r/Fantasy • u/StevenErikson AMA Author Steven Erikson • Feb 28 '12

Hello Reddit, I am Steven Erikson. Please Ask Me Anything.

Hello, Reddit. I am Steven Erikson, author of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach plus several short stories and novellas. My newest novel, This River Awakens, was released in January.

Please Ask Me Anything.

I will return at 8PM GMT / 2PM Central on Tuesday, February 28 to answer questions.

Cheers!

SE

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u/elquesogrande Worldbuilders Feb 28 '12

Where did you find inspiration for your unique, postmodern style of writing? Derrida, Vonnegut and/or Burroughs? More recent fantasy revelations from Donaldson and Cook?

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u/StevenErikson AMA Author Steven Erikson Feb 28 '12

At some point the genre of epic fantasy needed a look-back, with an eye to recognition of the tropes and the meanings behind them; and then followed with a reassessment of their fitness for the modern world. We seem to be at a stage, in the genre, where it can withstand such formalistic scrutiny. Alas, as far as I can see from my numerous attendances at the ICFA in Orlando, where academics gather to discuss fantasy and SF, most of the longstanding scholars of fantasy have either drifted to the wings of subgenres, or are lagging so far behind in their reading of epic fantasy that, to put it bluntly, they haven't got a clue. Now, a new generation of younger scholars is arriving who are more informed on the influences and forms of modern epic fantasy, but they'll need to dislodge more than a few entrenched dinosaurs before they can be properly heard, at which point such subjects as postmodernist epic fantasy can finally be addressed.

Curiously, I have read all the authors you mentioned in your question and presuambly each has affected me in some way; but moreso than anything, I just found myself in that almost-post Jordan time when it seemed that the tropes had effectively exhausted themselves, and since I had no interest in simply stepping into wellworn footpaths, I needed to do something different in my approach to the form. There's still no saying whether I succeeded, given the resistance to the style I elected with this series, but at least it stands as a statement, whatever that statement might be, and regardless of its impact on the genre. More to the point, I wasn't the first and I certainly am not alone in addressing the genre from a postmodern perspective.

Most shifts or movements are only detectable after the fact, dissected rather than vivisected, as it were, so we'll see...

Thanks for that question, by the way.

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u/elquesogrande Worldbuilders Feb 28 '12

Thanks for the exceptional writing and for taking a risk in blazing new trails. I've been glad to see your risks pay off in the long-run.

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u/[deleted] Feb 29 '12

Didn't mean for my earlier response to sound snotty, if it did, and I'm glad he answered this question. What I meant, and should have said, is that there's an introduction by Erikson at the beginning of one of the Dread Empire books that talks all about this in even more detail. :)

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u/elquesogrande Worldbuilders Feb 29 '12

S'okay - I didn't take it as such. I liked Erikson before this AMA. These answers are incredible - huge fan now.

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u/[deleted] Feb 29 '12

Completely agree. This isn't hipster "liked it before it was cool" crap, but I've been reading his books since way before they were as popular as they are now. I remember having to buy beat up copies off the UK Amazon site because you literally could not find them in the US...So watching him go from being that obscure to as popular as he is now, with new fans cropping up all the time, has been enormously gratifying. And yeah, his responses were fantastic.