Pellinor fans!!! discussion

Want to discuss the similarities and differences between Australian authors work, mostly the works of Trudi Canavan, Garth Nix and most importantly the Queen of this discussion Alison Croggon (all hail the Queen).

All three of these authors deserve respect for creating credible and consistent worlds in their respective series. Naturally, I found Croggon's trilogy very satisfying (my only reservation concerns the 'scholarly' introduction and endnotes which, though I liked as a concept, didn't work for me). But having completed Nix's Old Kingdom (or Abhorsen) twice, this too I found very satisfying, though a lot darker than Croggon, and quite depressing at times!

I've only just started on Trudi Canavan's Black Magician series (only the prequel and the first book so far of the triology), but I've largely enjoyed this too, though as I've said in reviews it's a little too 'talky' at times for me and static. But I'll reserve final judgement till I've finished the series.

So, credible and consistent. The credibility has to do with characterisation, creation of environments and a suggestion of backstory; well, they all do that, and that's not something that all fantasy series do. The consistency has to do with the magic: it doesn't matter how weak or powerful the magic is, it has to have some logical justification for how it works, why it works, and who is able is use it. Again, all three series share this consistency, and again not all fantasy does this convincingly enough for me.

The link between them all is that they are Australian, native or by domicile. Is there something in the Antipodes environment that nurtures such visionary fantasy? I don't myself know, but would be grateful if anyone does!

Maybe its the scenery? i always find that im most creative when surrounded by open space and beautiful stuff!

I suppose it's why fantasy has so many sub-genres: epic fantasy, urban fantasy, steampunk and so on. Urban fantasies, set in towns and cities, are very claustrophobic and even when there's talk about the 'urban jungle' it's about menace round every corner.

A lot of epic fantasy (and SF) is about the Wildwood, snow-capped mountains or island archipelagos. One of the reasons the LOTR films worked so well is the wonderful use of the New Zealand scenery for Middle Earth, and that sense of relatively unspoiled wilderness may be more familiar to Antipodeans and so more inspiring.

The sense of space and distance in Pellinor is well evoked, from the snowy lands of the north to the deserts of the south, from mountains through forests, past cities to islands. And while what I've read of Trudi Canavan only covers some of that, and Nix's Old Kingdom is very constrained by its geography, Pellinor certainly feels like a continent you might want to explore in all its richness and variety. If only it was still around now!

I think Canavan and Croggan's worlds are as spread out as each other, its just that Croggan spends more time on the scenery whereas Canavan is all about the struggles of her characters. I'm not saying that Croggan doesn't talk about her characters struggles but I just find she fixates more on the surroundings than other authors do. Much like Tolkien, from what I've read of LOTR he spends a lot of time describing the races and the scenery as well as the character struggles. Maybe thats why his books are so long.

As for Urban Fantasy, I just don't read it. Cities have never really held any interest for me unless they were really, really old and still have all the old houses.