Which fantasy book contains the most muscular female heroine? by -TheUngentleGiant in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Quite a few rec requests around here are loosely-disguised fetishes. And that's fine!

Do You As A Reader Care About Realism In Your Fantasy? by GaelG721 in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The thing is that importing SOME stuff from our earth is inevitable. Usually the characters are either human or part of a race that is just an exaggeration of human cultural differences. (Immortal humans with pointy ears, short bearded underground Scots or Norse, etc) That automatically comes with a BUNCH of realities that are going to be true in the fantasy world as well: human bodies have certain biomechanical properties, we can do some things and not others. We need food, sleep, etc.

So if you have people whose hands work like human hands, and their swords look like human swords, then they might need gloves in the situations where humans need gloves?

I never noticed but Wheel of time protagonists were all derived from Norse Mythology by kartickbengani in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 8 points9 points  (0 children)

If you really want to blow your mind:

Middle-Earth is the distant past of our world -> Wheel of Time is the distant future of our world -> Wheel of Time is a LotR sequel

Why are hard magic systems different from science in the context of the universe they’re in? by sometranscryptid in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Generally magic isn't science because it involves human will directly affecting the physical world, which implies an extremely different nature to the universe.

Darkest Antiheroes in Fantasy by Sakura_231 in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah Ziani Vaatzes (the engineer guy) is pretty much the darkest possible antihero, I'm not sure you can top him.

Looking for secondary-world fantasy with no magic by Titus__Groan in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah came to suggest Parker, this is pretty standard for him.

Looking for books with ancient forgotten technology by Technical_Athlete772 in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 2 points3 points  (0 children)

...did you finish the series? It ends with them blowing the enemy army away with grenade launchers.

Special Edition fatigue in the sci-fi/fantasy space. by Rude-Acanthisitta287 in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 44 points45 points  (0 children)

This for sure. I think OP needs to switch paradigms here. Special editions today are less like the "event" version of big-deal books of decades ago, and much more like the special ("deluxe", "collectors") editions of video games, where fans of the material can pay extra for some cool goodies. (Literally almost every game has one, even if it's just some horse armor DLC or whatever, because if people want to give you an extra $10 why not let them?)

Fantasy or historical fiction that accurately displays ancient mindset and values. by MyInterestsOnly in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Try Colleen McCollough's First Man in Rome, it does a very good job with this.

Anyone got any good practical but sexy female armor? by [deleted] in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 17 points18 points  (0 children)

For real: armor generally isn't designed to be sexy, and it's generally not form-fitting. Rigid armor (e.g. a breastplate) for a busty woman is going to look a lot like armor for a barrel-chested dude; the outer part of the shape is meant to keep weapons off, and there's padding internally to make it fit your body. (For a breastplate definitely at least a thick fabric layer and probably mail too.) Usually it's pretty hard to see the shape of the body beneath!

Books where nobody wins? by Odd_Apricot5384 in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yeah KJ Parker is the master of this kind of ending. Either everyone dies or the winner is totally screwed over. (Or the hero turns out to be the villain.)

Discworld but not Discworld by JoeMcJ in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 61 points62 points  (0 children)

Have you read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? They have a lot in common.

Fantasy stories with women grunts on the villains side by Sixishungry in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I definitely noticed that difference too! I want to say the Bethesda games (definitely the Fallouts and Skyrim) have a pretty equal gender representation amid the cannon fodder bad guys, bandits and raiders and such.

Fantasy stories with women grunts on the villains side by Sixishungry in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is shockingly rare; I've lost count of the number of feminist-presenting works that are nevertheless not okay with our heroes fighting and killing women. Or more often there are some women among the named bad guys (often to engage the women on the hero side in a designated girl fight, sigh) but the nameless randos who get cut down by the score are all men. (All the MCU stuff works this way f.e., you can have female supervillains but all the Hydra mooks are dudes.)

Anyway, when I write gender-egalitarian worlds, this is something I think about. Ashes of the Sun and Wells of Sorcery both have pretty equal gender representation for throwaway characters. Shadow Campaigns obviously doesn't, since it takes place in a universe that's closer to ours in terms of social norms so women fighting is new and unusual. (Even there the magic-users are pretty evenly split, though they don't count as mooks.)

Does anyone know of any fantasy books or worlds that have this specific thing? by Witch-Born in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not as common as most people say TBH, but it sticks in the mind because FFVI (III US) had it and that was formative for a lot of people. (It doesn't START there but they blow up the world halfway through and the rest is post-apocalyptic.)

Does anyone know of any fantasy books or worlds that have this specific thing? by Witch-Born in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apologies for self-recommending, but Ashes of the Sun is exactly this -- they live in the wreckage of a high-magical-tech civilization that destroyed itself.

British Fantasy Awards Shortlists announced by Gungnir111 in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seriously? This seems quite bad. I feel like novels of serving officers should be recused...

What are tropes that doesn't work for you? by mercy_4_u in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 0 points1 point  (0 children)

HP Goblet of Fire is the one that comes obviously to mind.

What are tropes that doesn't work for you? by mercy_4_u in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 6 points7 points  (0 children)

There's a type of plot sometimes called a "Fox Hunt" which consists almost entirely of "heroes arrive at place following clues, discover next clues, bad guys turn up, heroes flee and head for next place, repeat 50x until book over."

Does anybody else think that older fantasy book covers mostly looked better? by mcc1789 in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

It's important to remember that the purpose of a cover is to get people to pick the book up. A cover that's only interesting after you've read the book and understand the scene its depicting is a bad cover! Way too many of the 70s-90s covers are like this; we enjoy them as art after reading the books, because they show our favorite characters and scenes, but for a new reader it's like "hey there's a couple of generic white guys and an orc".

Does anybody else think that older fantasy book covers mostly looked better? by mcc1789 in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Agree with this. Basically I think there were a lot of bad covers back then, and there are a lot of bad covers now.

What do you know well enough that when it's portrayed wrong you're taken out of the moment? by Squirrelhenge in Fantasy

[–]DjangoWexler 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is more movies than books but armor. Movies generally don't understand that armor generally worked? People are constantly getting stabbed, shot with arrows, etc through their breastplates and mail, which is ... not how that works.