Fantasy that isn't heavy on the weapons?

[mollyringle]

The more I read of currently popular fantasy, the more dismayed I am that there tends to be such a huge focus on weaponry and fighting and the protagonists being (or becoming) martial arts geniuses. I stick with some of these books anyway if, such as in The Hunger Games, they're written really well and the plot and characters are compelling. But I've got to admit that violence and weaponry and action scenes are really not my favorite things. They're never the parts I re-read for pleasure (that would be the love declarations, or some particularly amusing exchanges or incidents, or passages of beautiful writing describing something magical). I don't particularly like writing fighting-and-weapons scenes either, though sometimes I find I have to, given the way I've set things up. So now I'm pondering how to set up a fantasy book so I can spend as little time as possible in violent weapon-related scenes and still create a really good read.

I think this is actually what appeals to me about the Harry Potter world, and also stories like Howl's Moving Castle: we get a lot of time to hang out in the magic world and enjoy it, and when there's fighting, it's almost solely with spells and with using one's brain. When Hermione actually uses her fist to hit Draco, it's all the more startling and satisfying that way. Except I want to write for grown-ups more than for kids. So, yeah. Pondering this, and I see from forum discussions like this that others have pondered it too.

Comments

magic vs. weapons in fantasy

[acciochocolate]

I think you're right abt this and perhaps that's why I like the HP books so much, for all their flaws. It seems to be an issue going right back to the myths and fairy tales that inspired fantasy.

We see little use of magic in Tolkien's works, even.The Middle-Earth role-playing game invented some nice magic items to help out. When my old D&D group played back in the day, most of us went for spell-user types who could swing a magic weapon when they ran out of spells. Besides clerics and druids (need those healing and protection spells), I had a great ranger PC and a half-elf MU/fighter who were both very intelligent and tried talking before fighting. :) The whole group was clever in this way; no hack'n'slash, as our DMs were bored by that and gave us puzzles to be solved w/ wits and magic.

Back to authors, Robert E. Howard had the sword-wielding barbarian defeating the evil and intelligent spell-user. Other writers worked in this theme, including Poul Anderson and Fritz Leiber. Brawn over brains, all the time, w/ might making right. Sad.

Too many fantasy writers use swords instead of wands for fighting. Or the magic turns out to be psi powers, such as in the Darkover stories and the Deryni tales.

Jim Butcher's Dresden files may have real spell-casting. If you can locate the works of my late friend Tom Deitz, the elves and humans both use magic. :)

Re: magic vs. weapons in fantasy

[mollyringle]

I was thinking about Tolkien during this pondering as well--I mean, he has those sentiments about not loving the sword for its brightness but for what it protects, and all that; but even so, there's a lot of lavish prose describing armor and weapons and battles. Which aren't what I love LOTR for; it's more the wandering through the magical world, and the sweet peaceable hobbits, and the moments of clever humor and heartbreaking friendships. So I mainly still approve of him. :)

But yeah, it's definitely the popular trend right now. Even when picking up books that are supposedly "paranormal romance," there's an awful lot of being in mortal peril that results in kung fu or sword-swinging or other fight-it-out techniques. I realize there has to be mortal peril somehow or other in nearly every fantasy or romance, but I'm just not the martial expert type and it doesn't feel like ME to give it a lot of page time. So it's good to know others are thinking along the same lines! I do appreciate the magic-users--that's far more why I pick up fantasy. :)

[peripety]

I'm with you on this. I know there is an audience for battle-heavy works, but I'm reading more for interesting world-building and characters. Since science fiction is generally my jam, I love finding an author who can balance out the necessary techno-babble and/or conflicts with more (for me, anyway) essential character interactions.

[mollyringle]

Yes! In pretty much any novel, we'll only get truly pulled in if we love the characters and are interested by their interactions, no matter the genre. I think that gets neglected sometimes in the face of a cool plot idea or epic action sequence.

[archaeologist_d]

I much prefer character development to fighting. I tend to skip past those sections!

[mollyringle]

I've been known to skim them too. I'd be fine with the Shakespearean stage direction sum-up: "They fight. He falls." :)