Like indie games, indie books have taken on a life of their own and are mutating to fill every possible niche and fetish, and it turns out that when you divorce publishing from big publishers, authors with a strong work ethic and basic business acumen can actually make a living without being an international best-seller, since people do love regularly published installments of familiar fantasies (something must fill the gap left by popular authors ceasing to write books to focus on their HBO adaptions).
Once you retire from writing games and find that you need to work to feel complete, you could try your hand at writing and publishing your own fantasy novels. It works the same way as your games except that you publish them on Kindle instead of Steam.
That's not true - it's just some folks take longer in creation and focus shift and stuff and the fortune lets them do that.
I mean on the other side of the fantasy author's production side is Brandon Sanderson who writes at a prolific rate large, complex fantasy books in various settings with robust rules. Since being published in 2006 he has written 30 novels - discounting the written with other than Wheel of Time - and a number of novellas and short stories.
Different people work at different paces and suggesting artists need to be poor, unwell or the like just perpetuates a damaging myth about that
The sweet spot is authors who write professionally and earn enough to support a nice, middle-class life, but haven't had a big hit make them rich and famous, or overly concerned with having the last couple of books in their series be absolutely perfect. Digital publishing is great at facilitating this, and I haven't read anything from any of the big publishers in years, kind of like how the only computer games I play are Spiderweb Software games, with the exception of the occasional playthrough of the original Baldur's Gate and Fallout.
Always love reading your stuff (and playing your games).
I think one of my favorite aspects of good science fiction is when it features non-fantastic characters in fantastic situations. Probably the reason I don't usually like superhero movies very much. I would much rather read about real people dealing with invented problems than pure fantasy on all sides--just like I will never understand how people stomach these fights between two computer generated superheroes. How many times do I need to watch the Hulk punch another invincible super when neither of them are affected by the sequence in the least?
Contrast that with any masterful sci fi (Dune, Canticle for Leibowitz), or newer stuff that's also incredible (Marrow by Robert Reed, anything by Peter Hamilton), or even great fantasy (the ACTUAL lord of the rings books) where you see glimpses of real people doing things the way you would, if you were somewhere else.
The fantasy is the situation, not the person. I guess it means that I don't fantasize about being someone else, just having different adventures.
And I'll always hold up Middlemarch in any discussion of fiction as a book that is so utterly TRUE while still managing to be at turns hilarious, moving, and eminently readable.
Great post. I asked about David Eddings a few months ago before rereading the Belgariad. It was pretty fun -- until the last book, which was a horrible boring slog start to finish.
I hadn't thought about why, until now. Maybe it was because new characters were no longer being introduced, which exposed the cardboard-thinness of the existing ones. There are just no surprises in general. For example, the only tension comes from the hero worrying about the final duel, which we know he will win. And he's merely going from A to B, not training in the mountains like Rocky.
I'm sure further posts here will inform my assessment.
I haven't seen the new Red Dawn. The old Red Dawn is a relic (an AWESOME relic) from a different era. Even the new red dawn is, while only from a decade ago, seems from a very distant time. I wonder if the gun-heavy bit of it would keep it from being greenlit in 2023.
"Ender's Game" admittedly has a bit more fantasy going on than the base reality, but it's closer to "teenagers with AR-15s" than Harry Potter ;)
I kind of disagree on decline of science fiction. You do have to wade through power fantasy space operas, but the quality, thoughtful sci-fi exists still, and can even become popular (Greg Egan's and half of Neal Stephenson's books, for example). I'm reading Max Harms' "Crystal Society" right now, and it's the best book about AI from viewpoint of AI I've ever read.
Peter F Hamilton is writing spectacular and thoughtful science fiction. Dan Simmons hasn't written epic sci fi in a while but his are absolute masterpieces.
Is there actually less science fiction (in total) these days, or is there just an explosion of other types of more popular content, so it's less relatively prevalent? (honest answer, I don't know offhand)
Like indie games, indie books have taken on a life of their own and are mutating to fill every possible niche and fetish, and it turns out that when you divorce publishing from big publishers, authors with a strong work ethic and basic business acumen can actually make a living without being an international best-seller, since people do love regularly published installments of familiar fantasies (something must fill the gap left by popular authors ceasing to write books to focus on their HBO adaptions).
Once you retire from writing games and find that you need to work to feel complete, you could try your hand at writing and publishing your own fantasy novels. It works the same way as your games except that you publish them on Kindle instead of Steam.
My mockery of popular fantasy authors is, admittedly, unfair. I just keep doing it because I derive limitless amusement from doing so.
It's pretty spot on. Fame and fortune is the bane of artists, who evidently work best when on the brink of ruin and starvation.
That's not true - it's just some folks take longer in creation and focus shift and stuff and the fortune lets them do that.
I mean on the other side of the fantasy author's production side is Brandon Sanderson who writes at a prolific rate large, complex fantasy books in various settings with robust rules. Since being published in 2006 he has written 30 novels - discounting the written with other than Wheel of Time - and a number of novellas and short stories.
Different people work at different paces and suggesting artists need to be poor, unwell or the like just perpetuates a damaging myth about that
The sweet spot is authors who write professionally and earn enough to support a nice, middle-class life, but haven't had a big hit make them rich and famous, or overly concerned with having the last couple of books in their series be absolutely perfect. Digital publishing is great at facilitating this, and I haven't read anything from any of the big publishers in years, kind of like how the only computer games I play are Spiderweb Software games, with the exception of the occasional playthrough of the original Baldur's Gate and Fallout.
Always love reading your stuff (and playing your games).
I think one of my favorite aspects of good science fiction is when it features non-fantastic characters in fantastic situations. Probably the reason I don't usually like superhero movies very much. I would much rather read about real people dealing with invented problems than pure fantasy on all sides--just like I will never understand how people stomach these fights between two computer generated superheroes. How many times do I need to watch the Hulk punch another invincible super when neither of them are affected by the sequence in the least?
Contrast that with any masterful sci fi (Dune, Canticle for Leibowitz), or newer stuff that's also incredible (Marrow by Robert Reed, anything by Peter Hamilton), or even great fantasy (the ACTUAL lord of the rings books) where you see glimpses of real people doing things the way you would, if you were somewhere else.
The fantasy is the situation, not the person. I guess it means that I don't fantasize about being someone else, just having different adventures.
And I'll always hold up Middlemarch in any discussion of fiction as a book that is so utterly TRUE while still managing to be at turns hilarious, moving, and eminently readable.
I think it's really important to have recognizable humanity in these stories. Otherwise, the reader has nothing to mentally grab onto.
And yet, I'm really enjoying the later Dune books, even though the characters are rapidly becoming entirely divorced from humanity. Interesting.
Great post. I asked about David Eddings a few months ago before rereading the Belgariad. It was pretty fun -- until the last book, which was a horrible boring slog start to finish.
I hadn't thought about why, until now. Maybe it was because new characters were no longer being introduced, which exposed the cardboard-thinness of the existing ones. There are just no surprises in general. For example, the only tension comes from the hero worrying about the final duel, which we know he will win. And he's merely going from A to B, not training in the mountains like Rocky.
I'm sure further posts here will inform my assessment.
"Nobody wants to publish books about giving 9th graders AR-15s."
But you could do it with a movie (and a remake of the movie)!
"Wolverines!!"
Alternate history is a form of fantasy. :-)
I haven't seen the new Red Dawn. The old Red Dawn is a relic (an AWESOME relic) from a different era. Even the new red dawn is, while only from a decade ago, seems from a very distant time. I wonder if the gun-heavy bit of it would keep it from being greenlit in 2023.
"Ender's Game" admittedly has a bit more fantasy going on than the base reality, but it's closer to "teenagers with AR-15s" than Harry Potter ;)
I kind of disagree on decline of science fiction. You do have to wade through power fantasy space operas, but the quality, thoughtful sci-fi exists still, and can even become popular (Greg Egan's and half of Neal Stephenson's books, for example). I'm reading Max Harms' "Crystal Society" right now, and it's the best book about AI from viewpoint of AI I've ever read.
Peter F Hamilton is writing spectacular and thoughtful science fiction. Dan Simmons hasn't written epic sci fi in a while but his are absolute masterpieces.
This... may be the best thing I've ever read.
Is there actually less science fiction (in total) these days, or is there just an explosion of other types of more popular content, so it's less relatively prevalent? (honest answer, I don't know offhand)
I still reread Discworld novels every year, they're my favourite fantasy novels. GNU Terry Pratchett.
Regarding Harry Potter done straight, no magic, with assault weapons: https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-30822 and of course this is fanfic.