Please take a minute to introduce yourself. Here are three questions you might answer:

1. Are you a fantasy reader? Writer Both?
2. What is your favorite sub-genre of fantasy. Epic? Dystopia? Urban? Other?
3. Challenge: If you could have been the author of any single work of fantasy that you did NOT author, what would that work be and why?

As the moderator, I will go ahead and post first!

1. I read and write fantasy.
2. My favorite sub-genre is epic fantasy. I love the worlds that others create. I find them stimulating, challenging and thought provoking!
3. This is a tough one because there are so many fabulous works but since I have to pick one, I would say "Wizard's First Rule" by Terry Goodkind.

1. I'm a reader and writer of fantasy.
2. Favorite sub-genres of fantasy include: dying earth, steampunk, gaslamp, low, urban, and supernatural drama (not anything to do with that crappy tv show, Supernatural)
3. I can't say there is a tale that I wish I told... I wish I had the talent of some authors, such as Tolkien (and many others), but that is as far as I would go.

Reply to post #3 (show post):
Welcome!

1. I am a reader of Fantasy, writer of Urban Science Fantasy.
2. My favorite genre of fantasy, would be Dark Epic Fantasy.
3. I'm not sure at this point which book I would write over. I've just sort of dabbling in fantasy reading at the moment. I've read Science Fiction for a long time.

Reply to post #5 (show post):
Hello and welcome! I look forward to our future discussions. If you have any ideas for new threads, etc., I do hope you will share them!

1. I'm mostly a fantasy reader these days. I used to do a lot of writing, but then I gave birth, and I've fallen out of habit. I was thinking I might try to participate in Nanowrimo this November, to try to give myself a kick in the behind and get back into it again.

2, I'm not sure of my favorite subgenre. I read a lot of historical fantasy, but a lot of that may fall into other categories: romantic, epic, etc. I've gotten into "gritty" fantasy a little bit, too. As much as I love my happy endings usually guaranteed by favorite authors like Juliet Marillier, I've really gotten attached to the world of Joe Abercrombie's series, despite its brutality.

3. I'm not sure about this. Ideally, I'll get back to work on some of my older stuff, clean it up, and it'll be mine and hopefully have a decent niche of fans. So, I'll just say my favorite already published would be 'Daughter of the Forest' by Juliet Marillier. If I have to pick just one. I have a lot of favorites.

Hi all!

I'm strictly a reader of fantasy. I like epic and urban fantasy, though lately I've been enjoying grimdark. If I could be the author of any fantasy book, I'd pick the Song of Ice and Fire series, because I think those books changed the way I view fantasy forever (probably my screen name was a clue!)

Look forward to getting to know you all. :)

Hi Lannister! Have you read anything by Lord Grimdark? That's Joe Abercrombie's Twitter username. I adore him. :)

Reply to post #7 (show post):
Welcome "Nerdy Feminist"! Maybe this group will help give you the incentive to get back to some of those things you've packed away!

I've read some Juliet Marillier. Not a lot. What is your favorite of her works? I am curious what particularly attracts you to her. I also read Joe Abercrombie. I think it was the first of his series. The two of them could not be more different! But for me, that's the great thing about fantasy. The worlds created can be so vastly different and still so thoroughly engaging.

Reply to post #8 (show post):
Lannister--welcome! Thank you for joining. Grimdark, you say. That is a great name for a sub-genre. How you would describe grimdark works?

Thank you for the warm welcome, Patricia. I sometimes find it difficult to point out what specifically it is that I enjoy about an author. My favorite of Marillier's books would be the first I read, 'Daughter of the Forest.' I love the fairy tale it is based on, and her telling of it was just so vivid and poignant to me. I really felt I knew the main character's brothers, in the beginning, and cared for each of them. I cried more than once while reading that first book. I love her ability to tell a good love story, too.

If I were to describe the things I enjoy in a story, you'd probably get something that sounds like Juliet Marillier. Yet I do enjoy Abercrombie just as much. I just don't have a clue how to explain why.

Reply to post #12 (show post):
So, as a general rule, do you like fantasy/romance? Or more like fantasy/fairy tale? Do you like when a story takes you to a place of great joy and great sorrow? I love to be able to wrap up a read and know that I experienced both--that I laughed and cried. It makes it all feel so much more "real" to me even while I read fantasy because it is just that--fantasy--and not real. Strange. . . .

I too enjoyed Abercrombie. I guess the one I read was The Blade Itself: The First Law. Like you, I cannot explain why. Isn't that odd? I didn't really like any of the characters, which is usually the most important thing for me. But, there was something about Glokta. Was it just that he was such a pathetic character that he somehow became--gosh it sounds strange but--oddly endearing? Or was he just so--pitiful? I remember wanting to like him--wanting him to show some flash of goodness. I don't recall that he ever did. Perhaps there were clues that he might eventually do so that I simply could not put my finger on. . . . I have not read the rest of the series. Have you? Did there ever end up being any likable characters in the series?

Great joy and great sorrow is an absolutely perfect way of describing it.

I've read everything Joe Abercrombie has put out. The Blade Itself, in my opinion, was really a third of a book; his trilogy was essentially one book broken into three. I know that's a problem for a lot of people who feel a book should stand alone, even if it's part of a series. The rest of his books do, although they take place in the same setting. I do think there were some likable characters in his series. Shy South comes to mind, from Red Country, which is his western/fantasy and most recent book published. Overall it had a much less dark ending than most of his others, as it had a theme of moving forward and letting go of things.

The First Law trilogy was particularly dark. All of the characters had moments of likability and growth. But a stated theme in that trilogy was that people don't change. Or if they do change, it doesn't last, and they'll fall back on old habits. He stuck to that theme. Characters grew, and they regressed by the end. I was partial to Jezal, who every now and then showed signs of not being an arrogant jerk, but he always fell back on it. Glokta had perhaps the most surprising development in the series. I think he may be the most popular of the characters. I have a friend who is disabled who found Glokta the easiest to identify with, because of that.

I don't want to say much more about that, just in case you or anyone else decides to read more, because in addition to great joy and great sorrow, great surprises definitely enhance my reading experience. :)

1. Are you a fantasy reader? Writer Both?
I both write and read fantasy, but as a full-time professor, I sadly have much less time to read outside of my own class books and research. However, I try to sneak a few books in, if only to read to my sons, who are quickly becoming fans themselves. I also try to channel my love of fantasy, particularly the works I read growing up, into my novels as a way of re-experiencing and re-interpreting them.

2. What is your favorite sub-genre of fantasy. Epic? Dystopia? Urban? Other?
I want to say "epic," but I haven't read too many epic fantasies that I enjoyed other than the seminal one, LOTR. After that great work, what's left to write? I'm still looking for another one that makes me appreciate that genre anew. I love comic fantasy, since some of my favorite works growing up were in this general genre--Robert Aspirin, The Princess Bride, etc. Dystopias are great since here is where fantasy and sci-fi meet and blur the lines between genre boundaries. I enjoy works that could be one or the other depending on which way you look--or how hard you squint.

3. Challenge: If you could have been the author of any single work of fantasy that you did NOT author, what would that work be and why?

I know most people on this discussion will probably define fantasy in very modern terms, books published within the last few years or so. For me, fantasy is such a gigantic term and stretches back to the beginning of recorded history/literature, when people used fantastic ideas as metaphors/allegories for the 'real' world. So with that qualification, my favorite work of 'fantasy' would be Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the amazing poem in Middle English about a Green Knight who challenges Arthur's court and tricks Gawain into undergoing a quest that occurs, not in the battlefield, as he expects, but in his wife's bed! It's ingenious, witty, profound, and one of the greatest works in any genre of fantasy I've ever read. I truly wish I had written it, and almost believe I did in a previous life. :)