Tag Archives: reading

The Very Definition of a Modern Fantasy Novel

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Your new batch of modern urban supernatural fantasy

Got the January GoodReads newsletter today, and as per usual, I scrolled through the new releases by genre only to be let down by what is currently being passed off as “fantasy.”

Skim these and meet me on the other side:

Shadow Heir by Richelle Mead

From the description, “The uneasy truce between her and her shape shifter ex-lover Kiyo is endangered by secrets he can’t–or won’t–reveal.”

Silver-Tongued Devil by Jaye Wells

From the description,”Now that the threat of war has passed, Sabina Kane is ready to focus on the future. Her relationship with Adam Lazarus is getting stronger and she’s helping her sister, Maisie, overcome the trauma of her captivity in New Orleans.”

Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter

From the description, “The vampires of Asheville, North Carolina, want to establish their own clan, but since they owe loyalty to the Master Vampire of New Orleans they must work out the terms with him.”

Sins of the Demon by Diana Rowland

From the description, “The homicide beat in Louisiana isn’t just terrifying, it’s demonic. Detective Kara Gilligan of the supernatural task force…”

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

From the description, “She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.”

Back? Okay, good. Did you catch the trend there? These aren’t fantasy books with tangential nods to the real world, they’re real world books with tangential nods (or thick gloopy swaths) of overlaid fantastic elements.

Don’t get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to the authors of these books (and props for getting through the chain), but I am really disliking the current trend of fantasy that seems like it was put together with shovels.

The publishing industry likes to force some semblance of standardization amongst genres as well as creating finite sub genres (You know, like Supernatural Military Epic Fantasy), all in the name of making books easier to sell. However, when pushing books at the super genre level, can we at least get some damn variety in there?

I think we all know who to blame.

Not Everything is Down – Good News for Books

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Despite the troubled economy, despite my wallet being a bit leaner and looser than I would like, I managed to make a pilgrimage to Barnes and Noble this weekend and pick up a couple of books. It appears that I am not alone in this.

With the recent spate of tragic news regarding the publishing industry at large, the New York Times is running a story this morning that should be a welcomed ray of light. For the first time since the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) started keeping track in 1982, the number of adults reading for pleasure has increased.

The jump was rather significant – 3.5% – and one that means that the majority of Americans over 18 now read at least one novel, short story, poem, or plays in either print or online, a year. While phrasing the statistic like this makes it seem like the NEA is casting a particularly broad net, it is significant for one very important reason.

Reading is addictive. Not addictive in the sense that you’re going to cart your television down to the pawn shop so you can score some Russian Lit, rather addictive in that once you start doing it, it can quickly become a part of your life.

With the economy in it’s current sad state, and people shifting into Depression-Era mentality, does this bode well for books? With a paperback novel ranging around $8, and lasting the better part of 10 or 12 hours to read – there’s certainly a far better bang for your buck the the other entertainment mediums which are competing for the few dollars allocated to them in the average budget.

As far as my weekend purchases? I am ramping up from the release of Watchmen and picked up the graphic novel – which I devoured in the weekend. I also snagged a fantasy novel by an author I’d never heard of before – Raymond E. Feist. After doing a little research on him, his writing history has a lot of similarity to my own.

More on that to come.

And by the by, my Sunday morning copy of the Washington Post never showed. Or it was lifted. Either way, I’m still iritated about that.