Fantasy Book Club discussion

Fantasy writers add magic and mystical creatures to their world, and sometimes change up one or two other conventions, to make their worlds seem fantastical: they might use something other than hours and minutes to measure time, change the gravity from "Earth normal," etc. But I can't think of any examples where they have played with the basic idea of the nuclear family. Sure, there are orphans and widows by the score, but I can't think of a book in which the NORM was for households to have 5 adults, or where kids rotated from one house to the next at each full moon.

Can anybody think of any examples of fantasy societies with unusual definitions of "family?"

I don't know if it really fantasy, but I'm reading a book called Divergent by Veronica Roth.
It's a Dystopian book where the World is divided into five factions and the idea is that you live with your Faction and unless your bio family is a member of that Faction, you don't see them.
The phrase, "faction before blood," is tossed around a bit.
Unfortunately, it isn't as good a book as it sounds.. So far.

There is a similar concept in the Kushiel's Legecy series by Jacqueline Cary. Though much more richly executed, by far..

Interesting. In sci-fi i recall coming across the notion of a "creche" society on occasion, in which children are raised in groups, disassociated from their parents (eg I think Huxley's Brave New World used this) but i can't think of a fantasy novel that does it.

I'm thinking this is because the nuclear family is one of those deeply ingrained attributes that connotes the kind of tranquility and stability that most fantasy writers use to contrast against the big bad villain's agenda of disorder and chaos.

Jefferson wrote: "Interesting. In sci-fi i recall coming across the notion of a "creche" society on occasion, in which children are raised in groups, disassociated from their parents (eg I think Huxley's Brave New W..."

No fantasy novels I can think of, but C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen shows a unique civilization with this situation.

Some of Mercedes Lackey's book mention gay couples raising children, but that the strangest I can think of.

A very old example is in A Princess of Mars. The Red men communally raise young so you don't have any knowledge of your birth parents.

So it's not just me then? Judging by the relative dearth of contrary examples, fantasy seems to be fairly consistent in its assumption of nuclear families. I had hoped to read mention of something odd, but so far, crèche-based child rearing seems to be the strangest. No five-adults-per-family races? No children raised in larval form by nannies of another species? Either this is an under-explored story element or fantasy readers have no taste for that kind of cultural oddity.

In Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, one of the races, the khepri, have a pretty strange arrangement.
The females have intelligence and human bodies with a large beetle (scarabae) attached to the neck, the males are just mindless beetles.. Not sure how that works family-wise, but the mating is said to be pretty unexciting.. ;)

Its the book i'm reading atm, and i'm not that far in, so there might be better examples from it. It's specked with all sort of strange races and cultures, all functioning within this large overcrowded polluted city.

In robin Hobbs soldier son trilogy the specks have an interesting family relationship can fully remember how it goes but I know it's not the traditional set up.

There are quite a few books out there with "changeling" themes, which might qualify. I'm following this thread with some interest, as this is a sub-theme in my own books, which I'm studiously trying not to mention, although they fit the topic. Changeling themes work both ways, too: the changeling may be a human who's raised by another race/species, or may be another race/species raised by humans. This "strange realationship" type reaches back centuries (think silkies, seals who took on human form to mate with human women and later came to reclaim their children).

If this fits your idea of "strange relationships", consider Ben Bova's "Becoming Human" (which I can't link because I can't find it on Goodreads).

K.A. wrote: "There are quite a few books out there with "changeling" themes, which might qualify. I'm following this thread with some interest, as this is a sub-theme in my own books, which I'm studiously tryin..."

Studiously avoiding mention of your own writing is appreciated.

Has Philip José Farmer been mentioned? I think his books are scifi, though.

Are there stories of mediocrity (simple family) you ask?

What would be the point? Fantasy isn't mediocre

I'm not sure I understand your point, Gavin. It ooks like you're saying that fantasy stories with traditional family structures would be boring, in which case you're throwing out 95% of all fantasy. It's like saying fantasy is boring if the characters have two legs, or if their bodies are covered with hair and skin. The fact that characters come from common-place backgrounds is often what makes them sympathetic characters - because they come from a situation the reader can relate to.

Or have I misunderstood you?

I can think of several sci-fi examples but am hard pressed for a fantasy one. Heinlein played with the nuclear family, notably in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress where a "marriage" is multi-adult, multi-generational, and all the adults raise the minor children. Weber also has a world in the Honor Harrington series where polygamy is the norm.

I agree with K.A., there are many fantasy books with the changeling theme, focusing on everything from parentage to species to gender, as well as lots of single parents and orphans.

An interesting topic. I'll have to run through my fantasy collection and see if anything jumps out.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and as an exercise, I've been developing a truly weird family structure that I'm going to try using for one of my mythological creature species. The problem is going to be all about keeping the characters relatable while giving them a totally bizarre family life.

Martha Wells Raksura series has a pretty fascinating family structure. Truly unique from any fantasy I've read. It starts with The Cloud Roads

Check out Ursula K. Le Guin's books.There's always something interesting about gender and family in her books.You should try The Left Hand of Darkness

This is not as much a strange family structure as reversed gender roles: Wen Spencer's A Brother's Price.
Men in this fantasy society are supposed to stay at home, get married, and raise children. Women are warriors and protectors. A rather curious novel, although I read it some time ago.

Best example i could give you is Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells. Her Outcast Chronicles have a culture that is segregated males and females. The men are not allowed to raise their T'en children so they must give up the child to the women T'en to be raised until they are 17. at that point they are given back to the male T'en to join their houses.
the Men and women of the T'en all have powers and the Male gift tends to be marshal and leads to violence. centuries before one of the male houses slaughtered all of the T'en children of another house so the women took away all of their kids. then it became apart of their culture and one of the major themes in the book.
I highly recommend this series, its amazing! I've nominated it for April

oh there is a race in Peter Orullian's book that die when they reach the age of 18. So their children are raised by others all the time.

All I can think of is the family unit of 2 children in Ender's Game. From what I can remember Ender was a Third. Having a difficult time thinking of different familial situations in fantasy... Looking at the popular ASOIAF, the Lannister twins are frowned upon for their involvement and it's shameful to be a bastard. Trying to think on this one! Great, great topic.

Martha Wells has created a very complex family situation in The Cloud Roads. And very interesting beings. It's kind of like a beehive with a queen, consorts, and various other categories according to their function.

What an interesting question and alas I cannot think of one fantasy book that does not follow the norm, although I will add some of the suggestions below to my "to read" list.

I wonder though how many people you have inspired to think about building unusual families into their own work? ;)

Sandra aka Sleo wrote: "Martha Wells has created a very complex family situation in The Cloud Roads. And very interesting beings. It's kind of like a beehive with a queen, consorts, and various other categories accordin..."

I just finished the book and I agree. The family dynamics in this extended family resembles a beehive, not a human family. It's more a community than a family, but they all live together and they need each other.