P. Pherson’s Comments (group member since Nov 27, 2024)

P. Pherson’s comments from the Fantasy group.

Perhaps I should put Sword of Kaigen in my DNF pile. It did get exciting, but I have not picked it up in months. and all ready I have other books to read (I entered a reading round). It does not bring me joy to think about picking it back up. I just have other stuff to read first.

I am not sure when I will ever come back to it.

Jabotikaba Said:
Prince Zuko, of course!

No agreement with you there, my friend. Sorry.


You know, Goodreads threads does a terrible job with quoting other threads. All these posts mashed together with italics and comments and more italics is very hard to read and sift through.

Maybe we can make more effort it spacing things out before hitting post.

Howdy Lexi, Welcome here.

Yeah...but Shrek had layers...he was like an onion...


Interesting. but I am sure it has been done. In my book 5, which is waiting for me to write it, there will feature a romance between two orc like characters. I would be pleased if I was alone in that....but sadly, I doubt I will get to lay claim to first.

Thawn was indeed blue of skin. He is a great example of a villian done well. An example of someone playing chess when other are playing checkers. The problem with him was, he was so far ahead of the heroes that they essentially only had dumb luck to save them, and so...dumb luck shows up a bit too often. At the end, IMO, Thrawn should have won, and defeated the new order of Princess Leia.

But he is expanded universe, and Disney quashed that.

Ah...I see...I feel Lancelot has made the bill as being a Legitimate Arthurian Knight. I can see where a more purist view could hold that there is a historical record, and Lancelot has no past living person to point to, but he adds so much more to the story that the story feels incomplete to me without him. To be the best knight of the court and to be filled with desire for what he cannot have. His honor to do his duty, and his demon to fight against his want. He is a tragic characters and also the one the King wants most at his side. I relate to him. I know what its like to want someone you cannot have, and how that weights on you every day.

Mordred is not weak because he cannot have Guinevere. Its enough that he wants his birthright and Arthur wont give it to him.

Anyway....Your comments have made me think of another, and that is Admiral Thrawn, from the Star Wars: Dark Force Rising

Thrawn is a great villain, who is always ahead of the usual cast, out thinking them at almost every measure. My only regret with this book is that I thought he should have won, but by pure dumb luck does not. Thrawn is way better at the game of war than his opponents and it shows in many places.

Sadly, I am not sure his fate is Disney Star Wars. We was discarded with most everything else that kept it alive over the years. Pity.

You all are more read than me, I am afraid. Other than Darth Vader, who took up most of my childhood, I am not sure I have a fav. I loved Aku from Samurai Jack but he was kind of half comic relief as much as villain.

I also liked Mojo-Jojo cause he took such a savage beating from the powerpuff girls for his many zany attempts of defeating them. But that was also cause the kids liked him.

From literature, I'm gonna have to go with Dracula. The absolute standard for what a Vampire can be, and a role model for so many other villians that have come after. Dracula in his many many redhibitions is a villian I cannot ignore.

After Dracula, I am going to move on to the many monsters of Cthulhu, I've spent more than a little amount of my time wondering how something could really drive people insane just to look on it. I still can't grasp it. Insanity on the instant seems unlikely to me. Insanity over time...



Why do you hate Lancelot? I think he is one of the greatest tragic heroes of all time. He's a model for a lot of my characters. And I am sure, many others beyond me.

Least you know of them ;)

Star Wars is damaged goods now. A lot of fans have walked away.

If it came up, I would have bet real money that 100% of the people here have seen or are familiar with the last air bender. Glad I did not do that.

Avatar the last air bender is one of those tales that one generation grew up with, and Star Wars was another. I have seen many times the question of who had the greater redemption story, Darth Vader or Prince Zuku?

For me, it would bet I can guess you age depending on the answer to that question.

I've kicking this one around a lot, but...even thought the limitation here is animal, I keep coming back to droids and robots. I think Artoo-Deetoo (or just Artoo) is the most memorable one for me. Moving past that, it would have be Robin, from Batman and Robin.

Robin was designed to be a side kick.

Most often, I find the animal ones are aimed at younger audiences, and are more comic relief than side kick.

I think, for animals, I will have to go with Appa and Momo from the last air bender. They pretty much fit the bill.

First one that came to my mind was shippo from Inuyasha, but then thinking, I think all the characters there are part animal, including Inuyahsa himself.

I will go with Mushu the dragon from Mulan, cause dragon ;)

I always thought mournbringer and stormbreaker were pretty cool. Swords possessed by demons.

The holy hand-grenade of Antioch comes to mind.

I can see having fantasy where good guys pit against the aim of other good guys and I can point to some places where that has happened in the many things I have seen and read.

For my self, I tend to be light vs dark, and I write in a way that supports the light shines brightest when the dark is at its darkest.

The last book I wrote was about the bad guys, the next one is about the light. There will be some light against light in that. Not that anyone is bad, but that there are differences who is doing it better, and what that may lead too... Its kind of the big sin of the whole series.

There is such a thing as light fantasy, but not in the way that you mean it. When I think of light fantasy, I think of children's books...Princess Laura went looking for her dragon, but he wasn't at home, so she went and asked the otter, and he said go ask the unicorn cause they were playing earlier...

Stuff like that.

Light fantasy would be difficult to do on its own, as it would need the dark to contrast against.

Just an FYI, the opening scene is the worst of the whole series.

The opening is so integral to the character and all that happens, that it cannot be removed. Plus, I'd not remove it even if I could. Sami suffers a terrible ordeal, but it makes her who she is. Parts of it she wrestles with for the whole tale, other parts show her growth over the course of the 5 books. And much of it lends itself to the big themes of the whole story.

Or...in other words, I am gambling that, despite the harsh opening, the story will still show its worth, and that will over shadow it.

But...if any depiction of those types of scenes greatly bother you, its not a story for you.

Well..I have to write the battle scenes, they do happen. I try to keep them quick. But...they do take up space. I work hard to make every sentence matter to advancing the story, the battles are no different.

Well...Wikopedia does say:

An alternative definition, common in role-playing games, rests on the story and characters being more realistic and less mythic in scope. Thus, some works like Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian series can be high fantasy according to the first definition but low fantasy according to the second.[3] With other works, such as the TV series Supernatural, the opposite is true.

I think the current rendering sounds like a rebranding of the word to me.

Low Fantasy is always full of grit, and more of a Guts and Glory kind of story. While High Fantasy has epic quests, dealing with the gods and magic, and great world challenging problems.


Superman is high fantasy, Batman is low fantasy. Most superheroes are in the high fantasy realm, even though most take place on earth.

I use 'TheFreeOnlineDictionary.' when I have to look things up. Its just better than all the others. Sometimes I use the Urban Dictionary ;)

TheFreeOnlineDictionary, seems to have changed to TheFreeDictionary.

The change 'to in world or out of world' seems too clean. I think the word must have been redefined somewhere along the way. I can accept it, but...Superman is low fantasy? SMH. There is just too much that would blur that line to really be the best choice.

In saw the orange curse on bookroar. Im gonna grab it from there when my slate clears.

Hmmm… that sounds like a new version of the definition to me. Probably by the same ppl who brought us trope.

Low Fantasy: Noun

1) (uncountable) A subgenre of fantasy fiction set in the primary or real world as opposed to a secondary or fantasy world.

2) (uncountable) A subgenre of fantasy fiction that focuses on more grounded and realistic fantasy with more focus on the daily lives and practical goals of the characters.

3) (countable) A work in this subgenre.

I am saying definition 2 is equally as definitive.

I had to create my map several times. I used to have it on graph paper, but transferred it to an Ecopy, but the program was antiquated. I made it again using Inkarnate, which I like very much, but I made it in color... Well, in color dramatically increases the price of the book, so.... Inkarnate has no way to just transfer it to black and white, so I had to make it again.

I am a little affraid for book 3, as the map greatly expands and we see much more of the word. I dont have a B/W map ready for that. I will have to make it all over again.

This is the map I put in the book.