The Art of Imagination: Medieval Fantasy

While listening to the radio on my way home today, my mom turned to a station that was talking about books. Now you would think this would peak my interest, but every time I listen to this radio show, or any other talk show or media that has anything to do with books, I never know the authors or the books, and most of the time I have no interest in them. The truth is, I'm rooted in speculative fiction. I hate non-fiction, especially biographies, I don't have much interest for teen fiction (though you don't find that being talked about much either), and my interest in literature has been in a steep decline ever since entering college. I find myself fascinated when someone does not like the same genre as I do, as I have grown up reading such things as Chronicals of Narnia, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Ranger's Apprentice, Tamora Pierce, and all number of other YA fiction. Furthermore, it seemed like back then everyone I talked to back then knew exactly what those books were (to a degree). They had all read them, enjoyed them, and kept reading similar books. At some point this ended. people 'matured' and grew out of these 'childish' novels. I am going to advocate for these overshadowed pieces of art.

Speculative Fiction is a genre that means the subject matter could never be real, or has a 99.99% chance of never coming true. It is dragons, unicorns and magic, wizards and superhuman knights. It's flying cars that run on nothing but air and humans with super powers. It's extra terrestrial beings that look suspiciously similar to humans and long dead creatures coming back to life. It is the real escape, because with anything else, there is always that possibility that the fiction will become non-fiction. Speculative Fiction is the only genre where you can truly escape from reality. 

Now that I've caught your attention, I should steer you in the right direction. I personally like medieval fantasy the best. I would say that 90% of my book shelf is medieval fantasy. This sub genre is, obviously, set in a medieval era world, whether it's Earth or otherwise. 

One of the most well known examples is George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire (adapted into the TV series A Game of Thrones). This series is good for getting the realistic effect while combined with a tad of fantasy. In fact, I think it would be better if the dragons were taken out completely. It's well written and the plot makes you think, but it's not my favourite series. 

For something more high fantasy, definitely go with Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. With this one you have to be careful that you're not too used to the movies though, as that was severely affect your opinion of the books. I'll admit that I was never able to finish the books, because I could not stop thinking about all the differences between the books and the movies. 

If that difference turns you off, then I would suggest Robert Jordan's A Wheel of Time series. It's much like Lord of the Rings, but almost five times longer, with a more complicated plot that branches out several dozen times and (mostly) comes back to tie into a neat bow at the end. Many people who have read it will say that it's not worth it past the sixth book. This is definitely untrue. I highly suspect those people never bothered to finish reading the series, as by the twelfth book it definitely picks up. This is also when Brandon Sanderson took over the series after the death of Robert Jordan.  The Wheel Of Time is one of my favourite series, and although it may get a little slow at some points, by the end of each book you will be itching to pick up the next.

Those are the top three Medieval Fantasy series that I have read, but there are definitely plenty more. Medieval Fantasy is defined not only by the time era, but by characterization. These books will typically portray knights, kings, queens, royalty, thieves, assassins, farmers, shepherds, mages, and any number of people associated with medieval times. Along with them will often (but not always) be mythical creatures, such as dragons, unicorns, Minotaurs, elves, dwarves, mermaids, centaurs, and so on. And finally, to truly make it a speculative fiction piece, is the magic. This can come in unexplained forms (such as in Harry Potter), or in ways that are attempted to be explained using religion or science (such as in Elantris). Not all cases of speculative fiction need to have magic though, as Tolkien proved in his books, which although contain mythical creatures, never really had magic (aside from the wizards, who were rare and kept magic very exclusive, to the point that it was part of being a race, rather than a knowledge, much like immortality to elves.)

Anyway, enough of my babbling! I'll continue on Wednesday, going over another sub genre of Speculative Fiction.