Chompa’s Comments (group member since Feb 16, 2015)

Chompa’s comments from the Grimdark Fantasy group.

I'm loving this discussion. I also am happy to see so many roleplayers here. I am still into D&D at nearly 49 years old. So I've read a number of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realm books.

My first grimdark? I'm sure it was before the term was coined, but I'd have a hard time pinning it down. The Conan books are more Sword and Sorcery, but they certainly have grimdark aspects to them.

After my Tolkien reading, I think the series that most influenced me were Roger Zelazny's "Chronicles of Amber" and then David Eddings' "Belgariad". Amber was not your typical fantasy novel and I think that made it even better. The Beglariad is very typical on the other hand, but I loved it. The kid growing up as a pawn of prophecy trope hadn't worn thin yet.

Read the book. I'm certain it is better.

Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" ends with a good example of the norm being turned upside down. I've not seen the movie so not sure if that ends the same way. Probably not?

Yes, we'll get a short story of Glotka when he was a heroic officer shortly before being captured and tortured horribly.

Good point, Gry. I recall that episode of Star Trek "Let That Be Your Battlefield" where racism was starkly outed as ridiculous in a way that no one could deny just by virtue of the sci fi setting.

For those poor souls that might not remember it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi7QQ...

Silvana, I'd say War Memoirs are more grimdark than anything because they are absolutely real. I had an Uncle who was in Bataan in WWII, who never talked about it, but I've read about what went on there.

This is an excellent point. I've read a lot of books that I guess could be called Grimdark that are not traditional fantasy. Everything I've ever read by Charlie Huston has been Grimdark as Hell. Some of it is kind of Urban Fantasy (his Joe Pitt books) and some is just a raw crime story (The Hank Thompson trilogy). Another Urban Fantasy is the Twenty Palaces books by Harry Connally.

So that all said, I think Urban Fantasy tends to have a bit more grimdark by nature. The Hank Thompson books are Hard Boiled Noir in a modern setting. Again - Grim is expected.

Now the question that is really got me pondering? Why do I like these kind of books? What is it about suffering and torment and darkness that appeals to me? Am I raving psycho? I'd like say not yet. I think it is more that the suffering and darkness makes it more compelling. Makes me feel the highs and lows better in the story.

So Gry - for a modern/real world setting that is Grimdark, I'd highly recommend Charlie Huston's Hank Thompson trilogy.

Brittany, I've been on a couple email lists that send me free and/or discounted books that are available. For me, I find them to provide books I probably don't want to read. I've got SO many I DO want to read, that I quit looking at that stuff.

On the flip side - A buddy of mine found those lists awesome and read all sorts of stuff that I'd have never looked at.

Gry wrote Ha, awesome. Hope it's not a stereotypical sort of gay character. How was the book in general?

The gay character was a former Imperial Loyalty Officer and it was only revealed he was gay when propositioned by a woman. In other words, his actions/personality/etc was "normal". Personally, his was my favorite character both before and after the revelation.

Overall the book was very solid. And a bit different for a Star Wars novel. Here's my review of it. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

That explains a lot. Wendig (with Disney's OK, I'm certain) also introduced what I assume is the first gay character in Star Wars. I'm actually surprised I've not heard an uproar regarding it.

I just finished Aftermath and it was heavy with strong female characters.

I like this group a lot and enjoy their opinions whether the subject is Grimdark or not. That said - it is a place to discuss Grimdark.

Excellent point Deborah. I thought I had posted about it not being Grimdark before but apparently the internet stole my thoughts away. I'm not opposed to giving it a read though!

One of my favorite review sites is Bibliosanctum. The three ladies that run the site do a variety of reviews, but most are SciFi, Fantasy or comics. One of my favorite features is the Tough Traveling that they put out on Thursdays. It picks a trope/concept of SciFi/Fantasy and picks books out that match it. Recent subjects have been Knights, Middle-Aged Heroes, High Priests, Extreme Climates, etc.. You get the picture.

This week the subject is Tough Traveling: A Lady and Her Sword, which I thought was perfect for this discussion thread. You can check out the post here. http://bibliosanctum.com/2015/09/24/t...

Good Omens, that's it! Thanks, Mark.

And I wrote that before looking at Brittany's link to the poll results. Holy smokes!

Additional comments - I love Dresden, but he doesn't belong on this list. Neither does that Potter brat and his cohorts. Also - I've never even heard of the Green Rider series.

Gry, I've had the same thought. Especially regarding Discworld. I read a Pratchett/Gaiman collaboration a while back (the name escapes me) and it was excellent.

During this poll I've googled a bunch of character names I didn't know. It is no lie to say that about 60% of the names ended up being Pratchett characters from Discworld.

My youngest son watched the original Avatar: The Airbender series at least five times. Truly a great show.

I agree that Katara was kind of annoying.

Sokka and Aang had more comedic stuff than anyone. Zuko did a great redemption path and Iroh was the uncle we all want. Bolin had the Samwise vibe with a comedic twist, but he was still a favorite.

I really hope they do another series.