One of the criticisms that epic fantasy receives, is that the characters are often stereotypical and two-dimensional. Fans of the genre will know the tropes well: the stern dwarf, the distant elf, the cryptic wizard, the naive farm boy, and so on. Part of the reason why lovers of epic fantasy read these books is because they enjoy these characters - but there are times when the portrayal and development of fantasy characters gets so hackneyed, that even hardcore fans get bored!
The trick with epic fantasy is to create characters that fantasy-lovers can recognize, while giving them a twist that makes them unique and fresh. If I think about recent epic fantasy with excellent well-drawn characters, Mark Lawrence's
Broken Empire series comes to mind. The central character in this series (
Prince of Thorns and King of Thorns), is an anti-hero. The main character is a violent, immoral young man with a massive chip on his shoulder. Jorg is certainly not the bright-eyed hero you often see in epic fantasies. But, love him or hate him - you'll never forget him!
From a writer's point of view, epic fantasy has great scope for character development. You have life and death issues here, and events that can change, or destroy, the world. Surely, a writer can show some serious character development in such a story? In his book,
Story (a must-read for any aspiring writer), Robert McKee writes about the difference between an archetype and a stereotype - an important distinction to keep in mind with a genre like epic fantasy. To quote the great man himself:
"The archetypal story unearths a universal human experience, then wraps itself inside a unique, culture-specific expression. A stereotypical story reverses this pattern: It suffers a poverty of both content and form. It confines itself to a narrow, culture-specific experience and dresses it in stale, nonspecific generalities."
There's no reason why characters in epic fantasy shouldn't have the same hopes, fears, dreams and neuroses, as the rest of us. The trick is to make sure they are unique to the time and place they are set in, and not merely modern-day people in fancy dress!
I love creating and developing characters. It's what I look for in the novels I read, and its what I focus on in the books I write. In my new epic fantasy novel,
Journey of Shadows, I centre the story around three brothers. Unbeknown to them, their mother was a witch - who sacrificed her own life to save theirs. They grow up, unaware of their legacy. This idea isn't a new one, but my telling of it is. The first difference to a lot of epic fantasy is that my three protagonists are men - not boys. Reading stories about yet another callow youth who learns about his true destiny, makes me want to spork out my own eyeballs! My protagonists are in their early to mid-thirties; they are well-entrenched in safe, uneventful lives that are going nowhere. They also all have serious 'issues' when it comes to forming emotional attachments. The youngest brother is a dreamer who took the first job offered and never embarked on the adventures he'd dreamed of; the second brother is a workaholic who has sacrificed everything for his craft; and the third brother is a reclusive librarian who has chosen the company of books to people. I enjoyed kicking these three out of their comfort-zones and into a grand adventure!
To celebrate the launch of
Journey of Shadows, I am running a contest. It runs until
Thursday 28 February 2013- and the winner will receive a
US$30 Amazon gift card (that should buy you a few more Kindle books!) and a copy of
Journey of Shadows (Kindle Edition). To enter, you don't need to buy a copy of the book - you just need to share your thoughts on your favourite fantasy character!
Here's how to enter:
- Comment below about your favourite epic fantasy character, the book he or she appears in, and why you loved him/her. A paragraph is sufficient! I've already told you about mine - Jorg from the Broken Empire series.
- The best comment will be announced on 1 March 2013 and the winner receives a US$30 Amazon gift card and a Kindle Edition of Journey of Shadows!
