Newsletter 11-25

Odd Fantasy

         As promised, this week's edition revolves around odd fantasy. So what is that anyway? For purposes of this note, it's any fantasy that breaks from the norm in some way.

         In many ways, Harry Potter is odd fantasy. While it has many of the fantasy archetypes in it, they are all pulled into the modern world, and then set to play off with youths in the spotlight. However, odd fantasy has a rich tradition before this.

         Many years ago, Peter Beagle wrote a book called The Last Unicorn. It had all the stock fantasy characters in it, but they were all turned at least 90 degrees. We had the Damsel in Distress, but she was really a Unicorn. She was under a curse, but it wasn't a curse that was put on her deliberately. We had the mighty Magician. Except he wasn't that mighty. In fact he was the one who accidentally turned the Unicorn into a damsel in distress. He had little to no control over his magic. We had the noble warrior, except he was the son of the villain of the piece. Everything was there, but it was all just a little off. And yet it worked.

         I differentiate odd fantasy from humorous fantasy. For all their relative strangeness, the two examples above are still serious fantasy stories. Sure there is plenty of comic relief, just like in Lord of the Rings.

         So, how can you, the fantasy author, make an odd fantasy story? It isn't as tough as it sounds. Fantasy is ripe with well used themes and plot devices. Pick a favorite, and turn it on it's ear.

         Imagine, for example, an epic quest where the hero must take an ancient aritfact of evil to an far away place to bring about it's destruction. We've all read that one before proably more than once. But what if...

         What if the hero was a goblin instead of a more heroic race? What if the artifact was alive and could fight back against it's destroyers? What if the artifact was good instead of evil, but by it's very nature was disrupting the balance? All of these follow the standard fantasy plot, but they take it in a somewhat new direction, making it odd.

         Make the monster the hero of the piece. Make your elves feral and hostile to all who defile the woods by their very presence. Make the Dragons tortured beings hunted to near extinction. Make magic an intelligent force with its own goals. It's all good.

         So give it a try. Write me an odd fantasy story, and submit it to the newsletter. I'll give 1000 GPs to all entrys and feature as many of them as will fit in the next newsletter.

Colin Back on the Ghost Roads