Date Posted:08:26:46 03/23/04 Tue Author: Adilbrand Subject: Heroic Fantasy
I was re-reading the introduction to "Bran Mak Morn" by David Weber and came across this passage:
"Today's heroic fantasy seems to concentrate on worlds in which the odds may be great and the consequences of defeat dire but the hope for total victory exists. If the hero can stave off defeat, if he can survive plots, counter-plots, fell beasts, sorcerers, devious divine opponents, or what have you, then he can win through to a new golden age without the sense that "this, too, must pass" or that his moment of triumph will be fleeting.
Not so for Robert E. Howard, whose characters were engaged upon a long, inevitably hopeless rearguard action even when they seemed to be forging forward most strongly. I think we need a little more of that today."
I tend to agree with him. What little I have read of Karl Edward Wagner seems to be in this vein, but very little of fantasy fiction seems to focus on the victories that mean little in the grand scheme of things, and don't stem the overwhelming tide but for a shining moment of glory or two, but mean everything to the people who managed to hold back the press for but a moment.
I like the concept of taking value in the fleeting victories, because that seems to be how life really is - how many of us have actually really achieved "happily ever after"?
