Non woke fantasy
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This is an easy one.
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan: right up there with all the classics, and the man died before it was all done, and it still got completed…you hear that GRRM!
The Belgariad/The Mallorian by David and Leigh Eddings: you want a good time with a cast of memorable characters, then this series is for you. I used to read it all the way through every couple of years, but my old paper backs fell apart. I need to get the new all in one compilations.
All the Original Dragonlance books: aside from Weiss and Hickman, many many authors contributed to this wonderful AD&D setting.
Pool of Radiance/Pool of Darkness/Pool of Twilight: classic Forgotten Realms books.
The original storyline of Dritzz Du’Urden: his origin story, the Icwind Dale Trilogy and the books that followed. Great stuff.
The Deathgate Cycle: Weiss and Hickman’s non-Dragonlance property. Sort of a non-standard fantasy structure breaking away from the usual fare.
Larry Correia for sure. The Monster Hunter International books series. Larry Correia’s Grimnoir Chronicles are great, if you like the X-Men, he did them one better. Also, Larry Correia’s Forgotten Warrior series starting with Sons Of The Black Sword. All are excellent. In Larry’s case, if you have not read them, you are missing out. https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B002D68HL8?_encoding=UTF8&node=2656022011&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-sidecar-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader
“Having female main characters in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, it’s how they are written that matters.”
Having a female protagonist is a good sign a book is woke and not worth reading. I would have to get a recommendation from a trusted source to read a modern fantasy novel with a female protag. It’s not worth sifting through the heaps of trash to find the one non woke female protag story that’s any good. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.
“Also, the market follows trends, Authors and Publishers release what they think the customers want to buy. There must obviously be a sizable market for the moment for these books otherwise they wouldn’t be making them.”
What we have seen for many years now in other entertainment fields is that these companies do not prioritize their bottom line, they prioritize the woke agenda. The will gleefully spit in the face of an existing fanbase to subvert a franchise or genre to wokeness. The target market they are catering to only exists through shills and astroturfing. It is a phantom audience.
The audience for a sword and sorcery fantasy novel is 99% men. Women who read fantasy read Twilight like romance novels that focus on love triangles. They don’t want to read a woke Warhammer 40k series for example.
To give a good example of this in fantasy let’s look at Traitors Blade by Sabastien De Castell. The first book was pretty good. It has a badass main character who memorably had a scene where he takes on 10+ enemies and fucks with them before killing them. Almost reminded me of Mugen in Samurai Champloo. So, I pick up the next book and a new character is introduced who is a small girl who is a better fighter then the main character and kicks his ass in a fight. I instantly put the book down and haven’t continued. I’m not going to continue a book where the female woke stereotype is propped up by humiliating the main character of the original.
“Having a female protagonist doesn’t make it woke, inserting real-world identity politics into it makes it woke.”
Having all female protagonists is part of the woke agenda. That’s why it’s getting harder and harder to find male heroes in modern day entertainment.
Are we considering ASOIAF woke now?
I’m dead serious on this question.
I’ve never thought much of it in the first place. I have zero respect for GRRM as a writer or creative. I’ve never liked it at all.
Once upon a time a friend of mine presented a theory that GRRM basically used whatever was going on in modern U.S. politics at whatever time he was writing a book as his template. When he displayed all the evidence for me, it was quite compelling, and it certainly explained partially why GRRM was a slow writer, because when U.S. politics did not go his way he ran out of ideas.
It was just a theory shown to me, and whether true or not, I always liked it, because I don’t like GRRM nor his stories.
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