by Robert Hamm

Created on: May 13, 2009   Last Updated: May 18, 2009

Is fantasy stale? Maybe if the only fantasy you read is the trite young adult stuff written for the tweens that the media has in turn, sold to us. Or all you do is trounce around in your hobbit feet muttering about your precious Tolkien. I read fantasy for ten years before I read a word of his work.

Anyone who hasn't read Stephen Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, go read it, then come back and tell me that's been done before. Mortals ascending into gods. An ancient race people one and all immortals, millions of years old. Ascension of new gods, the death of old. A medieval style army armed with explosives. Intricately plotted books that boggle the mind and leave you with no idea where the author is taking you.

Pick up Robin Hobb's recent Soldier's Son trilogy and tell me that her fantasies are filled with stock characters and rehashed plot lines. The tale of a young man chosen by the primitive magics of an indigenous people. A magic that cuts his conciousness in two and consistantly wrecks his life forcing him on the path the magic needs him on. Separating him from everything he ever wanted and everyone he ever loved. These books are a whole new kind of fantasy flavor. They are as psychologically complex as anything written by anyone anywhere.

Sure, there's magic and fighting wizards and magical beings. That's what makes it a fantasy. And if you're gonna write a trilogy or more the fate of the world had better lie in the balance. Why else would we be reading?

And some authors can take these fantasy elements and twist them so out of shape as to be almost unrecognizable. George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice is one of the best fantasy series ever written and it's not even done yet. Who here read Terry Gookind's the Sword of Truth series? I did. Most of the books more than once. Not only was it a great fantasy, but it is one of the most important works of objectivist literature since Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Has there ever been a mind like Neil Gaiman's? We won't even go there.

But if you still think Tolkien or CS Lewis are the greatest ever or all you read is the pop lit stuff mass marketed at Wal-mart, then yeah, I imagine your fantasy meal is a little stale.

If you still hunt the book shelves and take note of those writers you see steadily churning out well received books and because you haven't heard their name on Access Hollywood. Or you have the courage and wisdom to take the recommendation of a stranger in a bookstore, you would know that fantasy is more varied, vibrant and yes, fresh than ever.

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