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Tad
and the Shadow
Fantasy author Tad Williams on the immersive nature of epic fantasy,
the fact that what most of us who keep coming back to fantasy fiction
love about it is that “sinking-in” feeling, that thrill of sliding
into a new and convincing world that exists side-by-side with our
own ...
Shadowmarch marks the beginning
of your first epic fantasy since Memory, Sorrow And Thorn, a decade
ago; does it feel good to be back?
Shadowmarch is being advertised as my return to epic fantasy, but
to honest with you, I don’t think I ever left. (Readers of
Otherland and The War Of The Flowers can make their own judgments.)
However, what Shadowmarch does represent is my very happy return
to a type of fantasy that is often called “epic” or “traditional”,
but which my wife has named “Deep Fantasy”.
Presumably referring to the depth of background that characterizes
epic fantasy at its best?
Yes, she’s referring to the immersive nature of the
stuff, the fact that what most of us who keep coming back to fantasy
fiction love about it is that “sinking-in” feeling, that
thrill of sliding into a new and convincing world that exists side-by-side
with our own.
Getting the world right is obviously very important when writing
epic fantasy.
Absolutely. And worldbuilding is probably the most satisfying part
of writing fantasy – the chance to play God (or at least a
very fallible god who eats cookies and makes sarcastic remarks to
his pets while creating) and make something new, a what-if world
that will eventually become complex enough to generate its own surprises.
And they do, of course. Surprise their creators, that is.
I can’t tell you how many times I labored for
weeks or months to solve some problem of imaginary history, only
to have the solution rise almost spontaneously from the created
world itself. Complexity breeds its own unseen order – that
is, if you make something complicated enough, and respect its reality,
it will begin to suggest its own consistencies, and its own inconsistencies,
in a way that is sometimes a bit nervewracking.
Care to give us an example?
Sure. When I first, long ago, drew the map of the continents
for Shadowmarch, I put the northern continent, Eion, and the southern
continent, Xand, quite close together. This was mainly because I
wanted to get them both on the same map, while having Eion dominate
the map (since most of the planned action took place there.)
However, as time went by and I began to sketch in the history of
the world, deciding (among other things) that civilization first
arose on the southern continent, since I wanted a sort of isolation
for the fairy-folk of the northern continent, the Qar, before men
came in contact with them, I also realized that it didn’t make
any sense that if the two continents were so close that there would
be so little settlement of Eion by the Xandians, and so little intercourse
between humans and Qar.
After consideration, I decided that there would have to be high
mountains and thick forest between the southernmost part of Eion
and the rest of the continent, providing a real impediment to easy
travel. So I was forced to decide that the colonization of the southern
end of Eion, which quickly grew into that continent’s first
city-states, would have lasted a long time before any major settlements
happened beyond it. Similarly, in my final version, most of the
biggest human cities are along the coasts. Only recently, in the
last half a millennium, have humans civilized Eion’s interior.
Right there, of course, is a huge historical and geographic theme
that didn’t exist when I first started. And because of it,
I’ve had to rework and deepen the history of the peoples and
places of Eion and Xand.
And once you’ve started this process,
the book seems to almost take on a momentum of its own?
That’s how worldbuilding goes, one idea feeding on another,
or else running into another with the shock of a well-laden ship
going onto hidden rocks, to sink and never be seen again. You keep
what works, you look to your own earlier ideas to inform your new
ones, you strive for consistency, and after a while what begins
to arise is something resembling a real world, ready to be peopled
with characters.
A natural question for a reader unfamiliar
with epic fantasy might be, ‘So what’s the purpose of
all this worldbuilding? Why not just write a story set in the real
world, in some strange and almost fabulous empire of the past?’
Good question. One of the obvious reasons to invent a world is that
you not only get to create the geography and history, you can (within
reason, subject to over-stretching the sympathies of your readers)
invent the physics as well. In short, you can use things like magic
without irritating sticklers for reality too much by inserting dragons
into medieval France or making wizards the ruling class of Moorish
Spain. I love magic, as long as its doled out in small, precious
quantities. Too much magic is like too much salt – it hides
everything else, and spoils its own appeal.
There’s also the fairly obvious fact that with an invented
world, you can make anything you want happen. It’s hard to
scare readers with the thought of a cataclysmic war, for instance,
no matter the consequences for the characters, if the reader knows
that seven hundred years later those battle-sites are going to be
covered with car-parks and Starbucks. (What IS the plural - Starbuckses?
Starbucksae?) Historical distance can soften the worst events, but
if the world you’re immersed in HAS no future – that you
know of, anyway – the reader is immersed in the now. Anything
can happen. And probably will.
So, essentially, you like to make the rules,
not just follow them!
Yes. In fact, that’s probably what I like best about
this sort of thing. I can do whatever I want. As long as people
will still want to read it - which is, of course, the ultimate decider:
I have no urge whatsoever to write books that no one but me will
ever finish, let alone enjoy.
I’m odd that way, I guess.
Tad Williams, thank you for your time.
Thanks to Orbit Books (and Ben
Sharpe) for permission to post this interview. For more details
of their SFF authors and books, visit Orbit at www.orbitbooks.co.uk
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OTHER CONTENT - December 2004
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Tad
and the Shadow
Fantasy author Tad Williams on the immersive nature of epic fantasy, the fact
that what most of us who keep coming back to fantasy fiction love about it is
that “sinking-in” feeling, that thrill of sliding into a new and convincing
world that exists side-by-side with our own ...
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Trudi
Canavan Interview
Fantasy author Trudi Canavan on the Black Magician trilogy, a world where some
humans have evolved the ability to use magic - an energy that is natural and
has no link to gods, demons, the land or any notion of good or evil. The catch
is that to release and develop their ability all magicians must be taught by
another ...
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
The
Impatient Writer's Guide to Worldbuilding by Victoria Strauss
Another fab installment in the Writers Bloc series from artesix's guest writers
...
(ARTICLES)
Liz
Williams Interview
I often start with images; dreams, impressions, and occasionally characters,
but those tend to come later, after the setting has developed. For example,
I've just written a short story that started life as an image of a unicorn in
Kew Gardens in London -- from that developed a far-future SF story. I also quite
often misread things, and that sparks off ideas as well.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Why
I Write Military Science Fiction
Three things pushed me toward writing military SF. The first reason is history.
In the long history of humanity so far, war is almost as constant as death and
taxes. Since the best guide to future behavior is past behavior, the constancy
of intertribal conflict suggests that there will be war for a very long time
to come.
(ARTICLES)
Who
is Dr. Strangelove?
Stanley Kubrick's film, Dr.Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And
Love the Bomb, begins with a rolling fog of rumors. A foreign country is plotting
weapons of mass destruction, a Doomsday machine, against the United States.
Then it segues to beautiful, romantic music and two B-52s having sex...er, refueling
midair. Is this a good dream or a bad dream?
(ARTICLES)
Dead
Birds
About the only thing that is original and unfamiliar about this house of horrors
horror film is that it is set during the Civil War.
(MOVIE REVIEWS)
Phil
the Alien
Amateurish and low-budget skit on film has its moments, but mostly in its first
half. The film outstays its welcome.
(MOVIE REVIEWS)
Rahtree:
Flower of the Night
This ghost story goes in eight different directions at once, from tragic social
message to slapstick comedy. Some scenes are chilling, but the film is unfocused.
(MOVIE REVIEWS)
The
Incredibles
Pixar does it again with a comedy/action film about a family of superheroes.
Just when they thought they were out of the superhero business they get pulled
back in. Of course, as a film from Pixar it is computer-animated, but that is
just the gimmick. The writing is the real attraction.
(MOVIE REVIEWS)
The
Limb Salesman
This is an ironic love story set in a future world that has been badly damaged
in some strange way making uncontaminated water rare. Society is now built around
the efforts to find safe water. The story drags more than a little.
(MOVIE REVIEWS)
Space
Oddysey
Imagine crashing through the acid storms of Venus, taking a space walk in the
magnificent rings of Saturn, or collecting samples on the disintegrating surface
of an unstable comet.
(ARTICLES)
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