Tommye Turner's Blog: The Fantasy Review, page 187

October TBR – 2019

I am not a huge fan of TBRs (for myself) as I feel it adds a lot of pressure, so I’m just going to talk about the books I want to read from now and through October, but without promising to read all of them!

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

I just picked this book up two days ago and I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s so nice to settle back into Rothfuss’ lyrical prose and watch Kvothe be too good at everything!

I think I’ll be taking this one slowly, taking time to enjoy it. Mainly...

Why You Should Read ‘The Age of Five’ Trilogy by Trudi Canavan

I never see much online about Trudi Canavan or her books, and that’s a shame! It also doesn’t make any sense to me when they are so good!

The most popular series, I believe, is The Black Magician trilogy and the associated prequel. (The sequel trilogy is also good – EVERYTHING SHE WRITES IS GOOD!)

Anyway, The Age of Five is an incredible series about manipulation on all levels, conflicts of epic proportions, and wonderfully real, vivid characters. Honestly, there is a hag-like character in t...

Amazon’s LoTR TV Show, What Do You Want to See? // Tolkien TV Talk

So, Amazon are making a TV show based on the Second Age in Tolkien’s Legendarium. For those who are fans of Peter Jackson’s films, and those who may have read The Lord of the Rings and/or The Hobbit, the question ‘What is the Second Age?’ might have been the first thing you googled.

I am by no means the most well-read Tolkien fan (by this I mean I have only read The Silmarillion once and am yet to read Unfinished Tales). However, I have done a lot of reading and research into Tolkien’s Legen...

Why I’m Stuck on Book 5 of The Wheel of Time Series

If you have seen any of my reviews for books 1-4 of Robert Jordan’s series, you will know that I have loved most of them and enjoyed the others. (I will leave links below of the reviews).

This book, however, is slow. Even by Wheel of Time standards! That is not to say that it is not good – the writing is lovely (like your Grandad telling you a story), and the characters and world are as vivid as ever.

I have an issue with the repetition.

Everything is being repeated, over and over and over...

Why You Should Read ‘The Name of the Wind’

, I talked about struggling to move past the first 40 pages. Since then, I have heard that a lot of other people either struggled past the first bit or didn’t bother trying – I’m glad I’m not the only one!

This book is well worth the small amount of effort at the beginning and here are my reasons why.

It is SO easy to read!

Excluding any book written by Brandon Sanderson, The Name of the Wind is one of the easiest fantasy books to read. After those initial confusing pages, (When Kvothe’s story begins, basically), you will start flicking through the pages at an incredible pace!

The story moves quickly (except for maybe one point near the middle – I can’t go into much detail for fear of spoilers – but he spends a long time somewhere. There is a reason for this, but it makes it a little slow, nonetheless). This makes each chapter fast to read, so even though it’s a big book, it won’t take that long to read.

The Writing is Incredible

Rothfuss’ beautiful, lyrical writing is my prime example for why the fantasy genre can be literary. It is a pleasure to dive into Rothfuss’ prose and get lost in it. I don’t read a lot of fantasy books that focus’ on language like this.

The Hero Narrative is Different

I am so often bored by the hero archetype. To be more specific, I get bored by the overuse of certain aspects of the archetype. Kvothe is good at everything, and learns whatever he needs to quickly, which allows the story to move quickly. This is, of course, not different to the typical hero, however there are two main differences I love:

Most of Kvothe’s story is told by him to The Chronicler (a scribe, basically). The story is therefore unreliable and that makes it so much more interesting to read. You can tell what the speaker thinks of themselves, their past selves, and the people around them. There are moments you can see the narrator essentially lying and that’s fun! It’s different.Kvothe’s ‘refusal to the call of adventure’ is so long! This might be a negative aspect of the story for some, but I really enjoyed it. We spend a decent amount of the book watching as Kvothe travels and learns skills that have no typical bearing on the typical hero’s narrative. It is a bold choice by Rothfuss, I think, but it works well.

We explore the world with the Narrator

Many fantasy writers create a large, wonderful world and have wizards and other wise old people tell the main character all about the world as the story goes along. Yes, there are a few moments where this happens in The Name of the Wind, however most of the book is Kvothe finding things out for himself.

I like the fact that a lot of what Kvothe wants to learn, he has to go and find out for himself, and most of the things he is taught by others is just the stuff they (the teachers) think is important.

If you have read The Name of the Wind, what do you think of these reasons for reading the book? What would you add or do you disagree with?

Links:

Worldbuilding #2: The Importance of Character

I am a huge fan of the way Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ trilogy does not rely on the importance of character. This may seem like an odd introduction to a post about the importance of character, however I just wanted to iterate that I believe good books have been written, and can still be written, where this does not always apply.

If you have read A Game of Thrones or anything by Brandon Sanderson, you will know how much of an effect vivid, vibrant characters have on a story.

A Game of Thrones without it’s hugely complex characters would be boring! We need to be kept on our toes, or feel satisfied when a character does something that is in tune with what has been foreshadowed in their previous characterisation.

To use Vin as an example, from Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, the struggle of the character is at the forefront of the story. We care deeply about Vin and what she is going through. We want her to succeed because we know her thoughts, we know her pain, and we know that she wants the best possible outcome. Watching a character like Vin succeed (or even fail), is powerful and emotional. That is what you want for your characters.

I think this is especially important in the fantasy and science fiction genres.

When you have spent so much time creating a large world in which to tell your story, you can have all the planned battles and events you want, but if the reader does not care about your characters – ‘good’ or ‘evil’ (I’ll talk about that outdated terminology in a later post), then the story will be dull.

Think about a time in history you learnt at school. When you were taught about WWI/WW2, you will have probably been taught about some people from that time who did incredible things (good and bad). These people make history feel real, otherwise it is just a story. How history affected people’s lives is what we are interested in. It is the same for a big, epic fantasy book. We need main characters who are affected by the events of the story and we need to care about them and their actions.

I stated earlier that I believe this is especially important in the fantasy and FT genres. This is because many new writers to the genre forget that their characters have to interact with the history of the world they have created, or are creating. They explore the events of the history without exploring the manipulators and the manipulated. These people are the essence of the story. Without them, you have written a history book that no one will want to read.

Let me know if you agree with what I have said above and what your thoughts on character in relation to the history of a fantasy world.

Are there any writing advice posts you would like to see in the future? I have one scheduled talking about ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ characters and a couple more ideas too, but I would love to know your thoughts!

My Writing Routine

It has been a while since I regularly uploaded to this site, so I figured the best way to return properly is to talk about my writing routine.

I just finished doing a BA English and Creative Writing degree and have now started an MA in Creative Writing, so I’ve had to hone my writing routine to be able to meet deadlines.

I am an early morning person. I know a lot of people who work from 5pm to very late at night but that’s not something I can do! I wake up at around 6:30am, have breakfast and make a pot of coffee. I then sit at my desk and write until my coffee is finished. If I want to write more at that time, I do. If not, I have a break for half an hour. Maybe watch some Youtube videos or read a little. Not too long though, or I can’t get back into writing.

One of the ways I keep myself writing is to not focus on the word count. I write short list of checkpoints and work towards the next one on the list. This is especially useful when editing as the prospect of editing can become overwhelming without a set of tasks to work through.

After working from 7am to 12am, I eat some food, go for a walk, get the shopping – I do the chores and admin of the day.

My afternoons are no where near as productive as my mornings, so I don’t worry too much about how much I can get done. I tend to make a large cup of tea and work until it’s finished (at least). If I can’t do any work in this time, I just stare at the page or the wall! Then, if something comes to mind, I can do it. If I procrastinated at that point, I wouldn’t get any work done.

I do as much as I can int the afternoon but I’m definitely finished by 4pm which is when I read and watch a load of TV!

I hope you got something out of my sharing my writing routine! How similar is this to yours? Let me know down in the comments what time of day you are the post productive.

Talking of routines, I will be spending the next week scheduling posts every day from now on, so come back and check out new writing tips, book reviews, and general fantasy nattering! Follow the site or sign up for email updates if you don’t want to miss a post.

Titans – ‘Ghosts’ – Season 2, Episode 3: TV Review

SPOILERS ahead.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Well, this episode was a little better. We were introduced a little more to the villains of the show. I only just realised that Doctor Light is played by that guy in Scrubs (the later series) and he’s perfect for the role of a cocky, going-to-get-stabbed-by-Deathstroke character!

Some character motivations were revealed which was good – I am finally interested in Rose’s character now I know why she wants to kill Deathstroke. Dick’s response to this is dull (h...

Titans – ‘Rose’ – Season 2, Episode 2: TV Review

There may be SPOILERS in this post.

My Rating: 3/5

I was right; this is an introductory, episode 1. One thing I was not right about, however, was the length of time it would take to get everyone back together.

Titan Tower is a little underwhelming. For anyone who loves the Batcave or Arrow’s underground HQ, this base of operations has a lot to make up for. I’m not sure why, but a flat in a city is a little dull. (That’s a very minor point and obviously has no bearing on my rating of the episo...

Titans – ‘Trigon’ – Season 2, Episode 1: TV Review

My Rating: 3/5

After being a little disappointed by the ending of a mediocre first season, episode 1 of season 2 gave us the ending season 1 needed.

There may be SPOILERS ahead (but not too many!)

This episode was a completion of what season 1 began. The group of heros met with the villain, killed him, and then started a new journey.

The death of the villain was unsatisfying to say the least. I am glad, however, that he is dead now. I am sick of DC using CGI villains – there is nothing to th...