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The Grimdark Appreciation thread III


C.T. Phipps

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You read Robin Hobb yet?

I've only read The Farseer Trilogy so far. I'd say all the good guys in that story are pretty clearly morally good. Fitz, Nighteyes, Verity, Kettricken, Chade etc. all have a strong moral compass, only kill in self-defence or defence of others, and don't take wanton revenge, so I wouldn't call it grimdark.

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I said Suzanne Collins, not Robin Hobb.Except perhaps for:

- Training a 10 year old to kill people.

- Forging.

- Graphic depictions of torture and PTSD.

- Child cannibalism.

- Borderline beastiality.

- The ending...

And this is not to mention everything that Fitz is personally put through over the course of the series.

Sure. Post edit.

And beastiality? Where the hell do you get that from?

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You quoted me saying Suzanne Collins. Scroll up.Everyone always forgets it happened.

Night has sex with Molly while controlling Fitz's body. Fitz himself is unconscious at the time.

Not to mention Nighteyes commenting "that felt good, brother" the first time Fitz has sex with Molly.

The ending of the series is bittersweet, IMHO, rather than bleak or downbeat, which is more typical of grimdark.

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Yeah the bestiality came up in another topic, and just about everyone had forgotten it happened, although I don't think its technically beastality. But yeah Hobb goes to some dark places. I also think the ending to the first trilogy is bleak as all fuck, but I've had this argument many times before and I'm not going to change anyone's minds.

Was Collins around before Hurley? Heck either way, Katherine Kurtz was writing gritty, dark, everyone gets burned at the stake medieval fantasy IN THE 70S. So there is that.

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Yea, im not buying off on the beastiality argument.  Unless there is a fucking donkey show going down, that shit fits within the magical perimeters set up in that world.  Molly didn't fuck a wolf.  She fucked her lover that was, within the rules of the fantasy land, being controlled by a bonded animal.  

 

Keep thinking what you want, but you're stretching it a bit. 

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You read Robin Hobb yet?

Robin Hobb is definitely on my list of "catch up on the last 15 16 years of fantasy which I have missed the best of."

She's next after reading more than the first novel of The Black Company series, Prince of Fools, and the rest of Joe Abercrombie's work. I appreciate all the wonderful recommendations people gave me when I first asked the question, "Can anyone recommend me some female grimdark authors?"

To which I say, thanks everyone.

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Why? Because if it didn't, the Hunger Games might be grimdark? You can't be choosing genre definitions to exclude certain books that would otherwise come under that definition, surely?

Like, I don't think Hunger Games is grimdark, because for me that term came into its current use to describe the books that seem to be reacting in one way or another to the tide of fluffy, morally simplistic epic fantasies of the '80s and 90s and therefore in my head is essentially a subset of medieval fantasy, but I'm not sure I'd automatically disqualify a book where the protagonist seeks to do good but fails miserably or is broken by the effort. That description, after all, applies to a fair portion of the protagonists of Abercrombie and Martin.

Why, you ask, haven't I read The Hunger Games? Well, I've said several times I don't read YA. It's as simple as that. I don't disqualify fantasy books that aren't grimdark. I read plenty of non-grimdark fantasy, probably more than I read grimdark. But I do disqualify any book that is marketed as YA.

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Why, you ask, haven't I read The Hunger Games? Well, I've said several times I don't read YA. It's as simple as that. I don't disqualify fantasy books that aren't grimdark. I read plenty of non-grimdark fantasy, probably more than I read grimdark. But I do disqualify any book that is marketed as YA.

At least you're consistent in your purchasing methods.

Narrow purchasing based on marketing placement. Seems a little shortsighted, but it seems to work keeping your safely ordered world in place.

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My recommendation to this argument, guys?

"Forget it, Puntificator, it's Westeros.org."

 

I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm not arguing with peterbound. And I know what site it is. The purpose of the "Literature" forums is, "Discussion of fantasy, science fiction, and just about any other literature (Yes, this includes comic books!)." 

 

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I was saying to Punitifcator that some people are going to have strong opinions on their views and not going to be changed whatever the argument.

 

I know that. A word for such people is mumpsimus. It's not an attribute I'd brag about.

Westeros.org attracts those kind of people and that's why it's worth it. 

I disagree. Most of the people I've "met" here do have strong opinions, but they are intelligent and open-minded people who appear to be willing to change a view if exposed to a rational argument.  

 

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At least you're consistent in your purchasing methods.

 

Narrow purchasing based on marketing placement. Seems a little shortsighted, but it seems to work keeping your safely ordered world in place.

This is my list of fantasy books with a confirmed US release for 2016, that I have already bought or pre-ordered (or will pre-order as soon as pre-ordering for the Kindle is available). More will be added as confirmed releases are announced. It doesn't appear to me to be either a narrow set of purchases or representative of a safely ordered world (though most have been safely ordered)—there are several risky, untested debut authors on the list. 

Path of Gods [Already out] Snorri Kristjansson

City of Light [Already out] Keri Arthur 

Drake [Already out] Peter McLean

Harmony Black [Already out] Craig Schaefer

Midnight Taxi Tango [Already out] Daniel José Older

The Glass Galago [Already out] A. M. Dellamonica

The Drowning Eyes [Jan 12] Emily Foster

Goldenfire [Jan 14] A.F.E. Smith

The Fire Mage’s Daughter [Jan 15] Pauline M. Ross

Small Wars [Jan 19] Matt Wallace

The Pagan Night [Jan 19] Tim Akers

Medusa’s Web [Jan 19] Tim Powers

All the Birds in the Sky [Jan 26] Charlie Jane Anders

Staked [Jan 26] Kevin Hearne

Broken Hero [Jan 26] Jonathan Wood

Roadside Magic [Jan 26] Lilith Saintcrow

The Brimstone Deception [Jan 26] Lisa Shearin

Lustlocked [Jan 26] Matt Wallace

City of Blades [Jan 26] Robert Jackson Bennett

Daughter of Blood [Jan 26] Helen Lowe

The Alchemy of Chaos [Feb 2] Marshall Ryan Maresca

Dreaming Death [Feb 2] J. Kathleen Cheney

A Criminal Magic [Feb 2] Lee Kelly

Kingfisher [Feb 2] Patricia A. McKillip 

Chains of the Heretic [Feb 2] Jeff Salyards

Winterwood [Feb 2] Jacey Bedford

Son of the Morning [Feb 4: US release] Mark Alder

Dragon Hunters [Feb 9] Marc Turner

A Song for No Man’s Land [Feb 9] Andy Remic

The Guns of Ivrea [Feb 9] Clifford Beal

Northwoods [Feb 16] Bill Schweigart

Lovecraft Country [Feb 16] Max Ruff

The Immortals [Feb 16] Jordanna Max Brodsky

The Ballad of Black Tom [Feb 16] Victor LaValle

A Gathering of Shadows [Feb 23] V. E. Schwab

A Tale of the Free: Corsair [Mar 1] Brian Ruckley

Borderline [Mar 1] Mishell Baker

Black City Saint [Mar 1] Richard A. Knaak

The Brotherhood of the Wheel [Mar 1] R. S. Belcher

The Last Days of Magic [Mar 1] Mark Tompkins

The Devil You Know [Mar 1] K.J. Parker

Monstrous Little Voices [Mar 8] David Thomas Moore [editor] 

Marked In Flesh [Mar 8] Anne Bishop

Running Down a Dream [Mar 15] Minerva Zimmerman

Snakewood [Mar 15] Adrian Selby

The Last Mortal Bond [Mar 15] Brian Staveley

The Mortal Tally [Mar 29] Sam Sykes

Javelin Rain [Mar 29] Myke Cole 

The Second Death [Mar 29] T. Frohock 

Burned [April 5] Benedict Jacka

The Demonists [April 5] Thomas E. Sniegoski

Jericho [April 5] Alex Gordon

No Good Deed [April 12] Auston Habershaw

The Apocalypse Ark [Apr 12] Peter Roman

A Shadow All of Light [April 12] Fred Chappell

Bloodmage [April 12] Stephen Aryan

Masks and Shadows [April 12] Stephanie Burgis

Nine of Stars [April 12] Laura Bickle

Grim Tidings [April 19] Caitlin Kittredge

The Fall of the Dagger [April 19] Glenda Larke

Daughter of Albion [April 19] Ilka Tampke

The Stars Askew [April 19] Rjurik Davidson

Fall of Light [April 19] Steven Erikson

In Shining Armor [April 26] Elliott James

Sharp Ends [April 26] Joe Abercrombie

Los Nefilim [April 26] T. Frohock

Red Knight Falling [April 26] Craig Schaefer

Shadow’s Blade [May 3] David B. Coe

Twilight of the Dragons [May 3] Andy Remic

The Silent Army [May 3] James A. Moore

Idle Hands [May 5] Tom Fletcher

The Strategist [May 5] Gerrard Cowan

The Mirror Thief [May 10] Martin Seay

Pieces of Hate [May 15] Tim Lebbon

Shadow of the Void [May 24] Nathan Garrison

A Blade of Black Steel [May 24] Alex Marshall

Leviathan’s Blood [May 31] Ben Peek

Dancer’s Lament [May 31] Ian C. Esslemont

Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? [May, 2016] Paul Cornell

The Wheel of Osheim [Jun 7] Mark Lawrence

The Root: A Novel of The Wrath & Athenaeum [Jun 7] Na'amen Tilahun

Fireborn [Jun 7] David Dalglish

Saint's Blood [Jun 7] Sebastien de Castell

Silent Hall [Jun 7] N.S. Dolkart

A Tale of the Free: Exile [Jun 7] Brian Ruckley

Stiletto [Jun 14] Daniel O’Malley

Spells of Blood and Kin [Jun 14] Claire Humphrey

The Invisible Library [June 14] Genevieve Cogman

In the Shadow of the Gods [June 21] Rachel Dunne

Duskfall [Jun 21] Christopher B. Husberg

The Perdition Score [June 28] Richard Kadrey

Hope & Red [Jun 28] Jon Skovron

Wasteland King [June 28] Lilith Saintcrow

The Great Ordeal [July 5] R. Scott Bakker

The Forgetting Moon [July 5] Brian Lee Durfee

The Devil's Evidence [July 5] Simon Kurt Unsworth

The Waking Fire [July 5] Anthony Ryan

Sacrifices [July 5] Jamie Schultz 

Flameout [July 5] Keri Arthur 

The Returned [July 12] Bishop O’Connell

Ritual Crime Unit: Spirit Animals [July 12] E. E. Richardson

Necessity [July 12] Jo Walton

Wrath [July 12] John Gwynne

Owl and the Electric Samurai [July 18] Kristi Charish

Urban Allies [July 26] Joseph Nassise [editor] 

Four Roads Cross [July 26] Max Gladstone 

Dragon Lords: Fool's Gold [July 26] Jon Hollins

Red Right Hand [July 26] Levi Black

Vigil [July, 2016] Angela Slatter

The Stringer [Aug 1] Jeff Somers

The Two Torcs [Aug 2] Debbie Viguié and James R. Tuck

The Guns of Empire [Aug 9] Django Wexler

Nevernight [Aug 9] Jay Kristoff

The Sight [Aug 16] Chloe Neill

The Obelisk Gate [Aug 16] N.K. Jemisin

Breath of Earth [Aug 23] Beth Cato

The Empty Ones [Aug 30] Robert Brockway

Of Sand and Malice Made [Sep 6] Bradley Beaulieu

Chapel of Ease [Sep 6] Alex Bledsoe

Fix (’Mancer) [Sep 6] Ferret Steinmetz

The Masked City [Sep 6] Genevieve Cogman

Red Tide [Sep 20] Marc Turner

The Queen of Blood [Sep, 2016] Sarah Beth Durst

Glass Town [Oct 11] Steven Savile

The Prince of Glass [Oct 18] Karen Miller

The Wield [Oct, 2016] Dan Abnett

Firewalk [Oct, 2016] Chris Roberson

The Burning Isle [Oct, 2016] Will Panzo

An Import of Intrigue [Nov, 2016] Marshall Ryan Maresca

Belle Chasse [Nov, 2016] Suzanne Johnson

Dead Man’s Steel [Dec 6] Luke Scull

Strife’s Bane [Dec 13] Evie Manieri

The Burning Page [Dec, 2016] Genevieve Cogman

Return of Souls [Spring, 2016] Andy Remic

The Iron Beast [Summer, 2016] Andy Remic

A Taste of Honey [Fall, 2016] Kai Ashante Wilson

 

 

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I disagree. Most of the people I've "met" here do have strong opinions, but they are intelligent and open-minded people who appear to be willing to change a view if exposed to a rational argument.  

 

I'm all of those.  You just have yet to provide a rational argument.  'I like them and they should exist to make my shopping life easier' isn't an argument that would sway even the weakest of mind. 

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