It’s Not the Action! What makes a great fantasy epic?

AuthorAppleton on February 3, 2020

Bold heroes, wise heroines, terrible beasts, and insurmountable odds. What could be better than a fantasy epic that embraces good versus evil? For me, what makes a fantasy great versus mediocre is a little more precise.

When I was growing up the stories that grabbed my attention were the stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Roundtable, and those similar. Brave knights battling dark magicians to rescue beautiful maidens . . . To my thinking, this is the epitome of a great story, and it is missing in a lot of the politically-charged stories that make it into publication today.

I am all for strong female characters. Just look at my second novel for an example of that, my heroine is the lead in that story. But what I don’t appreciate is the reducing of the masculine and the destruction of the feminine.

The stories that stick with me are the ones that esteem beauty, even physical beauty, but they also place hard consequences on those that commit crimes. And that includes crimes of passion, crimes of physical violence, anarchy, and crimes against God.

I find it fascinating to look at the works of authors whose worldviews are very different from my own. Let’s take for example Terry Goodkind and his series The Sword of Truth. I have read and absolutely adored the story and the characters in several of his novels. I think it is the values that he and I share that make me connect with him as a reader. His hero finds a beautiful woman and of course falls in love with her, but they are unable to fulfill the desires toward one another without releasing her destructive power. Monstrous creatures fill his pages and the hero surmounts incredible odds to defeat both them and the most vile villains.

To name off some other examples: RA Salvatore and J. K. Rowling. Both excellent writers with vastly different worldviews to my own.

Could it be that all of these stories share western ideals that were born out of Judeo-Christian and Arthurian values? I think there is definitely an argument to be made for that.

Over the Christmas season this year I went out to see the latest Star Wars film, The Rise of Skywalker. I am a Star Wars nut, and I greatly enjoyed the wrap to the Skywalker saga. I am not going to give any spoilers here, just in case you haven’t seen it yet. But, while I did enjoy The Last Jedi, it missed the mark for me in many respects. Looking back at it, the story does not have the same coherence of good versus evil that the George Lucas films did. There was very little heart in it. Lots of forced humor, and big explosions. The Rise of Skywalker attempted to fix some of the last film’s mistakes, and I think it effectively did so. We went back to having faith in our heroes, instead of dragging them through the muck of regret.

So let me say that I am unabashedly a fan of classic good versus evil, and of knights rescuing fair maidens. I don’t think we have enough of those kinds of stories being produced today. And there are so many of those stories that we can tell. I want my children to aspire to be the best of themselves.

I will be the first to admit that the Arthurian legends or not the factual events but are vastly romanticized. But isn’t that the beauty of it? It is a fictional world where we can pit our darkest desires against the consequences of our actions. It is a recognition of the reward of a good soul and the quest for great beauty. It is the desire, nay! the intention, to fight with our last breath against tyrants and monsters.

So be unabashed in your quest for authentic knighthood, and the winning of a great love. If you’re a man, enjoy the fact! If you are a woman, throw in the world’s face the fact that you enjoy your feminine characteristics.

Great heroes and heroines come from the battle because they do not back down from cultural expectations. They stay true to their God and their convictions, all the while exercising grace and forgiveness to those around them.

Q: How is your cultural background affecting how you perceive the stories you read?

The bad and good of Portraying Violence in Fiction

AuthorAppleton on March 23, 2015

When writing my fantasy novels it is frequent to encounter (you guessed it) violence. Targeting my books to the middle grade and young adult readers this is of great concern to me. I don’t want to wash over the violence but I don’t want to glorify it in the eyes of the reader either.

Consider that violence is sometimes necessary to convey the cost of wrongs done. I think of how the Bible narrative is full of violence. Violence wrought by the good, the evil, and by God himself. Blood spilled, sacrifices of life and limb made. But this violence is not glorified, instead its purpose is shown. Whether the will of God to wipe a degenerate nation from the face of the earth, or allowing the Babylonians to conquer and enslave the Jews.

Too often contemporary fiction glorifies the violence by turning it into entertainment. Entertainment, whether in the form of a book or a movie, can and should display violence as a means to an end. A lesson must always be understood, subtly taught, so that the reader comprehends the relational and eternal consequences of such actions. Unless this is done the reader, and especially young minds, can follow the violence itself as an entertainment and subconsciously accept it as an end of its own.

In properly thought out books the reader will learn to respect certain actions and despise others. They should be able to picture themselves as the knight riding into battle and ramming his lance into the heart of a wicked tyrant. But on the same note they should also picture themselves looking with pity upon that tyrant’s corpse and wishing that another resolution might have been possible. We don’t need to glorify violence, but we don’t need to despise it either. It is admirable to slay the invader, save the fair maiden, and pray to God for mercy on those who have fallen.

It is admirable to wield the sword in battle… yet the greatest admiration should be given to the knight who knows when to show mercy to his enemy. The knight whose heart dreads violence and yet will not shy from vanquishing his foes when need be.

Question: How do you view violence in fiction?