompassing genres, offering tell-tale signs in the media it shows up in. It can blend with horror to create movies like Pan’s Labyrinth, or it can mix with romance for the ever popular “romantasy” genre as seen in A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) by Sarah J. Maas. Even more, fantasy can contribute to steampunk and appear in Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld or Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.

Throughout it all, there are certain staples of the fantasy genre. These include: magic, an epic quest, and cryptids to name a few. Magic goes hand-in-hand with fantasy books and movies, appearing in fairytales and mythology, with spells, sorcery, grimoires, and totems featured prominently. Where sci-fi has technology, fantasy has magic, and sometimes, they combine to create your favorite media. We see sci-fi and fantasy blend together in Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the season six villains known as “the trio.” They utilize a freeze ray, jet packs, invisible ray, time loop tech, and more to terrorize Buffy and her friends. We also see sci-fi fantasy in Star Wars and Star Trek where technology is hyper-advanced and stands in for magic

One other sign of a fantasy story is an epic journey or quest, which is also called a “hero’s journey.” There’s a theme of a “chosen one” with an overall goal of conquering evil or fulfilling a prophecy. We see the chosen one trope with Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien as Frodo sets out to carry the One Ring to Mordor. In the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, the trope shows up with Harry himself being the only one who can defeat Lord Voldemort.

The final indicator of a fantasy tale is the presence of cryptids. Where sci-fi has aliens or robots, fantasy has all kinds of species, like dragons, hobbits, elves, wizards, vampires, demons, etc. If a story has something other than humans or your occasional cat or dog, it may be a safe bet that what you’re reading is fantasy.

Dystopias are a fantastical blend of “what ifs” that feature exciting technology & oftentimes a futuristic world. Think The Maze Runner with its chosen one trope, cryptids in the form of grievers, technology like the maze, and a grim future. Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games series is another example, with Katniss Everdeen as the chosen one and mockingjays, the Hunger Games, and a future of twelve districts in a country called Panem.

Throughout the fantasy genre, though it may blend with others and take on new forms, what remains true is its elements of escapism. Most of the time, fantasy media is created to satisfy a need to escape to other worlds, whether more technologically advanced or more fantastical and magical. Characters thrive in places like Abacus in my Warminster Saga, which is a scientific/scholarly city named after Abacus Athobasca, who was “a renowned inventor, using his wizardry to enhance his peculiar devices and inventions.” In similar form, there is the Citadel in Game of Thrones with the Order of Maesters: an order of intellectuals (scholars, healers, and other learned men).

As with most media, the sense of escapism and worldbuilding is rich and ever present in the realm of fantasy. The genre is highly adaptable, able to work with sci-fi, dystopian, romance, horror, and more in order to create the works we all know and love. It is a genre that is here to stay and just may be the most popular for decades to come.

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Want to see your own writing published online? I am listening. In short, I have gotten some emails addressed to "the Stars Uncounted team" asking about Content Writing and I respond by saying that the team consists of me, myself, and I, and that all one of us is willing to post your content. The only rule is that such a Guest Post would have to be within the context of the blog – meaning that it must relate to the Fantasy genre or be about self-publishing Fantasy. If you are interested, feel free to send me one for approval.

Just remember that any and all Guest Posts must adhere to the high moral spirit of my mostly humble blog. This does not mean that I have to agree with everything you say; it merely must be well-written and thought-out.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Just started The Black Gryphon, book #1 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey

Just started The Black Gryphon, book #1 of The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey.

In Prehistory, over a thousand years before the Founding of Valdemar in a time when magic obeyed different laws, different rules, the Tayledras and Shin'a'in were one people: the Kaled'a'in who in the time of the apocalyptic Mage Wars served Urtho, the Mage of Silence. This is the story of Skandranon Rashkae, legend of Clan k'Leshya, and his battle with Ma'ar, Mage of Dark Flames, who two millennia hence would under a different name trouble Elspeth and Darkwind.

Star-Eyed strike me but this will be fun! Fantasy books always are, but I have a special place in my heart for the works of Mercedes Lackey. My simple concern and hope (yes, they are one), which I am certain will come true, is that this book – indeed the whole series – will revolve around the Kaled'a'in proverb "Whatever is prepared for never occurs." Goodness knows I have barely and already another of their saying has basically come to pass: "Never look behind you, there may be an arrow gaining."

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Official Book Review: Echoes of Ghostwood, Book Four of J.V. Hilliard's Warminster Series

“Crimson flags borne on horses of white, see them ride, ye children of light." – The Ballad of Eldwal

In my vast reading of Fantasy the climax of a book is always ones of the ways I measure the book itself, the series it is part of, and the author. My rule being that longer and more heart-stoppingly intense it is the better, and I always expect double from the final book in a series since it is when all must come to an end. But occasionally, very occasionally, I read final volumes that do not have a one because they are themselves from page one a heart-stopping climax. A Memory of Light, the 14th and finale of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time was one such book and, while I do not pretend to compare J.V. Hilliard with Robert Jordan, his mastery of book-length multi-pronged epic and highly detailed battle on a global scale is approximate.

“Victory, in spite of all terror, is the reward for the valorous." – King Godwin Thorhauer

Thus have I finished Echoes of Ghostwood, the fourth and final book of J.V. Hilliard's Warminster Series. Thus did fell alliance from the Dragon’s Breath Mountains fall in the second Battle of the Bridge, the breaking of the siege of Thronehelm, the restoration of the Cathedral of the Watchful Eye, and Foghaven Vale. The curse of Graytorris the Mad ending, his crazed laughter silenced, in a very poetic way, though at terrible cost. I said in my first Official Book Review that J.V. Hilliard's mastery of Fantasy lies in taking known if rarely used elements of the genre and merging them into a by extension brilliantly unique tale. From blind seers and Elven Princesses to cryptids and cryptid-worshiping cults not unlike those of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, to necromancy seldom seem beyond Dungeons & Dragons to honorable, blunt, and warlike Norsemen.

Blending the high morals, epic magics, vistas, and battles (including the finest naval battles I have ever read), Hilliard invoke the sense of mystery and stakes of J.R.R. Tolkien couple with the treasonous and devious Court Intrigue popularized by GRRM. Making Warminster a realm where dark and seemingly separate plots – both political and arcane – are in fact linked even as heroes from across a realm of many distinct cultures and races, religious sects and cities, rise to face it. I do not pretend to compare Hilliard's skill with the above titans, yet never had I ever read such a seamless, unique, and skillful merging of each coupled with Jordan's  knack for long and epic battles.

And yet... somehow I feel that we have not seen the last of the realm of Warminster. Erudian Sight gave two options for a cursed Ancient, yet a third occurred; black roses were places where none should be and it occurs to me that the Shadow Elves were never dealt with. To say nothing of the Wanderer's words to Faux regarding a miscarriage of justice.

If and until then, farewell and may Erud's light guide you Keeper Daemus Alaric, Princess Addilyn Elspeth, Montgomery Thorhauer, Joferian Maeglen, Faux Dauldon, Arjun, Ember, Jins, and finally Sir Ritter and all those of Castle Valkeneer. May your arrows fly true.

"The face of despair appears invincible, but in time, it always fades." – Warminster the Mage

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Quote of the month

“The enemy wasn't men, or women, or the old, or even the dead. It was just bleedin' stupid people, who came in all varieties. And no one had the right to be stupid.” – Terry Pratchett

Sunday, October 6, 2024

Elëa (the World of Eragon) revealed!

Okay, so we all knew that Christopher Paolini was expanding his world in new and unexpected directions. "What deathless lies may in eons rise" said a mad old man among the Dreamers at Nal Gorgoth, and that was after the mysteries of Alagaësia increased exponentially in The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm, from Angela to Urgal legends. To say nothing of previously known mysteries such as the Grey Folk who first bound magic to the Ancient Language and the age-old wondering about what lies beyond Alagaësia. Alalëa, the elves’ homeland, for one, wherever humans and Urgals came from. But that is the general limit.

Or was, for what I did not expect was a full World Map in which the region of Alagaësia is revealed to be very small indeed! Behold the world of Elëa! Paolini just expanded – and named – his world in literally all directions and I have a joyous feeling that The Inheritance Cycle, like Alagaësia, may be but the tip of a very large literary iceberg.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

I have started Echoes of Ghostwood, Book Four of J.V. Hilliard's Warminster Series

“Crimson flags borne on horses of white, see them ride, ye children of light." – The Ballad of Eldwal

At the author's request – because I have totally not loved the first three books nor was this one already on my shelf waiting for me to finish Pern – I have started Echoes of Ghostwood, the fourth and final book of J.V. Hilliard's Warminster Series.

"From the hallowed horns of the Bridge, the warning sounds," once said Til Aarron, Longmarcher and Bard, and now the those ancient horns sound again as the Moor Bog and their cryptid allies bring battle to Castle Valkeneer. To Sir Ritter Valkeneer and Princess Addilyn Elspeth who, along with their families and allies, must hold out against impossible odds...all unknowing that Graytorris the Mad had unleashed a power that is truly, shall we say, Ancient. Yet hope remains, and the tide is turning, for Last Keeper Daemus Alaric and his companions now ride with the Erud's book and an Ancient heart that, if all goes as I think it might, could teach the Moor Bog a new and painful appreciation for the phrase "friendly fire." Either way, the most dangerous parts of the fell alliance from the Dragon’s Breath Mountains brings final inhuman war upon Warminster, and I do not need Erudian Sight to know that the realm will scream with agony before sighing with relieved salvation as this truly epic and unpredictable saga concludes.

“The blade of betrayal, the sharpest of weapons, is wielded not by your enemies, but by your friends." – Warminster the Mage

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

I have finished Anne McCaffrey's original The Dragonriders of Pern trilogy

I have finished The White Dragon, the third and final volume of Anne McCaffrey's original The Dragonriders of Pern trilogy.

I know what you are thinking: "Well, Ian, better late than never. About time you read one of Fantasy literature's most famous works, the one that put dragon riders on the map, no less!" I absolutely agree and enjoyed every word of it. A unique Fantasy and Sci-Fi blend even by today's standards, in the early days of the genre – post-Tolkien but pre-Rowling – it must have been staggering. Indeed, I saw truly how all Dragon Riders literary DNA descended from the Dragonriders of Pern and the resemblance, which some exceptions, of course, remains strong.

Beyond that, thus it is that Jaxom, rider of white Ruth, changes and protects the face of Pern from Thread and the bitter jealousies of diehard traditionalists, Oldtimers, raw ambition, and well-meaning friends who need to adapt as well. All while, under the baleful Red Star's eye, having fun on the way. Let's face it, exploration of terra incognita and the history of the original Pernese settlers, plus dragon training and finding love is about as good as it gets – even if it was touch-and-go a few times.

So it is that I depart Pern, 3rd planet of the Rukbat system in the Sagittarian sector. Perhaps not forever as Anne McCaffrey wrote many Pern books, the series as a whole covering over two and a half millennia (and I would like to learn more about the Dawn Sisters). But now, for right now, I take my leave of the world.

My duty to you and fly far Lessa of Ruatha and golden Ramoth, F'lar and bronze Mnementh, F'nor and brown Canth, Brekke, Jaxom and white Ruth, Masterharper Robinto, T'bor and bronze Orth, D'ramand bronze Tiroth, Harper Menolly, Mastersmith Fandarel, Sharra, and many others of Weyr and Hold.

Honor those the dragons heed,
In thought and favor, word and deed.
Worlds are lost or worlds are saved
From those dangers dragon-braved. 

Dragonman, avoid excess;
Greed will bring the Weyr distress;
To the ancient Laws adhere,
Prospers thus the Dragonweyr.

Weyrman, watch; Weyrman, learn,
Something new in every Turn.
Oldest may be coldest, too.
Sense the right; find the true!

Wheel and turn or bleed and burn.
Fly between, Blue and Green.
Soar, dive down, Bronze and Brown.
Dragonmen must fly when threads are in the sky.