What gives a fantasy author the mark of greatness???

[Alex]

Iv'e read most of the great fantasy authors works. And some of the authors not so great.
What is it that makes a fantasy author great???? Give me your thoghts on this matter.
In my opinion any author that fully captures your imagination and makes it feel as if you were right beside the heroes is great.
A great author has to make a strong bond between the reader and the characters in the book. The author best accomplishes this by letting the reader identify with the differtent characters in the book, although sometimes (as is the case in some heroic fantasy books) the author puts an "ideal" hero to the story (ex. Mandorallen in the Belgariad series) . A person so good at something that his talent outshines his other shortcommings. This also works towards establishing that bond between reader and caracter, the reader becoming so enthralled by the heroes abilities that he comes to care about him.
And that is what I think distinguishes a great fantasy author, the authors ability to make readers care about his caracters.
I won't say that a good plot isen't important, it serves to make the book so much more enjoyable.
// Alex

 

[Sojourn]

I won't go into the details of 'what' makes an author a great one, since I'm sure many discerning readers know what it is that they expect from their favourite authors. I would say though that labelling an author as 'great' is probably a subjective manner, since there are as many different readers' tastes as there are authors. 'One man's meat is another's poison'. Like many readers would agree, and as Alex has mentioned, part of an author's credibility comes from his or her ability to create stories and/or characters that 'speak' to something deep in the reader's heart. What that 'something' is depends of course on the individual, and as such, if I may be allowed to corrupt another popular phrase, 'the author's greatness is in the eye of the reader'.

IMHO... ^_^

 

[FitzChivalry]

I agree, of course it's subjective and you can't say that one author is better than the rest (*hint* Tolkien lovers).

But you can judge an author in several fields:

Worlds building - A good world should have a detailed history and reasonable politics and balance between the countries/races/organizations of holy fanatics/whatever.
Characters development - Detailed characters that actually develop thru the book and are not too obvious.
Good Plot - maybe the most important part, the plot should be actually interesting.

that's the main criterions i think, of course other ones are important to different kinds of readers like battles descriptions, magic system etc.

 

[Shehzad]

IMHO, each writer has his particular strenths and weaknesses... World building, character building, and plot, as mentioned above, are just part of it. Another important thing is how much you empathize with the lead or how much you feel for him/her. I found this working at its best with Pug in <I>Magician</I>. It is important that a character not be all-powerful, otherwise he would get boring pretty fast.

One thing that I find lacking in fantasy novels is a good ending. Very few authors have the ability to craft a really good ending. (Weis & Hickman, take heed). Unfortuantely, it <B>is</B> painful to slog through 5,7 or 9 books to not have fun at the end.

"Somethimes the memory of happiness cannot stay true because it ended in unhappiness..."

Shehzad

 

[Rob B]

Consistency througout, with pacing of plot and story and characters who remain true to themselves,in that while they may change, but the essence of the character remains.

IMHO, one very important trait of a great fantasy writer is that the author can bring out the humanity in the characters (assuming they are human characters

, or at least similar to humans) in a fantastical setting. That you can understand, empathize, and sympathize with the charcters in the rich, fantastical settings. For example, the character of Gerald Tarrant in The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. The setting was strange world, inhabited by even stranger creatures. While Mer Tarrant was characterized as an evil S.O.B. you could still sympthize with his motives. Same goes for the characters in Robin Hobb's masterful epics, esp. Kennit, he was a scumbag at many points, but she truly was able to get me to understand and empathize with Kennit most of the time. This does not mean that I condone all or any of his actions, I was just able to understand where he was coming from, see his point of view.

World building; if the world comes alive is also essential, i.e. Jordan's Randland in The Wheel of Time is one of the most vivid and richly alive worlds I have ever read. The Waste of the Aiel, the Ogier Steddings, etc.

Of course an interesting, believable story is important. The story that keeps your attention, and makes you want to turn the page, yet you almost don't want to finish.

When you have a combination of great characters you can understand in a richly described, vivid world that comes alive, in a fun story that grips you and will not let you put the book down, then the author has a mark of greatness.

"Then again,I could be wrong"
-Dennis Miller

[This message has been edited by FitzFlagg (edited October 11, 2000).]

 

[Lani]

Well, I think that there are lots of great, talented and worthy authors, but you can't tell the greatest.
Some authors make very well developed worlds like Tolkien, some make great plots as Jordan, some have very believable characters. The are lots of other criterias as style, plot flow and others. But I really never read an author who would have all those criterias in just perfect. The author can be great, but he can never do a perfect work that would have everything in it. The greatest author would be the one who would satisfy any reader who reads him. And I don't think this is possible.

For myself, I like the book to be believable, to have a good stile and nice plot and enjoy complex characters. And the most I value originality (what can I do with myself?)

 

[Ravenlock]

It doesn't really help to judge right now, but the way to tell who is great and who is the best is done the same way it has always happened. WHo sticks around. In 50 or 100 years what fatnatsy books from today will still be read. Authors which are well read when they first come out, but a year later no one remembers them, are not that great. THis is a hard criteria to judge on however since a lot of fantasy isn't that old. However there is some, Like Tolkien which has shown its ability to last.

[This message has been edited by Ravenlock (edited October 13, 2000).]

 

[BAYLOR]

One who tells a story which resonates not just with the reading audience of his or her generation.

 

[Kingsman]

I won't go into the details of 'what' makes an author a great one, since I'm sure many discerning readers know what it is that they expect from their favourite authors. I would say though that labelling an author as 'great' is probably a subjective manner, since there are as many different readers' tastes as there are authors. 'One man's meat is another's poison'. Like many readers would agree, and as Alex has mentioned, part of an author's credibility comes from his or her ability to create stories and/or characters that 'speak' to something deep in the reader's heart. What that 'something' is depends of course on the individual, and as such, if I may be allowed to corrupt another popular phrase, 'the author's greatness is in the eye of the reader'.

IMHO... ^_^

What he/she said.

Ah Baylor, are you viewing the forum from oldest threads to newest? Or do you just like digging up ancient topics?

 

[Matthew Hughes]

part of an author's credibility comes from his or her ability to create stories and/or characters that 'speak' to something deep in the reader's heart.

And then, some hearts are deeper than others. Just as some are wider.

I think the only real test is time, and even that's not reliable. Melville had to be rediscovered decades after his death. Even JS Bach had to be revived, for goodness sake.

As somebody must have once said, it's a crapshoot.

 

[Takoren]

And then, some hearts are deeper than others. Just as some are wider.

I think the only real test is time, and even that's not reliable. Melville had to be rediscovered decades after his death. Even JS Bach had to be revived, for goodness sake.

As somebody must have once said, it's a crapshoot.

I must agree. The authors we call truly great are the ones that stood the test of time.

This is an old thread, but it seems like it was populated by a lot of WOT fans. I can't call Robert Jordan one of the greats because his stories have not aged well. They hit the right spot at the right time, but while he has his fans to this day, I rarely meet someone who doesn't admit that WOT had some very obvious, glaring flaws.

I also hesitate to call GRRM great yet. ASOIAF is only twenty years old, and I've already met some people who have soured on it. Talk to me in 2046 and we'll see if it's really still considered a classic. I don't know, it might be.

 

[Matthew Hughes]

I also hesitate to call GRRM great yet.

He's bought four stories off me, including one that's paid more royalties than some of my novels. So, to me, he's a hell of a man.

 

[Takoren]

He's bought four stories off me, including one that's paid more royalties than some of my novels. So, to me, he's a hell of a man.

Not at all commenting on his qualities as a human being, and I love ASOIAF (the first three books anyway; I was less than impressed by the last two). I'm just saying at the moment it's hard to tell how history will view him.

Coming back to your point, plenty of fantasy we now think of as classics were scoffed at in their day. Even LOTR was considered a flop at first.

 

[Matthew Hughes]

Coming back to your point, plenty of fantasy we now think of as classics were scoffed at in their day. Even LOTR was considered a flop at first.

And may be considered a peculiar enthusiasm of its time. Ultimately, almost all of us are producing ephemera. For a sobering experience, find a site that lists the great popular novelists of forty, fifty, sixty years ago. Most of them are now completely forgotten.

I dug around on WIkipedia and found a list of the bestselling novels of the 1920s. Names of those I have read or at least recognized: Zane Grey, Booth Tarkington, Edith Wharton, Sinclair Lewis, Rafael Sabatini, Edna Ferber, John Erskine, John Galsworthy, Mazo de la Roche, Thornton Wilder, and Erich Maria Remarque.

Some of those I know only as names because their books were still on library shelves when I started reading seriously in the early 1960s. Some are recognized as classic authors: Lewis, Grey, de la Roche, Remarque, Galsworthy, Wharton, Wilder (though as a playwright). The rest have shuffled off into the wings and are heard no more.

So, as a classic author used to say, it goes.

 

[Takoren]

And may be considered a peculiar enthusiasm of its time. Ultimately, almost all of us are producing ephemera. For a sobering experience, find a site that lists the great popular novelists of forty, fifty, sixty years ago. Most of them are now completely forgotten.

I dug around on WIkipedia and found a list of the bestselling novels of the 1920s. Names of those I have read or at least recognized: Zane Grey, Booth Tarkington, Edith Wharton, Sinclair Lewis, Rafael Sabatini, Edna Ferber, John Erskine, John Galsworthy, Mazo de la Roche, Thornton Wilder, and Erich Maria Remarque.

Some of those I know only as names because their books were still on library shelves when I started reading seriously in the early 1960s. Some are recognized as classic authors: Lewis, Grey, de la Roche, Remarque, Galsworthy, Wharton, Wilder (though as a playwright). The rest have shuffled off into the wings and are heard no more.

So, as a classic author used to say, it goes.

There's levels to this sort of thing. Authors that sell well in their day are not necessarily going to be the classics of tomorrow, but many are. Of the authors you named, I confess to having read none of them, and only heard of Grey, Tarkington, Lewis, Sabatini, Ferber and Erskine, and even there I couldn't really name a work of theirs off the top of my head.

But everybody knows Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, DeFoe, Mitchell, Oates, Faulkner, etc., and I'd say many could even name one or more of their works, even if they've never read them.

One dude who's still alive, and yet I don't just think, I know, that he'll go down in history, is Cormac McCarthy.

 

[Matthew Hughes]

Of the one I've listed, I'd strongly recommend reading Sinclair Lewis (Babbitt, Elmer Gantry) and Erich Maria Remarque (All Quiet on the Western Front). Not fantasy, of course, but works that speak to our time across decades. In fact, in the age of Trump, Lewis's It Can't Happen Here ought to be read by everyone.

 

[Takoren]

Of the one I've listed, I'd strongly recommend reading Sinclair Lewis (Babbitt, Elmer Gantry) and Erich Maria Remarque (All Quiet on the Western Front). Not fantasy, of course, but works that speak to our time across decades. In fact, in the age of Trump, Lewis's It Can't Happen Here ought to be read by everyone.

Now that you're naming works, I know them all. Some titles are better remembered than who wrote them.

And let's please not mention Darth Cheeto.

Edit: Yeah, okay, let's mention him. But only briefly. He IS Buzz Windrip.

 

[Kingsman]

This is an old thread, but it seems like it was populated by a lot of WOT fans.

2 out of 7 mentioning Jordan hardly makes this thread populated by a lot of Jordan fans or even makes the two people who mentioned him fans given they only referenced him on certain points and not overall.

 

[Takoren]

2 out of 7 mentioning Jordan hardly makes this thread populated by a lot of Jordan fans or even makes the two people who mentioned him fans given they only referenced him on certain points and not overall.

It did seem like he was mentioned more than most, though I did kinda use a bit of hyperbole. And in 2000 he was still riding head and shoulders above nearly everyone else as far as fame and sales.

 

[Matthew Hughes]

One dude who's still alive, and yet I don't just think, I know, that he'll go down in history, is Cormac McCarthy.

You may live long enough to know. I'm 67 and don't expect to see all that many more years (too much pleurisy when I was young and ten years of smoking didn't help). I haven't read The Road, for which he seems to be best known, but the toe I dipped into it didn't compel me.