The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (Daw Fantasy Anthology) (Paperback)

by Diana Wynne Jones (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Suffering from a bit of deja vu after reading your umpteenth fantasy trilogy? Seen too many magic swords, musical elves and warring wizards? Then you're ready for the funniest and most complete "tourist's" guide to Fantasyland's standard character types, plot elements, and settings ever devised.

Diana Wynne Jones describes (starting, of course, with a map) every sword-and-sorcery cliché in wickedly accurate detail, arranged alphabetically. Elves sing in beautiful, unearthly voices about how much better things used to be. Swords with Runes may kill dragons or demons, or have powers like storm-raising, but they are not much use when you're attacked by bandits. You can only have an Axe if you're a Northern Barbarian, a Dwarf, or a Blacksmith. Jones also tackles hard-hitting questions: how does Fantasyland's ecology work when there are few or no bacteria and insects and vast tracts of magically irradiated wastelands? Why doesn't the economy collapse when pirates and bandits are so active and there is no perceptible industry?

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (U.K. Edition) was a 1997 Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee. It's a good companion to Jones's Dark Lord of Derkholm, a fantasy about what happens when your land is turned into a theme park for questing tourist parties. Fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books will enjoy both. --Nona Vero

Review
Fantasy fans with a sense of humor should enjoy this one. Ex-fantasy fans, who came to their senses, should enjoy it even more. -- Analog, Tom Easton

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: DAW (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886778328
• ISBN-13: 978-0886778323
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #701,795 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lighten up! This book is F-U-N-N-Y!, March 15, 2000

By	Gwen Kramer "gwenhwyvar" (Tehachapi, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I think most of the negative reviews are from people whose tongue is not inserted properly in their cheek.Really, guys, who goes around COUNTING cliches and who can really catch every single one when it all comes dowen to it. This book is full of wicked humor and a skewering look at fantasy not to be missed.

True fans of any genre are the ones that can laugh at it. This book is great because it tells writers exactly what cliches to avoid and points out funny facts. (Come to think of it, when HAS a fantasy character, a serious heroic one, mind you, ever worn socks? Tell me if you know!)

Read it, be prepared for initial indignation, then laughter then get on with your life and for heaven's sake don't count how many times these tired cliches have been used! It spoils all the fun

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Funny, and possibly useful, February 22, 2003

By	Glen Engel Cox "www.engel-cox.org" (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (Paperback)

Read the latest Robert Jordan, David Eddings or Terry Brooks door-stop and decide that you could write a fantasy soap opera just as well? Or maybe those authors drive you insane and you want to turn the fantasy genre on its head? The solution to both of these tasks can be found in this strange book from Diana Wynne Jones, better known for writing original children's fantasies of her own. Her secret, contained herein, seems to have been a long study of fantasy literature, and noted what has become cliched. In this book, all the tropes are dissected and cross-referenced. A better title would have been "A Writer's Guide to Fantasy Schlock, with annotations."

As a book to read straight through, it is not as rewarding. The entries are listed alphabetically, with small caps indicating a term with its own entry. Little icons appear in the margins--these don't mean anything per se, but are usually little graphic jokes on the text. The text itself is quite amusing, especially if one is familiar with the subject being pilloried.

I wouldn't recommend this book to all, but fans of fantasy should find enough here for their monies worth of chuckles. Would-be writers will find this an indispensable reference work.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and Much-Needed, March 14, 2002

By	Brian Libby "Gadfly" (Faribault, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (Paperback)

If you like fantasy and have a sense of humor, get this book. Diana Wynne Jones knows whereof she speaks, and she hits many nails on the head. This is a delightful send-up of fantasy conventions and if you don't laugh out loud you will at least smile a lot.

In view of the current resurgence of LOTR (thanks to the movie)this book should be sold in conjunction with Bored of the Rings by the Harvard Lampoon, which I hear is being re-issued after many years. The two would make a nice gift set.

Like another reviewer, I am sorry that even more items were not included--such as Knights--but one author cannot think of everything and the book -is- 300 pages long.

It is fun to imagine what particular authors Ms. Jones might have had in mind as she wrote the different entries (although I don't suggest she is always being "author-specific".) In my own case, I am as it happens finishing up Elizabeth Moon's DEED OF PAKSENNARION, and the entry for "Female Mercenary" really had me chuckling. Hello, Paks!

I hope someone sends copies of this masterpiece to R.J., T.G., and several other people who badly need to read it.