Last year, in the build up to Fantasy-Faction’s Grim Gathering event, it was suggested to me that I would look a lot better if I had Myke Cole’s arms. One kind soul even photoshopped them in to my picture so I could really appreciate the difference.
Faced with the undeniable glory of Mr Cole’s biceps I had to concede the point.
Anyway, this got me thinking. If you could build a perfect fantasy author, Frankenstein style, from the best bits of other fantasy authors, what would you choose? And given that not all fantasy authors have worked as hard on our muscle tone as others, I want to focus on writerly qualities rather than body parts.*
So, for example, I might come up with something like a Frankenstein’s Fantasy Author with the following qualities:
Robin Hobb’s: characters
Joe Abercrombie’s: wit
Pat Rothfuss’: prose
George Martin’s: battle scenes
Terry Pratchett’s: pathos
Myke Cole’s: arms
Sorry, but I’m having Myke Cole’s arms. That’s non-negotiable.
Or, maybe we could go for something more specific, where we distill particular character types or elements from each author. In this case our list might look more like this:
Robin Hobb’s: wolves
Joe Abercrombie’s: wizards
Pat Rothfuss’: musicians
George Martin’s: dwarves
Terry Pratchett’s: guards
Myke Cole’s: arms**
Feel free to leave your own suggestions for a Frankenstein’s Fantasy Author in the comments below. Your list can be as long or as short as you like, as general or as specific. But spread the love, especially for authors you feel don’t get enough recognition.
*I originally tried writing this using actual fantasy author body parts…ugh! Those images are going to stay with me for a long time.
**Sorry, I meant soldiers.
Richard Marpole
Jennie Ivins
Jen Williams’ Black Feather Three
meet
Mark Lawrence’s Jorg and Jalan,
and go together in an adventure. They enjoy
Melanie Rawn’s Touchstone magical theatre setting
and end up in
Brent Weeks’ Lightbringer world,
where we’ll see if colour drafting is able to beat their combined fighting power (minus Jalan 😉 )
(and Peter, I prefer your real arms to Mike’s hehe)
The narration style of Joe Abercrombie, the characters of Brent Weeks, and the plot of Brandon Sanderson. Although if you used a combination of a Sanderson and Weeks plot things might get really interesting.
Taking up the challenge to use less well known authors, here’s my Frankenstein’s Female Fantasy Monster:
Michelle West’s characters
plus
AFE Smith’s plots and diversity
plus
Wen Spencer’s genre blending
plus
T. Frohock’s darkness and lyricism
… all set in Hogwarts. Because why not.
Brandon Sanderson : plot
Guy Gavriel Kay : characters, prose, and spirit
Miles Cameron : battle scenes and realism