Category: reading life (Page 2 of 8)

Short Fantasy Novels?

July 21, 2023 / JennyDetroit / 0 Comments

According to Esquire, short books are IN right now. I am part of this reading trend, apparently, because I too read This Is How You Lose the Time War partly based on Bigolas Dickolas’s recommendation on Twitter.

(I mean, not because of their recommendation, but because our book club thought it was funny that someone who goes by the moniker Bigolas Dickolas was getting a viral response to a tweet about this book, and also, it was a book we all had on our reading lists anyway.)

But I have always liked short books, so it’s not really a trend for me. I like really long books too. I basically really like books, all sizes.

But short books are having their moment, apparently, and that’s good for me (I guess) because I tend to write shorter books (at least for now… who knows what will happen in the future). Not that anything I’ve written has become an internet phenomenon like This Is How You Lose the Time War…

But I’m not interested in shorter books for my own career’s sake. I’m more interested in them for my sake as a reader and observer of trends in fantasy fiction.

My question is this: Has fantasy joined the short books crowd, or will the trend continue to be longish books? (I’m defining longish as 400 pages or more.)

I’m not against longish books by the way. (See above: I like books of all sizes.)

But there was once upon a time when fantasy novels were shorter than they are now, particularly the fantasy of the mid-20th century, and everyone was cool with it. We all know that Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings set the template for what a fantasy series is “supposed” to be, but even LOTR isn’t that long when you think about it. It’s one book that clocks in at roughly 1,000 pages (which is long, yes), but it was published as three separate books of roughly 350 pages in length (so, today’s normal book length or shorter).

But starting around the 1990s?, epic fantasy needed to be EPIC both in scope and size. Five, seven, ten books in a series, and each book is pushing 800 pages, and some are even longer than that, and it’s not really fantasy unless it’s dense with detail and world-building. Tolkien’s LOTR wouldn’t even be considered long by these standards.

I guess we’ve moved away from massively long books in recent years, but most fantasy is still around the 400-600 page range. Six hundred pages isn’t LONG, but it ain’t short either. Put it into a series of several 600-page books, and we’re talking about a commitment.

When I pick up an old pulpy paperback from the 1960s or 70s, I’m always surprised by how short these novels are compared to today. Jack of Shadows was SLIM. I just bought the Empire of the East series by Fred Saberhagen and each of the three volumes combined is shorter than many a single fantasy novel you’d see on the bestseller chart today. The Last Unicorn is sub-200 pages, so are Le Guin’s Earthsea novels. Patricia McKillop, Andre Norton, Poul Anderson, Michael Moorcock, et. al. were writing slim volumes back in the day and everyone was cool with it.

I know trends in publishing are different from trends in storytelling and reading, but the two trends intersect. If the market has decided a fantasy novel has to “be” a certain kind of thing, then that is what we often see getting published.

Slightly large caveat here: With indie publishing, writers can basically do whatever they want. We can publish shorter books and not bat an eye. So, in this sense, we’re not beholden to what traditional publishers are looking for when publishing fantasy novels. We can bring back the olden days of sub-200 page novels and live like kings and queens. Definitely. This is true. I’m living that dream right now, with my longest paperback reaching only 284 pages. Huzzah!

However, the expectation of readers can still be set by what the publishing norm is in any given genre, and if indie writers and trad publishers continue to put out fantasy novels that are 400 pages or more a pop, then readers have expectations for what a “fantasy novel” is. The publishing trend can impact the reading trend.

(Obviously, as we’re seeing with the overall trend of readers reading shorter works in general, the market can and will adjust to what readers want, so it’s not all puppet-masters pulling the strings from above. I’m just curious about whether fantasy READERS are interested in shorter works overall. Maybe they are? Maybe there already is a trend for shorter fantasy novels and I’m just missing it? Very possible.)

I know I’ve really enjoyed the shorter fantasy I’ve read from the 60s and 70s. The commitment isn’t as huge, so if the book is a little uneven or weird, it’s okay. It’s only 160 pages. The swiftness of the storytelling is refreshing too. Even though these books are short, they don’t skimp on plot or world-building or anything else. They move breezily from strange vista to strange vista, and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything from the experience even though it’s a much shorter experience than what I’m often used to with books from today.

As a writer, I know I will continue to write shorter books (and hopefully longer ones too!), but as a reader, I’d love to see shorter fantasy novels make a comeback. With that shortness comes a slightly different approach to storytelling that I think can be refreshing. In 200 pages or less, both the writer and the reader can take chances that we might not otherwise take if the story were longer. I’d love a return to the old pulpy paperback days. Give me 150 pages and some weirdness, and I’m in!

Freaky Face

April 29, 2023 / JennyDetroit / 0 Comments

I’m reading John Bellairs’s The Face in the Frost, and I guess I was not prepared for how creepy and downright scary this book can be at times. I’m not sure why this surprised me since Bellairs is known for scary YA fiction, but I’ve been pleasantly (and creepily) surprised by how spooky The Face in the Frost is.

It’s a wonderful mixture of anachronistic elements and a sort of whimsical and madcap, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink type fantasy, but then it adds these supernatural horror elements, and it makes for a unique experience. I really love these pre-1980s fantasy novels where there’s a playful spirit of anything goes.

As I often do, I wonder if a book like this could be written today, or if there are authors who are doing this sort of thing in our current fantasy literature scene. There very well might be; I’m not well-read enough in today’s novels to say one way or another. But I am curious if there’s a place for Bellairs’s style of fantasy in our current moment.

A Homegrown Reading Challenge

April 28, 2023 / JennyDetroit / 1 Comment

Our house is stuffed with books. I don’t choose the word “stuffed” lightly. There are times when no matter where I look in our house, there are stacks of books in sight. Shelves overflowing with books, floors littered with books, stacks of books sprouting on tables and chairs and the ends of beds. I don’t necessarily mind that we have so many books (although I do wish we had more shelving space for them). What frustrates me, instead, is that we have so many books I have yet to read. So many. Whenever I see a book I haven’t read yet, I get anxious.

Time’s running out. Why haven’t you read me yet? I might be a masterpiece, but you’d never know. You’re too busy downloading books to your Hoopla app or your Kindle, or getting a book on loan from the library.

When I check out a book from the library, I sometimes get the feeling of an unfaithful wife stepping out on her man. I’m having an affair with one of these outside books. What about all the perfectly good books I have at home? They’re just waiting for me to notice them, to pick them up and start reading. What’s holding me back?

We honestly have enough unread books in our house for me to read two or three a month for years before I’ve exhausted them all. And yet, I’m off to the library again this week to pick up a book on hold.

Maybe when I’ve finished with my current crop of library books, I can embark on a new challenge for the summer. Maybe I only read books that can be found in our house from June through August. No outside books. Just me and the unread stacks on the floor (and on the bed, and on the nightstand, and on the ledges of bookshelves).

I’ll have to make exceptions for my weekly book club’s book, but otherwise, I’m sticking close to home for my reading choices. I can always go back to checking out library books when fall begins, but for the summer at least, I can only check out materials from the home library.

It will be hard to forgo digital books, though. I have SO MANY on my Kindle that I want to read, and SO MANY from Hoopla that I want to download. But it’ll only be three months, and for three months, I can stick with paperbacks and hardcovers. This will have the added bonus of showing my kids that I can live a life without constant screen time. Yes, more often than not, I’m using my screens for reading purposes, but my kids don’t always get that. They just see mom staring at a screen for half a day (not counting my desktop, which I stare at for the other half of the day).

If I’m only reading the books on our shelves, then they’ll see me with my nose in a book. A real, physical book. That will be a good thing to model to my children.

(Not that they don’t already love reading and have their own noses in books constantly, but I know they feel the allure of the screens too. They often make their own “phones” out of paper or cardboard and “play games” and “open apps” on them, which is really just them pressing on the pictures they drew on the paper and playing pretend, but still. It’s adorable, but also worrying that they desire a phone so badly.)

I know this challenge will mean rearranging my reading list a bit. Instead of reading my digital copy of Kothar and the Demon Queen, I’ll have to switch to reading the Fred Saberhagen paperback I got for my birthday a couple of years ago, or the copy of Witch World my husband brought home from a resale shop a while back. Instead of reading a new ebook about the craft of writing, I’ll have to pick up a non-fiction book from home about some other skill or art. And instead of getting the latest political book from the library, I can dive into the history and philosophy books we already have.

We have tons of comic books I’ve never read, tons of pulp books I’ve never read, tons of history and science books I’ve never read, and tons of contemporary and classic novels I’ve never read. I really won’t lack for variety, I just need to shift my plan to accommodate what’s on our shelves and not what’s available via inter-library loan.

As soon as I finish the library and ebooks I’m currently reading, I’ll make the switch to at-home books only. No more stepping out. At least for the summer.