Babel Clash

Borders in one of the few stores that maintains a distinct Horror section.  At Waldenbooks, horror titles find a home in fantasy or general fiction.  B&N shelves their King, Koontz and Straub books with general fiction.

Horror fans seem to appreciate our commitment to their genre.  On the flip side, trying to identify which titles belong in which section can be tricky.  We feature Kelley Armstrong in fantasy but Kim Harrison in horror (her adult books anyway).  We often keep an author’s work together.  So Stephen King’s Eyes of the Dragon is a fantasy, but it’s shelved in horror.  Dan Simmons’ Hyperion and Ilium novels stay in Science Fiction, but the Terror and Song of Kali live in Horror.

Sure, it would be nice to shelve a borderline book in two places.  Financially, it could mean buying twice as much inventory.  Technically, our computer system can’t handle it.  Third, we’d risk confusing customers, who might find a title only in horror one week and then only fantasy the next, as one or the other sold out.

As genres blur together (which I encourage, mind you), determining the best home for a title gets trickier.  The line between fantasy and horror is especially blurry.  For better or worse, vampires, werewolves and zombies are everywhere from Young Adult to Romance.  Zombie Romance?  Really?

F. Paul Wilson, our latest guest, has made a nice home for his work in our horror section.  What do you think?  Did we find the right home for Repairman Jack?

The New Yorker posted “Seven Essential Fantasy Reads” on their blog.  If anyone gets a chance to take a look at the link, tell us what you think.  Is it a good list, or is something critical missing?

New Yorker

What about Stephen King’s Dark Tower?  That has to make the list, right?

China, for music at cons, here are my picks.

1) Blind Guardian - the German metal band.  They mix heavy and fast music with bombastic choruses that would remind you of Queen.  They’ve created songs inspired by Elric, Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance and Stephen King’s Dark Tower.  Their “Nightfall in Middle Earth” CD is my favorite.

2) The Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack.  This music energizes me every time.  It’s perfect adventure music.

Why are so many fantasy settings based on medieval Europe?  The journeys through these new worlds seem familiar because they have this common root ancestor.  There are exceptions, such as Daniel Abraham’s Long Price Quartet or Jane Lindskold’s Thirteen Orphans, but they tend not to catch on in a big way.

One of my favorite non-European settings is Stephen King’s Dark Tower world.  This apocalyptic Old West is one of the most unique landscapes in speculative fiction, and it shows that the fantasy fan is willing to branch out.  Granted, the Stephen King name helps.  There’s also Star Wars, which is as much fantasy as science fiction.  It features a traditional fantasy plot (rescuing the princess and overthrowing an evil empire) in an outer space settting.

So what other cultures or time periods are ripe for a fantasy interpretation?  I’d vote for Shogun-era Japan.