Non-Standard Fantasy

[mishalak]

A thought occurs to me. I was sitting here thinking about Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner. It doesn't have the usual fantasy kingdom, instead it has a fantasy aristocratic republic where they cut off the king's head ages ago and this is generally regarded as a good thing by almost everyone. What are the other fantasies that do things like this? Illusion by Paula Volsky has a mashup of the French and Russian revolutions so the king's head is off by the end of the second act. But I cannot think of any others at the moment.

Comments

[melonaise.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I can think up a few without a monarch, but they generally still have a "local lord" sort of system, and then either a council of lords or a lot of contention.

During Dragoncon we had a discussion about magic systems in fantasy novels. We were trying to come up with examples where the people in the fantasy world hadn't yet worked out all the rules of magic, similar to the Age of Enlightenment for science. They could be just discovering magic, or there could be multiple schools of thought on the best way to use magic. The best example I've come up with so far is CS Friedman's Black Sun trilogy, but the discovery of magic is presented more as a history lesson than an active part of the story. Can you think of any?

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I am uncertain, but I have the impression that Barbara Hambly's Darwath Trilogy presented magic as sort of medieval. The past people knew a lot of things that had been forgotten, but not everything. With the mages being on the verge of learning a lot more before being interrupted by a little ice age. But that's not what you are looking for.

I'm going to re-read all my Barbara Hambly, because I would be surprised if what you are looking for isn't in there somewhere. She uses a lot of actual history in her fantasy. And if it has not been done... well what a wonderful opportunity for me to write something about magic as enlightenment technology for the Elves. Or something like that. Magic users rediscovering all the old things and on the verge of surpassing the old masters without actually realizing it... what a wonderful plot point.

[julesjones]

Discworld has a situation a little like that -- and one novel about what happens when something glamours the populace into thinking that having a king would be really nifty.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Yes. Though since it is a parody it seems... somewhat cheating to point it out as an example.

There need to be more late medieval fantasies. With feudalism breaking down. In my opinion.