I didn’t even dip my toes into Fantasy, I walked the plank and found my self in water way over my head. Not being a fan of book reports at school my teacher made me pick a book off of her shelf. She wanted to make sure that she was familiar with the book and I didn’t cheat and just the watch movie. Not that I was doing that anyway, I didn’t even know that was a thing. Honestly, I just wasn’t doing them at all but needed to do the next one, or risk failing the whole class. She took book reports very seriously. I wish I could have seen the future (Amazon, Goodreads, ARCs,) I would have taken them more seriously too.
Anyways, the book I selected literally changed my life. It was book one of the Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I loved it so much that I made my parents buy it. I must have read and reread that book twenty times before the end of that school year. The teacher didn’t have book two so I had to wait until my parents bought it for me for Christmas. Diagnosed with ADHD in fifth grade, I didn’t need a way to escape reality, my imagination already ran wild. Yet, after reading about Narnia and The Lamppost, Mr. Tumnis, The White Witch and Aslan my imagination got a boost akin to NOS.
Fast forward to when I could buy books for myself, now an avid reader and very familiar with the phrase “don’t judge a book by it’s cover,” and standing in the Fantasy section at Barnes & Noble, I was doing just that. (cover artists everywhere rejoice at this confession) I didn’t know it at the time but I was falling in love with cover art By Michael Whelan. Robert Jordan’s - The Eye of the World (book one of the Wheel of Time was the first spark of that love. Robert Jordan’s writing, characters and world building in EOtW, would be the first to come close to that feeling I got reading about Turkish Delight. Unfortunately, I was also fond of using the internet to research anything I was passionate about. I discovered that Mr. Jordan was sick and might not finish the already long series. So after reading the first two chapters of The Great Hunt (book two) I put the The Wheel of Time on hold.
Upon further research, I discovered Robert Jordan had passed away but left his wife Harriet McDougal with a final wish. He asked her to find an author worthy of finishing the series. That author is none other than the prolific Brandon Sanderson. Having read most of his books since that announcement I can safely say he is currently my favorite author. Not only does he average two - four books a year, he finds time to host a weekly podcast, teach a writing course at BYU and sometimes accidentally write a book while he was supposed to be writing something else entirely. Some of his books baffled the publisher and they had to figure out how to publish so many words in one printing.
My passions still forcing me to research everything, I listened to Mr. Sanderson’s podcast Writing Excuses, read and watched interviews and combed the web for the obscure article written about him. Many times during this research I would find Scott Lynch being recommended reading.
Finally, one day I decided to take that recommendation and bought a copy of The Lies of Locke Lamora. Locke quickly became one of the coolest (arguably unlikabley likable) characters I have had the pleasure to read about. His sidekick Jean Tannen was a twisted nod to LOTR. Jean being Samwise to Locke being Frodo. Only this was not middle earth and the content was not appropriate for middle grade. This was fantasy for grownups. I loved it and hated it at the same time. I hated it because my son shares a love of reading with me and now I had a favorite book I couldn’t share with him. I loved it because the prose was absolutely poetic and beautiful. Yes, the descriptions could get very graphic as well and the language “offensive” but that was all part of perfect world building. Not one word was filler or felt like it was there for shock value in the entire book.
So, A wardrobe, A wheel and some bastards gentleman lead me down a path to discovering GRIMDARK. There are many books along the way that could have been mentioned but these are the ones I felt should be mentioned. Because of them I am now familiar with Mark Lawrence, Joe Abercrombie, Glen Cook, Anna Smith Spark, Robert J. Hayes, Michael Fletcher and many more. If you’re a fan of GRIMDARK I would like to hear about the books and authors that lead you to discovering its existence and what book/author made you fall in love with the genre. Maybe, it was a friend/coworker/boss or teacher. I want to hear about it anyway. Please, if you feel I left any worthy names off of this list let me know. I might not have crossed paths with them yet.
Thank you for reading my first Random Thoughts post.
- NightScribe*
*(P.S. Scott Lynch dubbed me NightScribe when I met him at Boskone)