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“Finally, a grown up fantasy...”


Rhom

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Review for Kozloff’s Nine Realms

I saw this review make its rounds on Twitter over the weekend. I’m unfamiliar with Ms Kozloff; I just know that like many others, the headline for this review caught my eye for all the wrong reasons.

Just another example that despite being in a golden era of fantasy in pop culture, the condescension from some corners is just as present as ever.

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I don't know much about these books.  Reviewer at Locus didn't seem to like them, though. 

The WSJ title...I get irritated by any implication that I cannot or should not enjoy fantasy lit for it's own sake. 

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2 hours ago, Rhom said:

Review for Kozloff’s Nine Realms

I saw this review make its rounds on Twitter over the weekend. I’m unfamiliar with Ms Kozloff; I just know that like many others, the headline for this review caught my eye for all the wrong reasons.

Just another example that despite being in a golden era of fantasy in pop culture, the condescension from some corners is just as present as ever.

A title like that just reveals the ignorance of the reviewer.  "Grown Up Fantasy" can be defined different ways, but however you approach it, it has been around for decades.  If you haven't come across it, that's on you.  

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The books sound really interesting. As for the review... it's the Wall Street Journal, and this sort of thing is exactly what I'd expect from them. It doesn't matter. In general, I'd say more and more mainstream critics and publications are willing to take sci-fi and fantasy works seriously these days.

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1 hour ago, Zorral said:

Can't see it because the WSJ isn't one of my subscriptions.

Isn't this a game, rather than an original fiction series?

Says the books all came out in short order:

Queen in Hiding
Queen of Raiders
Broken Queen
The Cerulean Queen

According to the article the first book came out in January, the next two in February, and the last in April.  I suppose that's one answer to the persistent question of how to get readers to buy into unfinished series these days.  :dunno: 

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Couldn't get into the WSJ article because of the paywall...but that Locus review seems to indicate it's a series that wanders some without ever really tightening up...? I'd need to read more reviews before deciding to read this one...

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Worth noting that the reviewer is Tom Shippey, the noted Tolkien academic. It's unclear if he came up with the headline, but he did write the review in which he spends some time talking about Tolkien and Robert E. Howard before moving onto the books in question, which is a bit odd. Shippey has expressed positive sentiments about recent-ish fantasy works (particularly GRRM), so I'm not sure if he would have written the headline, but he's certainly not someone who comments frequently on the state of modern fantasy.

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In newspapers and magazines the authors never (as far as I know, with very few exceptional exceptions) title their own pieces.

This is why it appears these are a game because when plugging Nine Realms, ar of the Nine Realms into search box, this is what comes up:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173961/war-nine-realms

 

 

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1 hour ago, Darth Richard II said:

Hey, I think I have a book by him about Vikings

*goes to shelf to check*

I do!

Interesting, I just noticed that Tom Shippey is the coauthor of the Hammer and the Cross books with Harry Harrison under the pseudonym John Holm. Taking his knowledge of Vikings into fantasy ( I may have known this once, but forgot).    Loved those books. 

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3 minutes ago, Leofric said:

Interesting, I just noticed that Tom Shippey is the coauthor of the Hammer and the Cross books with Harry Harrison under the pseudonym John Holm. Taking his knowledge of Vikings into fantasy ( I may have known this once, but forgot).    Loved those books. 

Color me intrigued. Just the other day I had a conversation that A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born was one of my favorite books in high school, but I have misplaced that paperback at some point in the last quarter century. Vikings, fantasy, and Harrison's wit sound promising.

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6 hours ago, Zorral said:

In newspapers and magazines the authors never (as far as I know, with very few exceptional exceptions) title their own pieces.

 

Absolutely. I do not write the headlines for my newspaper column, and sometimes the headline in the actual paper is different from the one used on the website version.

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