Babel Clash

Actually, call me that anyway, I like it. But anyways, on the subject of conforming to physical capabilities, I’ve been accused of being a bit of a hypocrite there. I like to think of it as having my cake and eat it however. It’s a fantasy world, so I should be allowed a bit of leeway, but at the same time the armies are made up of men for the same reason that they were in medieval times.

However, the main character and several others are a decidedly unrealistic size because of the whole magic thing – they’re over seven foot tall and 25-30 stones in weight. For a comparison, google the weigh-in photos between Nikolai Valuev and David Haye, then take the height of one and the muscle definition of the other (and then swap it around if you get a 6 foot bloke with a hairy belly).

But white-eyes are meant to be comic-book size, that’s kinda the point. I’ve got unsubtle, meddlesome gods, so their chosen representatives are not built for politics. What I was interested in was the result of putting those guys in charge – muscle-bound sociopaths with sky-high testosterone levels and the power of gods, finding themselves in a position where it’s all down to them. Isak’s been throwing in at the deep end and knows perfectly well his own basic instincts, so if he doesn’t learn to be more than the way he was made, a whole lot of people are going to suffer.

The character who’s divided most people is Legana, a beautiful assassin in Isak’s employ. Some people love her and her progression through the novels, some people think I’m submitting to clichéd fantasy tropes and stop reading. Now there’s not a lot I can do about people’s opinions, but like Joel’s Sasha, Legana is an Olympic athlete more than she’s a catwalk model. I don’t think it’s out of the realms of possibility that a system of temples training assassins their entire lives might have as their most marketable agent, one who’s also beautiful. Nowhere does it say she’s skinny like Cheryl Cole and I’m pretty sure if you taught Marion Jones to fight, she’d take down most men quite happily.

So how believable should a fantasy novel be? Does it even need to be? I guess that depends – it’s all made-up anyway. Whatever the reader is willing to believe makes a fantasy, and whether or not I agree with the fact Steven Erikson’s Malazan armies have women in the ranks, it works for him and it adds an interesting dynamic to the books. Consistency is important, but so is having a purpose with your writing – if you’re going to break the rules (of which consistency is an important one of any writing, genre or not) make sure you can justify it when someone asks!

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