I recently got involved with a project where i have to revise some copy. Part of that involves not just correcting it, but also giving suggestions to make sound more like a fantasy book.
Anyone have suggestions for places to look to learn more non-terf wozard speak? I have a book called wizaed born, but the fancy classic english didnt seem that different from the pages i skimmed.
Maybe Brandon Sanderson stuff? I haven’t read but he loves to do magical world building. He’s mormon tho so proceed with caution lol
it would not be inaccurate to describe Sanderson’s books as elaborate schemes to show off as much of his fantasy worldbuilding as possible
that is to say, i don’t know if they’d necessarily be that helpful for this, but to an extent they are (sigh) the benchmark for “modern” (western) fantasy books
Yeah it’s like, I doubt it’s quality but if someone reads it they’ll be like “oh yeah, fantasy book.”
Everything else is too digressive. Otherwise I’d say DD2 lmao
I’ll guve Sanderson a try. Should maybe give tolkien a read and maybe read more Terry pratchett and monty python + the Holy Grail
I have no idea what “make sound more like a fantasy book” would mean, probably add more characters with ’ in their names? Sam’antha, Pat’ricia, Ch’arles, there, its all very high fantasy now /j
For actual recommendations, I’d go with the Earthsea books. They’re light reads but not childish, despite being YA, and quite imaginative.
The biggest problem with fantasy recs is they tend to be more in the low fantasy scale, or you know, the authors have issues. If you think I’m talking about Joanne, holy shit, you’re a blessed, innocent lamb, never look up what fantasy authors usually are known for.
I second Iro that Sanderson’s books would be an example for modern fantasy, just not a good one. They’re tomes of jerking off about how detailed this world and its magic are, but terribly unfun.
Pratchett usually gets (unfortunately) reduced to a “funnyman” author, when the truth is he’s a very sharp writer that just happened to have a few jokes in his stories. Small Gods is a good “spin-off” choice to pick, but the Watchmen books are generally the most well regarded of Discworld, starting with Guards! Guards!
One that I haven’t read but hear about are the Shadow and Bone books, probably because of the recent Netflix series, but I think they’re generally good and probably unproblematic.
I don’t see why not go for something like Dungeon Meshi or Berserk or even Bastard!, they’re as fantasy as any book, good and bad bits.
I read a few Terry Pratchett books. I think ive read about 6 or 7 now.
3 or 4 of the witch books,
The first 2 rince wind books,
And Guards x 2
I guess i didnt do dungeon meshi or Berserk since they’re anime stuff. And i hadnt really kept up with meshi anyway.
Ill give some of these a try.
I’ll say for full disclosure that the project is about done and the “patron” is satisfied with my work. Still want to look into ways to do more fantasy speak.
Patrick Rothfuss’s stuff (The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man’s Fear) has amazing moment-to-moment prose that might be a good reference, if you can deal with the actual story being utterly insipid if you think about it for more than 5 minutes
I’ve played over 90% of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I can handle a plot that doesnt withstand a few moments of thinking about it.