[allanon]

Well,I still remember the good old days when
authors works with familiar creatures like
dwarves,elves,dragons etc.,with magic and fights and mysteries and...
I mean,authors like Raymond E. Feist,Terry Brooks,offcourse Tolkien...
Now authors prefers disgusting mutants,Power[not magic],mad characters and long love[sex?] stories-Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind etc.
Brr,I prefer the good old days.You?

[Macros]

Actually the magic aspect hasn't changed. The Power, I think it's WOT you're referring to here, is just another way to say magic. It's just structured a bit differently. Say all you want about Jordan and I've said plent but the way he's set up the Power is pretty good. It does borrow a bit from the old Yin and Yang mythology but then what today doesn't borrow from things of the past.

As for creatures other than the ones normally used, variety is the spice of life.

[Cadfael]

Allanon... I have nothing but respect for you if you prefer fantasy to be in the mould of Tolkien... his books are still my favorite.

But the genre has to move on, otherwise it will become cliched (sp?). Re-runs of old and done to death plots. I think that authors like Jordan, Goodkind, and especially Hobb and Martin have taken the genre in a new direction which has been needed for a long time. It is if they have done it with success, that is the main point. Jordan started well, but has become a stale.

Goodkind is explicit with his sex scenes, but IMHO, these scene do have a bearing on the plot, I don't think they are there just for the sake of it. As regard the love angle, why the hell not? The Hellenites went to war with Troy because of love.

The absolute masters of this new breed have to Martin and Hobb. To actually read a book and not be able to read the way the plot is going is a breath of fresh air in my opinion...

You mentioned Terry Brooks, he has let me down with his latest book, if you have not read it I will say nothing of the plot. But I will say this... The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara is NOT a fantasy book. In my opinion he has sold out with the way this storyline develops.

Tolkien, Fiest and Stephen Donaldson are the gods of classic fantasy, I admit Donaldson is an aquired taste.

So yeah... I am with you in my love of Classic fantasy, but I do like to be surprised now and again.

[Bardos]

Allanon, I don't like elves, dwarves etc so much anymore, because so many people have used them. BUT the old authers had a... feel in their stories; a feel most modern authors don't have. Up to day, only Martin has made me feel that way...

[FitzChivalry]

By the way, up until Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara, authors didn't really use Tolkienese creatures and magic system, authors like Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, Patricia Mckillip and others didn't think fantasy=Tolkien kinda story.
Only when Terry Brooks did it and later Feist and all the TSR books that attitude took over.
So you could say that in even older times fantasy wasn't all about elves and dwarves.
Not to mention the days before Tolkien.

[Bardos]

Yep. I totaly agree.

[Rob B]

Every author has to make some change or alteration in the accepted fantasy motifs to get published and recognized.

Whether it be the changing of magic to THE POWER or violence and sex. Sex and Violence are more prevalent in today's society and the authors are illustrating this to show a more "real-life" or believable setting.

[Azurehero]

I still like elves and dwarves and orcs and goblins in the stories I read.

[Hans]

I still do like Dwares,elfs etc, but I prefer writers to be more create, creating there own creatures etc.

As I'm in the young generation, I can't really say what happened to the good old days, unless I call them when I was a little kid.

"Dead Men Don't Die" - my phrase

[allanon]

I do not know,maybe I'm one dying dinosaur,but the last novels was so boring...
I mean, the last novels of Robert Jordan and Goodkind...Stephen Donaldson and GRRM are still not published here[in Bulgaria].
And about authors like Zelazny and Farmer-they are not a fantasy IMO.