I think modern fantasy is just a way of clarifying that it takes place in modern or near-modern times. I don't think there's anything wrong with medieval-placed fantasy if the story actually calls for it (like LOTR, A Song of Fire and Ice, etc.), but all too often, it's really clear that a story is only placed that way because the author thinks that fantasy must automatically equal wizards and villages and healing crystals and swords. That annoys me. Not the setting itself, but when the author is clearly just thinking inside boxes and churning out what's already been done. I think the hallucination story sounds awesome, and I'd read it. If you're concerned that people will take the "but it's all just his imagination" route, include something in the story that makes it clear he's not. For example, he's missing in places from the real world where he is supposed to be, because he was in the altworld. Or he brought back some residue from the altworld and someone else noticed it.
Hey Goldenghost, I consider myself decent at plot making and I really like your concept. Out of curiosity what would be your angle? Dark? Melodramatic? Because if you make one of the themes of the novel (in addition to the excellent theme about addiction and escapism) 'how do I know if this world is hallucination or real or am I insane?' you could make the book a real mind bender.
Good fantasy? Well, I'd say A Song of Ice and Fire is one of the best series out dere. Also, try Ursula Le Guin, she did Tales of Earthsea, which has such interesting philosophy as all of her work does. Kelly Armstrong does a good modern fantasy series starting with Bitten. OH and Terry Pratchett! His fantasy world is great. He's hilarious. They're all mostly non-cliche. Although, I quite like fantasy cliches :v Call me boring and unimaginative, but I like magic and swords. I even like medieval without the fantasy, kuku. I need a bit of realism, but if I'm honest, I use reading and writing to escape into a new world. Why should I feel pressured to conform? I like traditional fantasy and it can be written well. I also like to tackle issues in my writing, particularly around discrimination, sexuality, the environment and the greyness of moral. My stories pretend to follow a typical fantasy plot but they always end up derailing and ending up somewhere else entirely.
For a fun fantasy series that allows you to escape without the headache of Martin's genealogy, Tolkien's dryness, or Weis/Hickman's game logs (yes, game logs... I'll have to tell you sometime)... try Lawrence Watt-Evans "Lords of Dus" series. Just good ol'fantasy that lets you "relax" into a world of Overmen, wizards, ancient evils, some really nasty cults and an awesome sword. ~Mordred
I read the series up to the second half of Enchanter's Endgame. The only reason I stopped was because I lost the book. Seriously, I have no idea where it is. But I did enjoy the series, it is something I would read a second time through. I wasn't into writing when I read the series, nor am I a Fantasy genre writer, so I won't comment on the story, but I did enjoy the series!
I am still not sure yet considering I came up with the idea at the beginning of my sobriety and recently brainstormed more ideas on it. I think at this point it would be a hallucination he experiences which would give more insight into the life of someone who has the disease of addiction/alcoholism. He would enter the alternate world and real time would become warped. IE: One day in the hallucination could potentially be 1 week in real time. Where in real time his personality starts changing and he starts becoming a zombie and isolates. His relationships suffer as a result and he becomes estranged from the people he loves in the process. Throughout the story I would show compulsion and his need to constantly be in this world because he is missing something of value in his REAL life. (The spiritual malady addicts/alcoholics suffer from) Leading up to a point where he is befriended by an Elf named Karut (which is my last name backwards) who is supposed to be a personified character who has characteristics to the person that existed inside of me the entire time and eventually was able to come out as I got sober. His purpose would be to show the glimmers of light I had throughout my time of active addiction where I had moments when I knew I was a good person and I knew I was meant to do better things, but I couldn't because my life was ruled by compulsion and a lack of value in my realty (so on top of the physical side of dependency, I had this feeling of needing to change how I felt because I was not ok with my experience in reality.) The explanation I use when trying to describe the experience an addict goes through is this: Picture yourself in a car that is sinking and all the windows are up. You know, with every fiber of your being, that all you have to do to escape, is break one of the windows and swim free. But, no matter how much you want to, how hard you try, you just cannot do it and you stay inside the vehicle, while it is sinking deeper and deeper underwater. It is not until someone else swims down and breaks the window for you and shows you there is a way out, that you have the chance and opportunity to swim free. (which is the fellowship of sober addicts/alcoholics and the program where the entire thing is based on helping each other out because we cannot do it on our own, amongst other things I cannot really discuss because this is a public thread and one of our traditions states that we cannot discuss anything through media: press/radio/film etc so it does not look like we are promoting or advertising something. The tradition being: 11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.) ANYWAYS I brainstormed a little bit of the climax as well which would entail him discovering that with each quantity of usage, he finds out that if he uses more of the chemical in one dose, his duration spent in the world becomes longer. This causes major time lapses in real life which is basically how my experience in addiction went. I missed a large part of my years from 18-21. The climax being he comes to one day and finds himself being confronted by his parents and them coming to a point where they cannot enable him any more. And if he continues, they'll kick him out of the house and disown him for the sake of their own health and lives. But right before he came to, Karut was kidnapped by Antagonists that rule the hallucinated world. This creates a internal problem with my main character because he is told that he cannot continue using without consequences, the fact that he does want to stop but he can't, and now he has to save his friend because he is convinced the world is real. (he is about 20 at this point.) So he takes a large dose and decides to go back in because he HAS to save Karut. Yada yada yada, saves Karut and brings him back to the real world to find out that he does not come back with him and when he comes to for the last time the piece of his life that has been missing, is there. He wakes up in the middle of an intervention and is overcome with feelings of happiness and value and is just happy to see his family again, for the first time so to speak, in his entire life. That inner self is now there and he has found it. (He is 22 now, so the duration spent in this conflict lasted about a year or two in real time) This all correlates with the experience I had in my 7 years of daily use/addiction obviously in a metaphorical/allegorical sense. Like I said, it is still in the works and I am just brain storming ideas and plot structure/development. Once I feel my writing skill is proficient enough to take on the novel, I will write it. I will probably end up changing some things but right now this is the base idea for what I would like to create in the future.
