[ SECRET POST #3294 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3294 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 072 secrets from Secret Submission Post #471.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

10. http://i.imgur.com/a1PVDV2.png

[(Anonymous)]

I agree completely. My favorite idea is following non-magical characters as they cope with a magical world. Real, human ingenuity used for survival against a magical world is really interesting to me.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

This just reminded me of something I haven't thought of in a while. Spoilers for Codex Alera:

In the first few books of that series, the main character has no magic. He solves a lot of his problems through creative use of physics, engineering, and other people's powers. Later on in the series, he gets super-special magic that's better than almost everyone else in the series, and his solutions start to be more like "I throw magic power at it until it breaks." He can still be creative, but his tricks become a lot less intricate, and I found it really disappointing.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

That sucks, OP. I can see why that would be frustrating.

Re: OP

[morieris]

That sounds like an interesting series.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

NA

so he went from being a good character.... to a Harry Dresden clone.

Oh dear, Jim Butcher... oh dear.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

That's what I was thinking! Especially Harry early in the series, where he's powerful, but not skilled.

REC

[(Anonymous)]

Oh man have I got a rec for you guys! Try the Black Company series by Glen Cook! It's super awesome, imo. The main character is Croaker; an aging sawbones in a cutthroat mercenary company. There's a lot of normal dudes trying to cope with the fact that they live in a magic evil empire.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/140671.The_Black_Company

[(Anonymous)]

Or just better, less shitty, fantasy with more engrossing, less cliched emotional storylines.

That's the problem with fantasy as a genre: there's a lot of crap.

[dreemyweird]

I'm going to suggest a bunch of obvious things in case you haven't read them!

Terry Pratchett? He has a whole bunch of protagonists with either no superpowers or with superpowers that suck :D

Tolkien, funnily enough, isn't too keen on superpowers, either. The whole point of Bilbo is that he's just a regular bloke.

His Dark Materials I found to be a lot of fun, although I suppose Lyra's ability to understand the alethiometer might count as a superpower (but then she later loses it).

I can't say that I entirely empathize with you - I see most fantasy superpowers as simply metaphors for real-life skills and problems - but I understand where you're coming from, so.

[(Anonymous)]

I think they mean good-vs-evil, larger than life, supernatural-powers conflicts.

[(Anonymous)]

Huh, I skipped right over that. LOL

[dreemyweird]

I assume the author just finds conflicts that do not involve super destructive epic magic too boring to read. Which is, like, fair enough. Different strokes for different folks.

But I have to agree that the wording is unfortunate.

[dreemyweird]

I know what you mean. I suspect that if the OP cared to educate themselves a little and take a deeper look at literature as a medium, they might have rather more potentially enjoyable books.

On the other hand, they may not necessarily wish or have time to do any self-education in this regard. Maybe they just want to read about flashy things that go kaboom.

[dethtoll]

Agreed. And that's not even getting into my regular arguments about "literary fiction" (read: not "genre fiction") being essentially magical realism anyway.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

I was trying to avoid saying "literary fiction." Things like debating whether to cheat on your loving spouse, or whether to quit your high-paying job for another one. They just seem so small to me. (I have been interested in books that bring up bigger problems like war or illness.)

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, yes, this sort of thing is why I read books as a kid. I think good fantasy is a substitute for good exotic-setting fiction, while bad fantasy is often weakly thought-out power fantasy.

Although I'm not as into the world-changing stuff myself. I want to see the world in a book, not to see it smashed.

Re: OP

[sarillia]

Could you give me some recs for that Japense fiction from the 20s and 30s? I haven't read much Japanese literature other than a bunch of Kobo Abe novels (which I love) and I'd like to read more.

[raspberryrain]

You're not wrong.