McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
What do you wish would be done MORE in urban fantasy?
Kristine:
--- Quote ---Sort of the Buffy-syndrome, you always have to have something bigger and more evil in the next story arch. On the other hand, it's what we want, right? I mean if you review Jim Butcher's writing journal he says that every "scene" has to build and push forward the confrontation, expose a new weakness, a new possibility for failure--but at the end of the day the hero wins by over coming that weakness.
--- End quote ---
Building and pushing forward doesn't necessarily mean it has to be larger and more explosive. I think the world - and by extension - the magic in urban fantasy - Could be an incredibly complex place with various cultures, architecture/sacred places, deities, reality paradigms and mythoses.
Take a Mayan artifact to a Chinese Shinto temple where it falls into the hands of European tourist who is a believer in the Norse mythos to fight a group of Egyptian evil spirits touring with a museum exhibit. Give him/her and Aussie side kick and an American web designer researcher for info and you have an adventure that could really go any which way. (whew!) - How would the Chinese authorities take to this tourist slaying monsters in their streets? Would the local magic groups try to help? Is there politics within the country that could help or hinder the hero? Does Interpol do this kind of thing? – Is anyone looking for the Mayan artifact and are they good or bad guys? How do various cultural magic paradigms work with each other?
Okay too many questions now I’m dizzy. So many possibilities.
Throw Tom Clancy into high fantasy in a modern urban setting. You wouldn’t even need to always have the same characters; just a pre-determined set of rules that you would have to establish (see info dump) on your reader in an interesting way.
I think it would take a lot of research to do well but that sounds like a blast to read.
I would like to see more novels that take place in one world with a set group of rules that have shared characters with various authors – or even the same author who concentrates on different people for stand alone, related books. I would like to see the rules of magic – the logic behind it –more explained and not just the usual ‘he did the fog ritual’. I would like to see more average people (and Yes, Jami, I too would like those average people to be less than physically perfect) participate in the fun even if it is only as side characters. I would like to see the flaws and imperfections of the main characters not easily overcome and not always in a spectacular epiphany. Some psychosis take years to develop and will take years of work to go away.
That’s my 2 cents anyway.
meg_evonne:
Quote from Kristine: "I would like to see more novels that take place in one world with a set group of rules that have shared characters with various authors – or even the same author who concentrates on different people for stand alone, related books."
This holiday season I saw a trailer for Narnia sequel. I wasn't a huge fan of the Narnia books, (I was a big fan of CS Lewis' other books and especially his adult trilogy) when I was a child, but I did have a strange fondness for one of the stand alone books in the series called "The Horse and his Boy" It will be interesting to see if they continue beyond the Prince Caspian (2nd book in series) to the novels that didn't overlap as the first two did.
It was an interesting comment kristine to think about.
MatthewD44:
I have to say that a common universe for a set of authors would be a very interesting set to read IMO.
david-de-beer:
Shared universe -I don't know, maybe. RPG retaled books have often done this. Shadowrun was pretty cool, while it lived and it certainly was easier to pick up a book at random and know that the rules of the world stay the same. Again, though, so much depends on the treatment the individual writer gives it. What I find with shared worlds -whether Shadowrun, Battletech or Dragonlance - there's inevitable only 1-2 writers I read and the rest I don't.
Somethign that I would also like to see is more of a clash between mythologies. Ok, we have the Mayan artifact, but is the object itself powered regardless of who uses it? does it depend on belief and therefore strenght in its gods to function? if no one believes in the Mayan gods anymore does the artifact lose its powers? or maybe a ring from Norse myth that can banish demons looks exactly similar to a ring from Sumerian mythos that's used to summon demons.
Kristine:
--- Quote ---Shared universe -I don't know, maybe. RPG retaled books have often done this. Shadowrun was pretty cool, while it lived and it certainly was easier to pick up a book at random and know that the rules of the world stay the same. Again, though, so much depends on the treatment the individual writer gives it. What I find with shared worlds -whether Shadowrun, Battletech or Dragonlance - there's inevitable only 1-2 writers I read and the rest I don't.
--- End quote ---
Before RPG (or maybe at the same time but I thought it was before...) there was the Sanctuary series - a rough fantasy based town that had short stories that spun off into novels for the popular characters (see the novel Lythande by Marion Zimmer Bradley) and, for us super hero fans the collection of characters in the Wild Card series.
--- Quote ---Something that I would also like to see is more of a clash between mythologies
--- End quote ---
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I think it would be more fun to make them NOT clash but simply interfere - like conflicting electronics. I'm reminded of the 2nd or 3rd Weekend At Bernies movie where a dead body was reanimated but because a pigeon was used instead of chicken (I don't remember the issue completely) the corpse danced instead of walked and followed orders. If the ring that banishes Demons was worn at the same time as the one that calls them would the magic user accidently stick a mess of demons in a state of flux between being in this world and that one? Would they get here and be unable to affect anything, and so be REALLY pissed off? If the Chinese temple was one of peace and the Mayan artifact was to strike off the heads of your enimies would the resulting mix give the affected a headache and a painful personal epiphany?
I think half the fun of Urban fantasy is watching how the characters use common objects to make them uncommon. If a certain artifact requires a ritual be done everyday to make it work (in the past that ritual had been lighting candles and praying) if I pick up a box of Hostess HoHos on the way home and eat 2 of them while watching the news every day - does that ritual count?
That's the kind of stuff I think is fun to read and would like to see more of.
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