Well, for instance, I find most Grimdark Superheroics to be endlessly trying as everyone tries to one-up The Watchman which I already strongly disliked elements of.
To be fair, Erikson does a lot of deconstruction of fantasy in Malazan, but he’s good enough that I don’t mind too much.
IIRC, Donaldson does something like it in the Thomas Covenant series.
I don’t think it’s really about that; I think it’s a combination of:
I have a certain amount of sympathy, but at the end of the day everyone else in the entertainment industry manages to ship their stuff one way or another, while writers get bitchy anytime a timeline is mentioned.
Trump is not a great example as Kvothe is genuinely talented. He can’t be deconstructed to nothing.
No love for Elric? Wasn’t that one of the first grim-dark deconstruct the hero characters, even before Watchman?
I won’t claim an especially high level of fantasy readership, but yeah, some of my friends are all about Elric.
Grimdark isn’t necessarily my issue–I like 40K in a goofy over the top kinda way, at least. It’s really when people start asking us to reconsider what “heroism really is” and crap like that that I kinda tune out. Probably why TLJ is settling down in the lower-middle section of the Star Wars canon for me. I’m not reading fantasy to explore how complicated and difficult and imperfect real life it is, I’m reading it to escape, dammit!
And because OP Kvothe Of the All-Talents seems like such a great escape, finding out the series is actually about how he’s not really the hero of legend at all but just some kinda self-inflated prick in hiding while the world goes to shit would be the worst possible ending.
But it’s also just a theory.
Yeah, the text to this point describes genuinely great achievements based on his cleverness, outside of the rumours. I’m pretty sure he will end up the hero, but if it ends differently (if it ends) I will also be disappointed.
Assuming he ever writes the third+ book(s) - which I am doubting - I suspect that this will mostly happen, but it won’t be the end. It doesn’t make sense to have Bast trying so hard to make him remember how awesome he supposedly was just to have the story ultimately end in failure. Most likely there’ll be some kind of redemption event, probably suicidal.
I feel like both will die first and Brandon Sanderson will have to finish them.
Sanderson writes at the airspeed of a swallow compared to the glacial pace of GRRM/Rothfuss…
Speaking of, I never got around to reading the last / 3rd series. Was pretty done with the whole thing after the second trilogy and that was a bit of a hard read at the time. Can anyone recommend going back for more?
I read them all and enjoyed them. However, I’ve read the first 2 Chronicles multiple times, as well as most of Donaldson’s other works, including the short stories. If you’re a fan, the new books are great. If you’re not, then don’t worry about it.
That’s what she said.