by Thomas Grace

Created on: September 14, 2010

I remember it well.  It has been almost twenty-five years since I first ventured into the Underdark, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  A good friend of mine let me borrow his copy of Homeland (book 1 of the Dark Elf Trilogy) and I read it in about six hours.  I still don’t know how deep the rabbit hole goes.

The fantasy genre definitely has not become stagnant.  Unless by stagnant you mean overfilled with imaginanative adventures.  What I learned soon after picking up that first copy of Homeland was that there is literally no end to the place you can go and fascinating characters you can meet when you visit someone else’s imagination.

Tolkien is held by many to be the father of modern fantasy-and rightly so.  But he did not begin the genre.  That honor would go back to Homer who gave us the Iliad and the Odyssey.  But Tolkien breathed the breath of life and opened the gates to all who would come, both readers and writers.

Tolkien’s groundwork, along with the contributions of Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax and Steve Jackson, may be the reason some think the genre has come to a standstill.  To the casual observer, it may seem as if there is nothing new under the sun. 

The influence of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings permeates every page of every fantasy book ever written.  How could it not?  That is like saying the Holy Bible has influenced every Christian based religious book ever written.

Couple that with the innumerable volumes based in the worlds of AD&D and it’s easy to see why some are confused.  But...The Halfling’s Gem is not The Hobbit.  The Eye of the World is not Fellowship of the Ring.  Wizard’s First Rule is not Star Wars: A New Hope.  Each addition adds something new to the pot.  So what if the pot is overflowing?  Isn’t that a good thing?

Don’t get me wrong, I love it when something fresh comes along.  I look forward the beginning a new series from a rookie writer.  But I still love Tolkien, Salvatore, Goodkind, Jordan, Lewis, and Brooks.

Do yourself a favor and head to the bookstore today and get one of the classics you don’t have.  While you are there, pick up something new.  When you’re read them pass them on to someone else.  You’ll feel better.  Fantasy is not stagnant, far from it. 

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