Are You Writing Serious Fantasy? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Nar · 09-25-2002, 05:48 PM

LotR is in a sort of hybrid Dark Ages/Edwardian world. Does fantasy have to be set in a middle ages or earlier society, or have older elements from middle ages or earlier drawn into a more modern world? There seems to be a need for life and death issues-- as in LotR or The Hobbit, the story never starts swinging until the protagonists wander somewhere where there are things that might kill them. So is a world where people might be killed necessary for fantasy so that the stakes are high enough?

09-25-2002, 05:48 PM	#11
Nar Wight Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 228	LotR is in a sort of hybrid Dark Ages/Edwardian world. Does fantasy have to be set in a middle ages or earlier society, or have older elements from middle ages or earlier drawn into a more modern world? There seems to be a need for life and death issues-- as in LotR or The Hobbit, the story never starts swinging until the protagonists wander somewhere where there are things that might kill them. So is a world where people might be killed necessary for fantasy so that the stakes are high enough?