After a slow read of over a week I managed to finish Harry Potter Book 7 today. I must say it was a slow read, it didn't hold my interest for most of the book like almost upto page 500+ and also over the years my expectation of fantasy fiction has exceeded J.K.Rowling's imagination. Not to belittle potter but its just that this kind of fantasy fiction somehow doesn't excite me much beyond the idea of imagining casting spells!.
I guess there is a huge audience of people who like reading potter and are still tied to the Tolkein's version of fantasy where everyone is either good or bad. After reading other author's like Steven Erikson/Scott R. Bakker/Glen Cook I feel that there is a lot more that fantasy fiction can offer than just these quaint notions of good and bad. I think going forward we will see tolkein's influence on fantasy diminish and probably be more popular among the younger people (<15yrs age). I also sincerly hope that this happens cause I am just sick of reading tolkein variants. Steven Erikson has breathed a new life into fantasy literature and I hope the trend continues with people trying to explore different aspects of fantasy literature than just Elves/Dwarves/Gnomes/Orcs etc.
Also somehow the potter's ending was anticlimactic, I knew Voldermort had to die but what would have been befitting is if potter died too. Somehow the whole potter lived because of his sacrifice etc just doesn't seem to fly. I guess this would have been hugely unpopular and so I guess J.K.Rowling bowed to the masses and let the hero live on.
Now that the two most expected books of this year are behind me I wonder if George.R.R.Martin will grace us with Dance of the dragons which was supposed to be out 6 months back. That will probably be the last book that I am looking forward to for this year till Steven Erikson comes out with his 8th book in march 2008. In the meanwhile,I need to find something too satisfy my reading itch that will inevitably surface in a few weeks again!
Comments (70)
As much as book lovers like to say it, very few books or stories are timeless. Remember the context LOTR was written in: The industrial revolution had just begun and Tolkien was a man of the Old World. He wrote about good vs evil, industry vs nature because that was what his world was about. A book is a product of the author's perspective and imagination. Over time, we have seen a lot of changes and this reflects in the writings on the new age authors. Don't blame Tolkien for his seminal work but to the authors who blindly ape him. For literature to grow, we need positive change and Steven Erikson has provided it. But that does not belittle the work of the ones that came before him.
- Swap
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I think I was not clear, I was not belittling tolkein but more the people who ape him as you said. At least I feel Tolkein's time is past it will remain a great book but its time to move past his style. That's what authors like Steven Erikson have done. In a few decades I am sure we will have a bunch of authors aping Erikson's style and we will be looking for something different.
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