Focus on Fantasy

Created by Hironobu Sakaguchi in 1987, Final Fantasy is one of the longest running, most popular and acclaimed video games ever made.

All combined, about 100 million copies of Final Fantasy games have been sold. The games are mainly RPG’s (role playing games) and have a distinct Japanese style, reminiscent of Anime movies and television series, but also outside Japan they are very popular.

The games have great story lines in which groups of good characters usually go on a quest (collecting crystals) and have to fight all sorts of evil. Both fantasy and science fiction elements play a large part in Final Fantasy with characters often relying on magic or on technology and players have to choose which elements to use to reach their goals.

Each new version of Final Fantasy has raised the bar for gameplay and graphics for the entire industry. Also, the use of music is always very impressive and adds a lot to the gaming experience. The games have been mainly released for Nintendo and Playstation consoles.

A total of 13 separate Final Fantasy games and several spin-offs have been made so far. All are considered to be very good games, but especially Final Fantasy VII, X and XII are seen as masterpieces.

Final Fantasy XIV is in development and is expected to be released in September 2010. A preview/ review of the game will follow as soon as possible.

The Ten Thousand is a fantasy novel written by Paul Kearney, an Irish fantasy author.

Based on ancient Greek myths, he tells the story of 10.000 Macht mercenaries, soldiers from a warrior-orientated human society, who are employed by a Kefren prince who intends to overthrow his brother’s rule and become Great King of Kuf. The Macht display their superior fighting skills but things go not as planned and the Macht become stranded on a strange and hostile continent.

The story is an combination of epic and low fantasy as it describes massive battles in a world other than our own and different races but does not include no magic (except for the mysterious and somewhat magical black armor that some of the Macht wear). The Macht are humans resembling ancient Greeks. Several other races like the Kefren and the Juthan are described but, although having different traits, no race seems to have any special abilities.

The Ten Thousand is a good book but not a great one. The story is interesting, although it is definitely not revolutionary and plot changes can often are often predictable.
Besides the somewhat predictable story, a major downside of the novel are the shallow characters. I had a hard time connecting to them as they remain either good or bad characters without many complexities and with a predictable and lineair development.

Nonetheless, I was fascinated by the story which is also partly due to the fact that Paul Kearney is a good writer who managed to keep my attention which a colorful but not too elaborative style of writing.

Conclusion: The Ten Thousand is a good read but not one you will remember when you are grey and old. Kearney has planned to write at least two more novels revolving around the Macht. They will not be among the first on my “books I need to read” list but I think I will pick them up in due time.

How self-explanatory can a title be? Bioware has announced that it will release Dragon Age 2 on March 8 in the United States and on March 11 in Europe.

Dragon Age 2 is the successor of the very popular game Dragon Age: Origins, which is seen by many as one of the best fantasy games ever.


Based on the new Dragon Age 2 Destiny cinematic trailer I would say that Dragon Age 2 may very well live up to the promise!

Official website of Dragon Age 2.

We have established that the genre of fantasy originated long ago, has done well in the past and has thrived in the last decennium but what about its future?

Books, (TV) Series, Movies and Games

As stated in my post about the current state of fantasy, there are lots of good fantasy authors around, both old legends who are still writing and promising newcomers. For example, on the short run, I am really looking forward to the final part of The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. But also oldtimers like Martin, Pratchet and Feist are still alive and kicking, meaning that we can expected many more novels and series from them.

When talking about TV series and Movies two major events are expected for the foreseeable future. The first is the upcoming television series Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, which will start airing in 2011. The second is the movie The Hobbit, based on the classic novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is still unclear if the movie will really be made but there definitely plans for making it.

Lastly there are the fantasy computer games. More and better looking fantasy games can be expected in the future. Also, the influence of games will keep increasing as gaming has become more and more accepted.
World of Warcraft will remain huge, Final Fantasy and Zelda having new games coming out and the genre of fantasy will always be a very popular source of inspiration for game producers.

Conclusion

So it looks like we fantasy fans do not have to worry for the near future. Plenty of great fantasy books, TV series, movies and games can be expected for the years to come.

An alltogether different point to make is hoe technological developments will change our way of reading fantasy novels. Of course movies and games will become even more impressive with better visuals and graphics but what about books? Ebooks are already around and selling well but personally I really like to hold a real book in my hands. In the near future I will look into this.

The Riftwar series was the first of many fantasy series to be written by author Raymond E. Feist and easily one of the best and most influential fantasy series ever.

Through magical means a rift is opened between the two worlds Midkemia and Kelewan. The home world of the orphan Pug, Midkemia, is invaded by the Tsurani. Pug, who is thought to have minor magical abilities, is transported to Kelewan and becomes a great magician.
As the series continues the rift is closed but it turns out that Midkemia faces a far greater enemy: the moredhel led by the evil Murmandamus. Together with his friend Tomas, who becomes a great warrior during the series, and prince Arutha of Krondor, Pug has to stop Murmandamus from taking an ancient artifact that will make him all-powerful.

Books in the series

1982 Magician
1985 Silverthorn
1986 A Darkness at Sethanon

The Riftwar saga is high fantasy as it should be. Magician, the first book of the Riftwar series, was my introduction to the fantasy genre and just for that the Riftwar saga has earned a spot in this list. The story is not too complicated and characters are not that developed but Raymond E. Feist has an easy writing style and the series has more than enough interesting, new ideas to make it a great read. Besides the Riftwar series, Feist has written several other fantasy series set in the same universe which are also definitely worth reading.

Recently, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice premiered in cinemas worldwide. It is a fantasy movie in which the master sorcerer Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) takes on apprentice Dave (Jay Baruchel). Dave doesn’t know he has magical abilities and is reluctant to believe he has.

Together, Balthazar and Dave take on the evil sorcerer Maxim Horvath who attemps to release Morgana into the world, while at the same time Dave falls in love with a girl. Dave, who is a descendant of Merlin, turns ou to be the only one who can defeat Morgana and prevent her from taking over the world.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is all right to watch. It provides plenty of action and the action/ magic scenes are decently done. The acting is well done as should be expected with a cast of both established and relatively new, talented actors but it is not exactly a character driven movie. It more relies on the fast and action-packed storyline which is, although very cliche, pretty decent.

Concluding, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is an entertaining family movie with nice historical and contemporary fantasy elements but in my opinion nothing more than that. In short, the movie tells the old tale of a reluctant hero who can do amazing things and ends up saving both the world and the girl. It is definitely not a movie that will make it on the list of alltime best fantasy movies.

Click here to go to the movie’s official website. Below the trailer of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are two contemporary fantasy series, shown between 1997 and 2004. Both series were created by Joss Whedon and revolved around a group of people, lead by the vampire slayer Buffy and vampire-turned-good Angel, fighting evil in the form of vampires and other supernatural creatures. Angel started out as a character in Buffy and got his own spin-off series after a couple of seasons. Boths series were action-packed but also contained a lot of humor which is why I believe they are among the best fantasy TV series ever made.

Question is: which series was the best?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy was quite the hype when coming to the screen in the late nineties. The idea of a young and hot cheerleader (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who managed to fight vampires and others demons while still trying to hold on to her normal life was a huge hit. Teenagers, both boys and girls, liked the setting and the themes of the series. The combination of action with fantasy/ horror elements and the high school setting with all its issues and relationships proved very entertaining. Together with the lighthearted humor it was a recipe for 6 years of success.

Angel

Angel (David Boreanaz) started out as an enemy of Buffy but turned out to have a good side and became her lover. The character became popular and showed potential for further development resulting in a spin-off series that ran for 5 seasons.
This resulted in a series about Angel being a private detective for dark and occult cases, fighting demons, preventing them from taking over the world and trying to save his own soul. The series had a dark and more grown-up vibe to it while at the same time it was quite heavily action-orientated and had a cynical type of humor.

My favourite is… Angel

For me, the clear winner is Angel. The combination of a darker atmosphere, more sinister and action-packed story lines, the more grown up characters and the humor resulted in a TV series that I believed to have been better and more entertaining than Buffy. In short, the fact that Angel had less of the teenage campus atmosphere that Buffy had, has made Angel my favourite series.

Then again, that is just my opinion so let me know if you disagree.