It's easy to understand how that mistake got made. I'm sure the writer initially said "What does HE want, how does HE respond to what happens ..." and then went through and changed 'he' to 'they' in order to make the term gender-neutral. And then forgot to change 'does' to 'do' as well. Ah, the dangers of find/replace!
(For once I haven't read the whole thread before replying, so sorry if I say something that has already been said. ) In the last fantasy books I've read the main characters were 16-year-old kids in a school, and those books were all released within the last 4 or 5 years. There may be some main-stream trend, but that doesn't mean that everything that is written has to follow the same rules/concept. After all, there must be something (or someone) that changes the trend.
Yeah, people have noticed that the Young Adult/ Tween fantasy market is huge and are exploiting it with a lot of knock-off crap.
It's a vicious circle. Write a slow-burn story about a contemplative monk who claims to dispose of killer combat skills but is so absent-minded and self-centered that he hardly ever employs them, rather he drifts from town to town and tells stories. The majority wouldn't read it, I presume, hence the publisher wouldn't publish it. But it would be an interesting experiment.
I agree, I hate a lot of fantasy (especially high fantasy), but this sort of story done well could be intriguing.
Though the classic fairy tale bucks this system. Give that, the goal for the poor peasant lad was to be so clever or fairy-blessed he could win through the trials, marry the princess, and become a prince himself.
breaking the mold is what it's about. Rather than following the trend wouldn't you much rather set it? Using tropes and then giving them your perspective, breath of life, and uniqueness make it much more valuable to yourself and to the rest of us. don't worry about what others are doing, worry about how you can take what other do and turn it into something that is truly yours and original.
Thank you - to be sincere I'm also inclined to write the opposite of today's epic fantasy. World conflicts, either in non-existent universes or in our reality, are the minority of all conflicts...I find it more attractive to read about non-epic clashes on a familiar level, elaborated psychology of the MC included. I once got an idea to write a First person narrative about a man put under a spell. He becomes a mere puppet for the purposes of a necromancer who plots his evil schemes. The enchanted sees every living creature distorted through the lense of the spell, which makes him live in seclusion.
@Hwaigon , That's actually another thing, I also personally have no interest in writing epic clash stories even though they're (seemingly) the most accepted fantasy material (by agents/publishers), the fact that accepted word counts for those are higher, doesn't help either.
True. A lovely exception to the rule are books by Ursula K. Le Guin -- they aren't behemoth sized and though describing considerably minor events, they are epic in terms of thought, morale and legacy. Love 'em.
Gene Wolfe also provides a lot to think about. His Book of the New Sun series starts with Shadow of the Torturer, I believe.
I cannot recommend The Book of the New Sun enough. It gets pretty out there towards the end, which turned me off a little (Urth of the New Sun, arguably separate from the rest of the series, went even further), but it's well worth a read.
You have to get crafty. You have, say, a King of Assassins, but (and you have be really sneaky here), when he's not looking: whoopee cushion on the throne! Get's 'em every time.
