Talk:Legend of Asahiel

Josh Thanks for the head's up, and for taking the time to write such a comprehensive review. I don't have a problem with anything you said in your analysis. And even if I did, I don't believe it's the author's place to tell readers how they "should" have interpreted something. The wonderful thing about reading is that each person brings his or her own unique experiences to the table, and thus interprets things in his or her own way. Since you're putting yourself out there as a critic, however, I will go ahead and offer just a little bit of personal insight, lest someone else come along and suggest that you simply missed the boat..... My goal with this trilogy is not to reinvent the wheel, but rather take a deconstructionist approach to some of the most common conceits of the genre. There are a lot of aspects of the standard epic quest formula that strike me as unrealistic -- even though we're talking about fantasy. But in order to riff on the traditional "happily-ever-after" ending (and some of the events leading up to it), I felt that I first needed a setup story to generate just that, following the existing, tried-and-true format. If THE CRIMSON SWORD feels derivative, that's because it is. There are a couple of minor tweaks throughout, such as the "chosen one" of destiny turning out to be an average joe, who learns too late that the "cure-all talisman" is not his to control. His love interest is more drill sergeant than damsel, his mentor is a youthful assassin instead of a kindly old wizard, and the kindly old wizards turn out to be manipulators and deceivers serving their own private agenda. I also did my best to create not one, but a pair of competing villains, one of whom has a legitimate claim to the throne, and the other who is simply trying to establish for herself and her children a place of security in a world to which she was drawn against her will. Nuances aside, however, we are left with the successful quest of an orphaned king, who finds his one true love and saves the world against impossible odds. We thus have the ideal setup for Books 2 and 3, in which I mean to undermine the likelihood of these events, and demonstrate that even heroic deeds can have disastrous consequences. Guys like Martin, Jordan, Brooks, and Salvatore.... all are friends of mine in whom I have the highest regard. I can only aspire to one day tell stories as wonderful and thought-provoking as theirs. Martin, in particular, is writing on another level altogether, telling the kind of unconventional fantasy I always wanted to write, but with an experience and talent that I am decades away -- at the very least -- from matching. I expect to draw comparisons to other fantasy writers all the way back to Lloyd Alexander and J. R. R. Tolkien because those are the guys whose tropes and conventions are the most classic, and thus the ones I am drawing upon. In my mind, an elf is an elf, no matter what name I assign to it. Just as a horse is a horse, a sword a sword, etc. Tolkien didn't invent elves or goblins or magic, any more than John Wayne or Sergio Leone or Clint Eastwood invented saloons or spurs or six-shooters. They are merely trappings of a genre. What matters most, I think, is not the superficial appearance of these trappings, but how they are used. And in my world, I think readers will find that expectations are often turned upside-down, with nothing being quite as it first appears. Then again, it might just be that I was drunk at the time, and have no idea what I'm doing. Maybe the movie version will be better. ; ) Best, Eldon