Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)
Q: Settle an argument: in The Two Towers movie when Gandalf the White appears to Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas in Fangorn Forest, he is at first mistaken for Saruman — and, in fact, he looks and sounds a lot like Christopher Lee, the actor who portrays the other white wizard. But Ian McKellen has said that that’s entirely his voice and his face. Can that be true? — MAGPIE, Toronto, Canada
A: McKellen definitely maintains that it’s his voice and face — he still says that it’s “All my own work in Fangorn” on his website.
But he is misremembering. In the DVD commentary, Peter Jackson calls the scene a “visual trick,” pointing out that, “Very briefly, Christopher Lee’s eyes are actually glued onto Ian McKellen’s face…You also hear Christopher Lee’s voice — it’s blended in with Ian’s. We did want people, at least the uninitiated, to think that this possibly was Saruman.”
Co-screenwriter writer Philippa Boyers confirms this version of events: “They both tried to sound like each other” in the looping, she says, but “Christopher Lee could imitate Ian McKellen more than Ian could imitate Chris Lee.”
Q: I’m curious what you and your readers think are the top fantasy book series. Motivation is selfish, too — I want to know what to read. I’m also interested it what people specifically don’t like, and why — e.g., the Narnia series is too religious, and the anthropomorphic animals don’t work for me. Also not liking Stephen Donaldson. With that, I’ll list mine: The Lord of the Rings, A Wizard of Earthsea, and Harry Potter. — Robert
A: The Oracle would strongly agree with The Lord of the Rings and Earthsea, but would also enthusiastically add A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Marin, the first Kushiel trilogy by Jaqueline Carey, and (yes) The Chronicles of Narnia and The First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (but not the third trilogy, which is almost unreadable).
Among kids’ books (of which I’m a fan), I’d also add almost anything by Roald Dahl, but especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (although not the terrible sequel, Charlie and Great Glass Elevator). The Oracle also loved Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story and Momo, The Chronicles of Pyrdain by Lloyd Alexander, Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy, the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, and Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn books.
Harry Potter? Truthfully, the Oracle enjoyed them, but found most of the books badly in need of editing, and many of plot-lines forced, especially the conclusion. The Oracle also always thought the following books or series were over-rated, in order from least to most over-praised: A Wrinkle in Time, Inkheart, The Sword of Truth, The Wheel of Time, The Sword of Shannara, and Twilight. (Full disclosure: The Oracle doesn’t read all the books in series he doesn’t like, so perhaps these books improved over time.)
But the Oracle is far more interested in hearing what readers think!
Q: Another question: what is fantasy? For me, it’s not just supernatural. Magic has to be part of that reality. For example, The Dragonriders of Pern series isn’t strictly “fantasy” to me — the planet has spaceflight. Though the dragons can traverse space and even time, my memory is that this ability is never framed as magical, and no other magic seems to exist. — Robert
A: With something as complicated as literature, descriptive genres are, of course, mostly arbitrary, and made that much more so by all the writers who are defiantly (and wonderfully) blurring the boundaries. Labels are just labels, after all.
Here at TheTorchOnline.com, we define “fantasy” broadly. In general, if it involves magic, we cover it, but we’d throw in the dragons of Pern too, even without magic, just because they’re mythical creatures. We also cover some paranormal and “otherworld”-themed projects, as well as some projects involving history-based adventure and/or palace intrigue. Most superheroes also fall under our rubric.
As I said, it’s all pretty arbitrary, and “speculative fiction” is rapidly becoming a catch-all term — although it also includes hard science fiction, outright horror and slasher, and other genres that we almost never focus on here.
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said about hard-core pornography that it was hard to define, but “I know it when I see it.”
I think the same is true of fantasy. But like hard-core pornography, what’s “fantasy” for me may not be that for someone else. Viva la difference!
Q: In 1976, I read a vast number of science fiction anthologies, and read a story about an outpost planet that only ever had one human inhabitant, but they kept going mad with the loneliness. The story was about the latest man, who was promised a solution from earth. Eventually the ship arrived, but it appeared to disappear. The closing line of the story was the “sound of a seagull”. Any idea who wrote this, and where it could still be obtained? — Errol
A: Sadly, this is beyond even the All-Knowing, Fantasy-Question-Answering Oracle’s near-omniscience. But perhaps a reader can help us both out.
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Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you are writing from.)
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First, unless I’m gravely mistaken, it’s always been Fangorn Forest, never Fanghorn. But then watching the Jackson versions of LOTR would probably melt most peoples minds.
Two, if someone doesn’t like Narnia because it’s too religious but likes LOTR and Potter, well that just shows that Tolkien & Rowling were better at slipping all the religious themes packed into their works past the reader’s filters & Lewis wasn’t as good. Although I still love Lewis; may he forgive me for saying he’s not as good as Tolkien & Rowling!
Three, Dragonriders of Pern may seem to have fantasy elements but if one reads far enough into the series, it’s clear it’s straight science fiction. The dragons have a most un-fantasy origin but are called dragons based on Earth myths.
Fourth, I’m being mostly sarcastic since it’s late. Except about Jackson’s movies. They’re awful. But mostly I’m sarcastic…
Good catch on Fangorn. But regarding LotRs, well, wow, reality sure is subjective, isn’t it?
Probably comes of the fact I had about 30 years of living & breathing Tolkien & loving the Lord of the Rings before Jackson got a hold of it.
LotRs (the other poster is insane)
Harry Potter
Chronicles of Narnia
Oh, and gotta agree about Twilight.
Regarding the last question, that sounds a lot like “The Second Kind of Loneliness” by George R. R. Martin. I haven’t read it in a while so I could be wrong, but I know it deals with someone alone on a planet going nuts. It can be found in “Dreamsongs Vol. 1″. Hope that helped!
Katharine Kerr’s Deverry series is hands down my favorite series of all time. The books in order: Daggerspell, Darkspell, The Bristling Wood, The Dragon Revenant, A Time of Exile, A Time of Omens, Days of Blood and Fire, Days of Air and Darkness, The Red Wyvern, The Black Raven, The Fire Dragon, The Gold Falcon, The Spirit Stone, The Shadow Isle and finally The Silver Mage which just came out a few months ago and finishes off the series.
I’d say any listing of the CLASSICS of fantasy literature would also have to include David Edding’s Belgariad and Raymond Feist’s Riftwar Saga.
Note I said classics and not fun-to-read. I know I enjoyed them when I read them but it was so long ago I’m not sure I’m willing to stand by my youthful opinion
David Eddings’ series were always about being “fun-to-read”, and they still are after all this time.
Ok the Oracle beat me to most of my favourite fastasy series and authors.
I truly believe A Song of Ice and Fire will be the series against which all future fantasy will be measured (in addition to LOTR, which non-genre reviewers can’t help but reference). It’s complex and sprawling, and the latest installment could have done with some editing, but the characters are fully fleshed - something Tolkien wasn’t really very good at I’d argue, especially when it came to female cahacters.
Tad Williams’ Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy is pretty good fantasy too, though I’ll admit I find his style a little cold.
Brandon Sanderson is going to be a great fantasy author too and he’s well worth searching out if you haven’t already. His Mistborn trilogy is highly enjoyable and he has totally revitalised Jordan’s Wheel of Time series - I started liking the characters all over again in his latest installment.
Lynn Flewelling is great too, especially for queer fantasy readers. Her Bone Doll trilogy is dark and thoughtful, set in the same universe as her Luck in the Shadows series which features a gay male couple as it’s heroes.
And finally if you haven’t read Patrick Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind yet, try it out. It’s a cracking good read, was my favourite find of 2009, and I can’t wait for the second book to come out.
Whew…I think I’m done…..