Life

Stephen King started writing while still in school with already an interest in and focus on the horror genre. After the success of the novel Carrie and conquering his drinking problem in the seventies, King became more and more successful and well-known in the eighties. King has struggled with addictions in the late eighties but with help of family and friend overcame these and continued to write many great works. He was in a severe car incident in 1999. He recoverd but doesn’t write that much anymore these days.

Works

King has written too many important works to name all. Well known novels are Carrie, It, The Knowing, The Shining, The Storm and Misery. Many of his books have also been adapted for screen and made into movies so further establishing name. Although best-known among the general public as a horror author, King has also written several fantasy stories with the series The Dark Tower as his biggest and, in my opinion, best work.

The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower is a fantasy series consisting of seven novels, which King wrote over a period of 27 years. As it is written by King, the series is not at all typical fantasy. It is modern fantasy with dark, mysterious, and disturbing elements and therefore high in my list of best fantasy series. A new novel in the series has been announced by King.

Concluding: Stephen King is definitely not an author of high fantasy like many other authors that are discussed on this website but he simply is one of the greatest writers ever and most of his books have fantasy elements, with The Dark Tower as the best example.

Official website of Stephen King

All combined, about 100 million copies of Final Fantasy games have been sold. The games are mainly RPG’s (role playing games) and have a distinct Japanese style, reminiscent of Anime movies and television series, but also outside Japan they are very popular.

The games have great story lines in which groups of good characters usually go on a quest (collecting crystals) and have to fight all sorts of evil. Both fantasy and science fiction elements play a large part in Final Fantasy with characters often relying on magic or on technology and players have to choose which elements to use to reach their goals.

Each new version of Final Fantasy has raised the bar for gameplay and graphics for the entire industry. Also, the use of music is always very impressive and adds a lot to the gaming experience. The games have been mainly released for Nintendo and Playstation consoles.

A total of 13 separate Final Fantasy games and several spin-offs have been made so far. All are considered to be very good games, but especially Final Fantasy VII, X and XII are seen as masterpieces.

Final Fantasy XIV is in development and is expected to be released in September 2010. A preview/ review of the game will follow as soon as possible.

Based on ancient Greek myths, he tells the story of 10.000 Macht mercenaries, soldiers from a warrior-orientated human society, who are employed by a Kefren prince who intends to overthrow his brother’s rule and become Great King of Kuf. The Macht display their superior fighting skills but things go not as planned and the Macht become stranded on a strange and hostile continent.

The story is an combination of epic and low fantasy as it describes massive battles in a world other than our own and different races but does not include no magic (except for the mysterious and somewhat magical black armor that some of the Macht wear). The Macht are humans resembling ancient Greeks. Several other races like the Kefren and the Juthan are described but, although having different traits, no race seems to have any special abilities.

The Ten Thousand is a good book but not a great one. The story is interesting, although it is definitely not revolutionary and plot changes can often are often predictable.
Besides the somewhat predictable story, a major downside of the novel are the shallow characters. I had a hard time connecting to them as they remain either good or bad characters without many complexities and with a predictable and lineair development.

Nonetheless, I was fascinated by the story which is also partly due to the fact that Paul Kearney is a good writer who managed to keep my attention which a colorful but not too elaborative style of writing.

Conclusion: The Ten Thousand is a good read but not one you will remember when you are grey and old. Kearney has planned to write at least two more novels revolving around the Macht. They will not be among the first on my “books I need to read” list but I think I will pick them up in due time.

Dragon Age 2 is the successor of the very popular game Dragon Age: Origins, which is seen by many as one of the best fantasy games ever.


Based on the new Dragon Age 2 Destiny cinematic trailer I would say that Dragon Age 2 may very well live up to the promise!

Official website of Dragon Age 2.

Books, (TV) Series, Movies and Games

As stated in my post about the current state of fantasy, there are lots of good fantasy authors around, both old legends who are still writing and promising newcomers. For example, on the short run, I am really looking forward to the final part of The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. But also oldtimers like Martin, Pratchet and Feist are still alive and kicking, meaning that we can expected many more novels and series from them.

When talking about TV series and Movies two major events are expected for the foreseeable future. The first is the upcoming television series Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, which will start airing in 2011. The second is the movie The Hobbit, based on the classic novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is still unclear if the movie will really be made but there definitely plans for making it.

Lastly there are the fantasy computer games. More and better looking fantasy games can be expected in the future. Also, the influence of games will keep increasing as gaming has become more and more accepted.
World of Warcraft will remain huge, Final Fantasy and Zelda having new games coming out and the genre of fantasy will always be a very popular source of inspiration for game producers.

Conclusion

So it looks like we fantasy fans do not have to worry for the near future. Plenty of great fantasy books, TV series, movies and games can be expected for the years to come.

An alltogether different point to make is hoe technological developments will change our way of reading fantasy novels. Of course movies and games will become even more impressive with better visuals and graphics but what about books? Ebooks are already around and selling well but personally I really like to hold a real book in my hands. In the near future I will look into this.

Through magical means a rift is opened between the two worlds Midkemia and Kelewan. The home world of the orphan Pug, Midkemia, is invaded by the Tsurani. Pug, who is thought to have minor magical abilities, is transported to Kelewan and becomes a great magician.
As the series continues the rift is closed but it turns out that Midkemia faces a far greater enemy: the moredhel led by the evil Murmandamus. Together with his friend Tomas, who becomes a great warrior during the series, and prince Arutha of Krondor, Pug has to stop Murmandamus from taking an ancient artifact that will make him all-powerful.

Books in the series

1982 Magician
1985 Silverthorn
1986 A Darkness at Sethanon

The Riftwar saga is high fantasy as it should be. Magician, the first book of the Riftwar series, was my introduction to the fantasy genre and just for that the Riftwar saga has earned a spot in this list. The story is not too complicated and characters are not that developed but Raymond E. Feist has an easy writing style and the series has more than enough interesting, new ideas to make it a great read. Besides the Riftwar series, Feist has written several other fantasy series set in the same universe which are also definitely worth reading.

Together, Balthazar and Dave take on the evil sorcerer Maxim Horvath who attemps to release Morgana into the world, while at the same time Dave falls in love with a girl. Dave, who is a descendant of Merlin, turns ou to be the only one who can defeat Morgana and prevent her from taking over the world.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is all right to watch. It provides plenty of action and the action/ magic scenes are decently done. The acting is well done as should be expected with a cast of both established and relatively new, talented actors but it is not exactly a character driven movie. It more relies on the fast and action-packed storyline which is, although very cliche, pretty decent.

Concluding, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is an entertaining family movie with nice historical and contemporary fantasy elements but in my opinion nothing more than that. In short, the movie tells the old tale of a reluctant hero who can do amazing things and ends up saving both the world and the girl. It is definitely not a movie that will make it on the list of alltime best fantasy movies.

Click here to go to the movie’s official website. Below the trailer of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Question is: which series was the best?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy was quite the hype when coming to the screen in the late nineties. The idea of a young and hot cheerleader (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who managed to fight vampires and others demons while still trying to hold on to her normal life was a huge hit. Teenagers, both boys and girls, liked the setting and the themes of the series. The combination of action with fantasy/ horror elements and the high school setting with all its issues and relationships proved very entertaining. Together with the lighthearted humor it was a recipe for 6 years of success.

Angel

Angel (David Boreanaz) started out as an enemy of Buffy but turned out to have a good side and became her lover. The character became popular and showed potential for further development resulting in a spin-off series that ran for 5 seasons.
This resulted in a series about Angel being a private detective for dark and occult cases, fighting demons, preventing them from taking over the world and trying to save his own soul. The series had a dark and more grown-up vibe to it while at the same time it was quite heavily action-orientated and had a cynical type of humor.

My favourite is… Angel

For me, the clear winner is Angel. The combination of a darker atmosphere, more sinister and action-packed story lines, the more grown up characters and the humor resulted in a TV series that I believed to have been better and more entertaining than Buffy. In short, the fact that Angel had less of the teenage campus atmosphere that Buffy had, has made Angel my favourite series.

Then again, that is just my opinion so let me know if you disagree.

Not only are the stories brilliantly thought up and extremely funny, sir Pratchett has also written them very well. It is classic humorous fantasy as it combines high-class comedy in a world that is almost too fantastical too believe. It is fantasy making fun of fantasy: simply hilarious. Discworld itself is carried on the backs of four elephants, standing on the back of a turtle… need I say more.

Characters and themes

The stories are not all connected, although many characters and groups of characters feature in more than one story. Well-known examples of recurring (groups) of characters are Rincewind, the Wizards, the Witches, the City watch, Tiffany Aching and Death.
Many different topics and themes are discussed in the Discworld novels, from political to religious to business issues but always they are looked at from a humoristic point of view.

Novels and other works

Pratchett has written close to fourty Discworld novels so far but also many short stories and related works, like The Science of Discworld. Several of the Discworld novels, e.g. Hogfather and Going Postal, have been made into television movies.

Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with Alzheimer but let’s hope he has many more fantastic novels to write!

Overview of the novels

1983 The Colour of Magic
1986 The Light Fantastic
1987 Equal Rites
1987 Mort
1988 Sourcery
1988 Wyrd Sisters
1989 Pyramids
1989 Guards! Guards!
1990 Eric
1990 Moving Pictures
1991 Reaper Man
1991 Witches Abroad
1992 Small Gods
1992 Lords and Ladies
1993 Men at Arms
1994 Soul Music
1994 Interesting Times
1995 Maskerade
1996 Feet of Clay
1996 Hogfather
1997 Jingo
1998 The Last Continent
1998 Carpe Jugulum
1999 The Fifth Elephant
2000 The Truth
2001 Thief of Time
2001 The Last Hero
2001 The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
2002 Night Watch
2003 The Wee Free Men
2003 Monstrous Regiment
2004 A Hat Full of Sky
2004 Going Postal
2005 Thud!
2006 Wintersmith
2007 Making Money
2009 Unseen Academicals
2010 I Shall Wear Midnight

The movie is set in Spain during the Second World War. The young girl Ofelia is given several tasks by a Faun to proof she is the reincarnation of a princess Moanna of the Underground Realm. But these tasks are not easy and the difficult circumstances and her evil step-father force her to make some difficult choices before she can return to this Realm.

Released in 2006, Pan’s Labyrinth is one of the best fantasy movies of recent years. The movie has won 3 Oscars and dozens other awards. It is the 70th best movie ever according to IMDb.

As mentioned above, Pan’s Labyrinth contains a mixture of contempory fantasy elements and disturbing horror elements. Thus results in a very intense movie, with breath-taking special effects and impressive story that really gets to you. It is not a movie that every one will like as it is not easy to swallow but I believe it to be a true masterpiece.