Fast Fantasy

Every time I go to the bookstore I go to the fantasy section because I love swords, magic and dragons (every story could be better if it had more dragons, even the Great Gatsby). The problem is like most people I don’t have the time to slog through those 200,000 page tomes. I’m sure they’re great, I have no doubt about the author’s skill, but I can only read in spurts. By the time I get to the climax with where the bad guy is fighting the hero, I’ll have forgotten what they looked like.

I think of it like this. Superhero and fantasy movies aren’t much longer then other genres. Neither are the TV shows (discounting Game of Thrones). So why are the books so gargantuan? It feels like every time I pick one up I’m cutting down a giant redwood (I’ve met a few fantasy fans who claim to care about the environment. Then they pull out some Brandon Sanderson and I have to fight the urge to roll my eyes).

To me, fantasy can be epic in scale without having to be epic in length. It’s more about saving the world, or gigantic castles and monsters, heroes who can fight off large swaths of warriors single-handedly. You know, bonkers stuff that has no bearing on reality. And to me epic fantasy can happen just as much in a fake city (a la superhero comics) as opposed to a fake medieval land (though I like those as well).

I keep searching to find if there are writers like me in the bookstores. Closest I’ve come is Roger Zelazny’s Princes of Amber. Short, epic books. And even then they bind his together to make a large omnibus so terrifying your coffee table’s knees buckle with fear.

I don’t believe fantasy should be relegated to monster tomes. I think it can be more. That’s why I’m creating an alternative. “Fantasy on the Run. Epic Stories for Busy Readers”. This blog is going to be my experiment. I’ll post ideas for stories, short stories (bi-weekly or monthly, I’m still figuring that out), and some of the books I’ve enjoyed and get your responses on what I have to read next. Because we’re all readers and there still aren’t enough books.

-Ben M.