 Fantasy: January 22, 2013 Issue [#5481] |
  Fantasy
This week: The Popularity of the Fantasy Genre Edited by: Jeff  
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"Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it."
-- Lloyd Alexander
Fantasy Trivia of the Week: If you're ever hoping to track down one of David Eddings' original manuscripts, you might have a hard time finding one; in January 2007, he was flushing the fuel tank of his car and wanted to test whether a pool of liquid on the ground was still flammable. He ended up burning down half of his home office, his 1963 Excalibur roadster, and most of the original manuscripts for his novels. Oops! (On the plus side, I suppose he found an answer to his question about whether the liquid was still flammable...  ).
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POPULARITY OF THE FANTASY GENRE
I sometimes forget how popular the fantasy genre is. Fantasy isn't as popular in the motion picture industry where I work, because it's expensive. And science fiction and fantasy books are often relegated to a smaller section than general fiction, often squirreled away in some corner of the bookstore, between the romance novels and the compilations of poetry and essays. Some bookstores have separate sections for mysteries and horror, but just as many slot them into the general fiction category. Why is fantasy different? I mean just look at some of the sales numbers on popular series to date:
FANTASY SERIES
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling - 450 million copies
Star Wars series by various authors - 160 million copies
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien - 150 million copies
Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis - 120 million copies
Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer - 116 million copies
Vampire Chronicles series by Anne Rice - 80 million copies
Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins - 65 million copies
Discworld series by Terry Pratchett - 55 million copies
Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins - 50 million copies
Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan - 44 million copies
Dark Tower series by Stephen King - 30 million copies
Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind - 25 million copies
Shannara series by Terry Brooks - 21 million copies
Redwall series by Brian Jacques - 20 million copies
Dragonlance series by various authors - 20 million copies
Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin - 15 million copies
Doing a little quick math... those sixteen series alone have sold nearly one and a half billion books. 
Suddenly, I start to think that maybe fantasy has its own section of the bookstore because the genre is so popular; because it's a very specific type of story and so many people like them, they don't want to have to go pawing through the horror and the crime novels and the chick lit to find the kinds of books they like to read. Maybe having its own section is a good thing, even if it is sometimes stuck between other niche genres on the actual shelves.
When I think back to my childhood, fantasy books are always the ones that stood out. I devoured The Lord of the Rings and David Eddings' Elenium and Belgariad series. I got lost in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Darksword series, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, and C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. Even today as an adult, the series of books I tend to really get hooked on are fantasy books. I went through the Harry Potter series in its entirety over the course of a month.
There's just something about being able to be absorbed into a whole other world that I think appeals to a lot of people. And as Lloyd Alexander so astutely observed in his quote at the beginning of this newsletter, the best fantasy isn't necessarily about escaping from reality but rather understanding it. Harry Potter, in my humble opinion, isn't a popular book series because it's about a wizard; it's a popular book series because it's about a boy becoming a man, and that transition to adulthood is something that we can all identify with, even if we're not attending Hogwarts or fighting Lord Voldemort ourselves.
From the sales figures alone, it's pretty clear that fantasy is a popular, successful, and even thriving genre. For those who are maybe considering writing a fantasy novels or series of novels, just remember that creating a vibrant and unique world for the reader to explore is just the kind of thing that causes people to buy millions and millions of copies of your books. 
Until next time,
-- Jeff
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I encourage you to check out the following mystery items:
"MANY HAVE CLAIMED you to be the eldest upon the Island. I don't know if this is true; but I wasn't certain who else I could turn to."
The medicine man sat cross legged upon the floor, the walls of stone rising high over his head as the gnarled old woman doddered around the room, rearranging and shifting things about in no pattern he could see. She muttered at his explanation for his presence there, and waved one hand dismissively.
"Not certain if it was meant to be an honor or something, but I'm hardly the eldest upon the Island. I'm certain there's a few Uroona older than I am..."
It was a meteorite: grayish blue with nooks and crannies like swiss cheese...or a brain. It had floated in the farthest reaches of the galaxy for eons. So many circles around nebulas; so many brushes with asteroids and moons! It picked up, like a virus, a particle of awareness. And as everyone knows awareness must expand: it's a law of the universe. And expand it did, so that every space in its holey-rocklike being was cram-packed with awareness. It was spilling over with it.
We all waited in silence looking at the sturdy red door before us. The door was closed but we all anticipated the freedom seeping through from behind. After years of a forced reclusion we all ached for the future. Our full community of 220 men, women and children seeked eagerly the decision of the Oracle. He, and only he, had the authority to release us from our humanity in order to reach the Utopia behind the grand red gate. The Seventh Heaven was waiting behind the Sacred Door, and finally after nine years of anticipation the southern stars had aligned with the planet Zenox to open the virtuous passage. As we all knew, only the pure of heart had the right to pass and leave our land.
It was a cool, sunny day. The kind that was just perfect to be outside; and no matter how you exerted yourself, the air would keep you from getting too hot; and when you sat quietly, the sun would keep you just warm enough for comfort.
It was spring. Flowers teased the eyes with fountains of color while the trees wore the skimpiest of brilliant light green that, with the sun hitting it, made it glow. All backed by a crystal blue cyclorama, maybe a few small wisps of white strands floating lazily along.
Almost in reverence of this blessing of nature, voices were cheerful and calm but never loud. They seemed no more than the whistling of the birds as an audible background to the wondrous scene.
He had not gone far down the quiet rural road before he heard the cawing cry that grabbed his attention so forcefully and seemed to reach his very bones. He knew no bird that would cause either the shrieking, or the bone shivering reaction, though it was reminiscent of the raven. Again came the raucous sound from the trees lining the edge of Glower’s Swamp. Leaving his thoughts and the road, he felt impelled to follow.
Crack!
Ah! Screamed the explorer as the ice broke beneath him, the caverns of frozen water swallowing him deep.
Thunk!
Ow...He squinted his eyes, seeing no light, he tried to stand but slipped. "No...no..no!"
Screech!
The man tumbled down an slide, jagged with cuts and bumps, until he came to a fall.
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