Historical Fantasy as a literary genre seems to be everywhere these days but I must say I haven't felt the urge to pick any of the authors being talked about. I wasn't really sure why but today as I was visiting Carla Nayland's blog - I'm following Marg and Kailana's Advent Blog Tour - I think I found the explanation.
It was my first time visiting Carla's blog so I decided to scroll down and see some earlier posts. One was about Historical fantasy and what she wrote made sense to me. I think what has kept me from following the several recommendations I see online regarding this genre is because my first love is historical fiction and I see historical fantasy as something that goes against what I know of history.
This has been bothering me a bit - after all everyone else seems to love it - and I was quite happy to discover that I'm not alone.
I have been staying away from straight fantasy titles also because lately I've been a bit tired of vampires, shapeshifters and the like. However T. has convinced me to try a Connie Willis Christmas story of which the only thing I know is that it is fantasy, nothing more :-). I'm looking forward to see what I will think of it...
Hello - I'm very pleased if you thought the post on historical fantasy was interesting! It has been bothering me, too, so I was trying to figure out why it didn't appeal to me when lots of other people seem to love it. It's nice to know you're not alone, isn't it? :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to Carla's post, it was very interesting. Me, I love historical fantasy. I get a kick out of those neat, alternate explanations about why, say, there was a huge earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 (The Fire Rose, by Mercedes Lackey), or what caused the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (The Dark Queen, by Susan Carroll). Maybe it's because (don't kill me!) I'm not such a huge fan of historical fiction.
ReplyDeleteCarla,
ReplyDeleteyes it is nice to have company. And you explained it much better than I possibly could. I'm thinking I'll have to visit your blog more often. :-)
Rosario,
I think it's fortunate that we don't all like the same things. This way there is a bigger variety available to choose from and there are always exceptions... so one of these days I might read some HF I might love, who knows? :-)
You'll be very welcome if you do :-). I noticed you mentioned the Kay Scarpetta books in one of your earlier posts - I've been meaning to try these, but someone told me that the later books in the series aren't as good as the earlier ones. Is that right, do you think? Should I try to find the first one and start from there?
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I highly recommend this series but you have to start with the first one to really get to know the characters. I also prefer the first books to the latest ones I've read but I haven't read them all yet...
ReplyDeleteI really like the main character - Kay Scarpetta - and I feel these last books are darker and there's more action and less character development...
Hope this helps :-)