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Last Week's Poll Results (+ Rant)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by NewsPro, Mar 28, 2001.

  1. NewsPro Gems: 30/31
    Latest gem: King's Tears


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    (Originally posted by Sorcerer)

    What we asked:

    Q: Who is your favourite fantasy book writer?
    (658 votes total)

    J. R. R. Tolkien (267) 41%
    R. A. Salvatore (108) 16%
    Robert Jordan (83) 13%
    Other (68) 10%
    Weis & Hickman (61) 9%
    Terry Pratchett (39) 6%
    Terry Goodkind (20) 3%
    Elaine Cunningham (8) 1%
    Ed Greenwood (4) 1%

    Polls about fantasy literature we have done in the past were very well received by our readers, and this latest one was no exception.

    J. R. R. Tolkien, the founder of the whole fantasy genre as we know it today and an extraordinary author of such epic tales as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit still dominates the hearts of more than 40% of people who have voted in the poll.
    It seems that time can do little to prevent people from finding his books to be something truly magical. The author may have passed away, but he has left us with an amazing legacy of works that have yet to be published and a great number of titles that have been reprinted dozens of times since their original release.

    Who knows, maybe someday a better storyteller will be born, but I do not anticipate this to be anytime soon and am quite certain that Tolkien will remain on the throne as the most beloved of all fantasy writers for generations yet to come.

    R. A. Salvatore is the second most popular fantasy writer at the moment with 16% of people voting for him. His unforgettable characters like the dark elf Drizzt, the barbarian Wulfgar and the dwarf Bruenor are probably the most widely known residents of the Forgotten Realms.
    While Salvatore's writing could hardly be called epic, it does have a certain appeal and "magic" that makes it popular by today's more modern generations of readers, especially those familiar with Dungeons & Dragons.

    Third place and 13% of votes go to Robert Jordan, another prominent name in the fantasy field of literature. His Wheel of Time series of books are getting more and more popular and some have even named him to be the best fantasy author since Tolkien.

    The choice Other (authors) was selected by 10% of the participants in the poll. People have many other personal favourite writers that we did not include in the poll, so I will list them here as they were submitted in the poll comments:

    David Gammel, Janny Wurts, Frank Herbert, Robert Rankin, Raymond E. Feist, J. K. Rowling, Patricia McKillip, Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Richard Awlinson, Robert E. Howard, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, Stephen R. Donaldson, Michael Stackpole, Katherine Kurtz, David Faraland, Roger Zelazny, Mel Odom, Dennis McKiernan

    The list is in no particular order but it does include all other authors people have suggested.

    Next with 9% of all votes are Weis & Hickman, the creators of the Dragonlance Chronicles saga and many subsequent books about dragons. A recommended read if you are looking for a bit of diversity from the stereotypical fantasy worlds most of today's fantasy writers prefer.

    6% of people have chosen Terry Pratchett as their favourite fantasy writer. While his fantasy is fundamentally different from that of all others on the list, it is quite popular nonetheless.
    Pratchett's writing about Discworld, his own mixed up fantasy world began as a parody of other fantasy, but after more than 25 published novels, Discworld has become a full-fledged fantasy world in itself. Just goes to show what you can end up with if you are not careful enough, eh? ;)

    The last 3 authors on the list (Goodkind, Cunningham and Greenwood) only scored 5% of votes combined.
    While I was not totally surprised with the outcome in the case of the first two, I was amazed that only 4 (!) of 658 people chose Greenwood as their favourite writer.

    Do not get me wrong, I am not saying that the quality of his writing dictates that he should be any higher, but the sheer amount of material he has produced over the years and the wide circulation of it made me think that he would have at least a small number of die-hard fans. Obviously not so.

    For those not familiar with his works I should note that it includes everything from novels, game sourcebooks and manuals to entire fantasy worlds. And not just any ordinary worlds, the man created the Forgotten Realms! Yes, that's right, your favourite game playground in the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series of games, not to mention all the pen & paper campaigns.

    Quantity obviously does not denote quality in this case. And another ironic thought to ponder: The Forgotten Realms fantasy world is a blatant copy of just about everything Tolkien came up with, from monsters, races, type of behavior certain fantasy races display, names and a number of other things. There is very little creativity in FR, unlike in some other fantasy worlds such as Planescape, which is in my opinion the only really original and cool world TSR has come up with.
    And guess what? It is also one of the least popular fantasy worlds. While I like it very much, the majority of others seem uncomfortable with it.

    Why?

    Could it be that we have grown so accustomed to the type of fantasy Tolkien introduced us to that we are unable to accept something that does not relate to him at least to some degree?
    Yes, in fact I think that IS the case. So with Tolkien's idea of fantasy, a great problem was also born. Lack of creativity in the genre, a feeling of being restricted in what you can write, and fear of writing something that will not appeal to the general public. To make it even worse, all three go hand in hand.

    There are few fantasy writers who were able to go beyond the frames set by the genre a long time ago and succeed. Pratchett is one of them, and yet he is most popular in United Kingdom where people have a bit different perception of humour and are maybe just because of that, also more ready to unconventional fantasy.
    Who knows? This is certainly a topic that could be debated a lot more.

    (Sorry, I usually do not have the time to get so philosophical about things, but I do hope that my rant here will at least make some of you think for a moment about what I wrote. Drop me a note in e-mail, our forums or in our chatroom if you feel you have something to add.)

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    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2018
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