Customer Reviews

Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction (Writing Handbooks)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased this book on the recommendation of George R. R. Martin.

I thoroughly enjoyed his Song of Ice and Fire series (so far) and the author of this book is a former student of his, so I thought it was going to be golden.

My expectations were somewhat lofty.

The bottom line: if you want some good hints and general information, get this book. It has plenty for the price Amazon is asking.

Don't expect this book to make you a top-notch writer though. No book can. As a previous reviewer stated: practice, practice, practice.

This is a well thought out and interesting introduction both to the craft of writing and the subject of fantasy and science fiction. The emphasis is away from so called " hard " sf and more towards what I call more imaginative or " impossible" fantasy writing. The book has been updated to include recent developments such as writing for the internet and includes more recent writers such as J.K. Rowling.

This book is far to general and abstract to make you a great writer. Something I liked about the book was the examples of how different writers used specific "devices" in their writing. I also liked the Q&A with publishers at the end.

Sadly though, the bulk of the book can be summarized as:
Read a lot to keep up with the field and
Write a lot to get practice.

Wonderful, awe-inspiring how to book. One of the best from the best. Its only natural.

I do have one thing to say to the reviewer below. While Fantasy does have its differences from SF, they are still essentially the same. As a matter of fact, all fiction genres are essentially the same, because all of them draw from facts fabricated from the human mind. Sherlock Holmes and James Bond are completely of the imagination, and still they're mysteries and not Fantasy or SF based only on the subject matter, but beyond that there's not much difference. I can understand that you must've picked up a horrible SF book or seen a crappy SF flick, but that doesn't mean they're all bad. I also read fantasy, and it I assure, there are some Fantasy books to be ashamed of, but I still read fantasy. Just thought I'd state that. Check out: Orson Scott Card, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert A. Heinlein. You'd be unbelievably surprised.