There have been many rumours for quite some time and although producer ABC Studios has not officially said so, several sources are now saying that Legend of the Seeker will be cancelled after it’s second season.
Although I am personally not a big fan of the series and haven’t seen the second year, I do acknowledge Legend of the Seeker as a decent series, probably one of the best fantasy television series around. it would be a shame to see Legend of the Seeker being cancelled this soon.
The TV series has a large fanbase and the episodes had more than reasonable ratings, both in grades and in number of viewers but apparently these have not been good enough for ABC to order a third season.
About Legend of the Seeker
Legend of the Seeker is a television series loosely based on The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. It tells the classical story of the boy Richard Cypher who is destined to become the Seeker of Truth and defeat his evil father Darken Rahl. Richard gets help from wizard Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander and confessor Kahlan.
As indicated above, the cancellation isn’t official yet so there is a chance we will be pleasantly surprised with news that a third season of the Seeker is ordered but don’t count on in.
Steven Erikson is the pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a Canadian author born on October 7, 1959. He has written some novels under his real name but became famous as the author of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, one of the greatest fantasy series ever written.
By writing this critically acclaimed series he has received much appreciation and gained a large fanbase. To me Erikson is one of the finest authors of the moment and may likely become one of the greatest ever.
Erikson started writing quite late in his life and only wrote some short stories before starting on Gardens of the Moon, the first book in the Malazan series. The Malazan world he had created together with Ian Cameron Esslemont, author of several other novels in the Malazan universe with several of the main characters of Erikson’s books.
Erikson tried selling this Gardens of the Moon, at first even intended as a movie script, in the early nineties but was unable to so. Eventually, in 1999 publisher Transworld published the book and after its succes paid Erikson £675,000 to write 9 other novels to complete the series.
The Malazan Book of the Fallen
The Malazan Book of the Fallen is fantasy series consisting of 10 novels, telling the story about Gods and humans and the wars they fight and games they play. In the middle of all that, the Malazan empire, expanded over several continents, is slowly collapsing. As a reader you mainly follow a group oe Malazan soldiers and their battles against incredible powerful wizards, scary demons, ambitious ascendants and scheming Gods while at the same time you also look at the world and conflicts from the point of view of the enemies of the empire. Read more about The Malazan Book of the Fallen.
Steven Erikson writes like the devil himself is on his heels, producing a book almost every year. I also do not know another author who writes this intense on such an epic scale. Hopefully, he has something in mind after he finished his fantastic Malazan Book of the Fallen series.
On May 10 2010, Frank Frazetta, one of the greatest artists in the fantasy genre, died of a stroke after a year long battle with cancer.
Frazetta made many paintings and was illustrator of many posters and covers for movies, music albums, books and comics. His work was highly acclaimed and he has won several awards for it.
In the genres of science fiction and fantasy he will be remembered for his intense and sometimes quite graphic depictions of fantasy scenes for many movies, books and comics. In these genres, the best known examples of his work are his illustrations for Flash Gordon and Conan The Barbarian.
He will be missed by the fantasy community. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Although I haven’t read the novel yet and therefore cannot post a review on it, I at least wanted to bring the news that Guy Gavriel Kay has published his latest book: “Under Heaven”.
This eleventh novel of the author of Tigana is set in the Tang Dynasty of 8th-century China and tells the story of Shen-Tai, the son of a general who sees it as his duty to his father to mourn and bury the soldiers who died in a battle in which also his father was killed. Not only does he bury the soldiers of his own people but also the enemy dead. Then he receives an unexpected gift of 250 rare horses from a princess that turns out to be a gift that will change his life. Shen-Tai has to return from his exile to his home city. As the gift is extremely precious, people are willing to kill for it which is why Shen-Tai has to go to extraordinarely lengths to protect his life.
So far Under Heaven seems to have been well-received so I am looking forward to reading this novel. If anyone has already read it, feel free to comment as long as you don’t give away major spoilers!
After the genre became well-known and accepted/ respected during the second half of the twentieth century, the question was how fantasy would develop after the year 2000. Had it reached it’s top and would the genre settle down again or would it remain strong and continue to strenghten it’s position in literature and on the screen?
Authors
The authors that were big in the nineties, like George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan (who regretably passed away in 2007), Raymond E. Feist and Robin Hobb, continued to write and dominate the world of fantasy literature. Most of them are still working on series that are far from finished.
However, new talents also have emerged. There have been quite a few newcomers, one more successful than the other, but for me the most notable are Steven Erikson (The Malazan Book of the Fallen) and Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind).
Old and new authors combined, I would say that the genre still is thriving and that we can be assured to have great new fantasy books and series for years to come!
Movies and television series
Many high profile fantasy movies have been made during the first decade of the new millennium. Of course there was the Lord of the Rings trilogy brought out between 2001 and 2003. Also the Harry Potter movies were released from 2001 onwards. Other fantasy movies worth mentioning aar The Chronicles of Narnia movies (2005 and 2008), The Golden Compass (2007) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).
Besides the successful movie releases, several new fantasy television series were produced between the year 2000 and 2010. Examples of these are Legend of the Seeker (cancelled after season 2), True Blood and BBC’s Merlin.
Not all movies and TV series have been of the utmost quality and/ or successful but from the perspective of movies and TV series, I think we can say the new millennium started out pretty good!
We have seen that fantasy remained a force to be reckoned with over the last ten years and managed to find the general audience better than ever but what is the current state of the fantasy genre and how will develop in the future?
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born op January 3, 1892. As author of The Hobbit, The Silmarillion and especially The Lord of The Rings, Tolkien is seen by many as the best and most influential fantasy author. Personally I have put him on a second place as there is one author who’s style I prefer but I too cannot deny that no other author has done more for the genre genre than J.R.R. Tolkien.
Most important works
Everyone with even the slightest interest in fantasy is of course familiar with the pinnacle of Tolkien’s works: The Lord of the Rings. Translated into dozens of languages and read by millions, LOTR has become one of the major literature works of the 20th century. In turn, the movies were the cinematic highlights of the first decade of the new millennium.
Next to The Lord of The Rings, Tolkien also wrote The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. The Hobbit has more of a fairytale feeling to it, describing the adventures of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins who, together with a group of dwarves, tries to steal back a treasure from the dragon Smaug.
The Silmarillion is a collection of stories and descriptions of Middle-Earth before the age in which The Lord of The Rings is set. When Tolkien died he had not finished the collection but his son Christopher Tolkien, with assistance from Guy Gavriel Kay (author of Tigana) completed the book in 1977.
Style of writing
Tolkien’s writing style may not the most accessible ever. He liked to write elaboratively about the settings of his stories and to go in much detail about the world, the races and the characters he created. He even went as far as creating complete mythologies and languages, like Elvish. Personnaly I do not dislike his way of writing but I can definitely imagine people growing quite tired of it.
To conclude: the world and stories Tolkien has created are simply fantastic and by writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings he produced the main landmarks of the fantasy genre. He deserves all the recognition and credit he has gotten and I wish he could have seen the full impact of his works.
George Raymond Richard Martin was born on September 20, 1948 in New Jersey. He grew up with an affection for comic books, science fiction and fantasy. He has written many novels, was involved in television productions and edited comic books like Wild Cards but really became famous as the writer of the A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Without judging on any of his other achievements, Ice & Fire made Martin famous. Fans and enemies alike admit that no mather if you are into this “low style” of fantasy, it is brilliantly thought up and written. George R.R. Martin has been able to create a fresh, new fantasy world in which a well written, original and complex story is told that really takes hold of you as a reader. The Song of Ice & Fire is well on its way of becoming one of the greatest fantasy series ever.
Early 2010 it was announced that a television series, called Games of Thrones, will even be made of A Song of Ice & Fire. This TV series will further increase the popularity of George Martin as an author.
Personally, I believe Martin to be the greatest fantasy author currently alive and writing. He keeps himself very busy with all kinds of activities related to writing, books and comic books but I hope that he will find time to focus a bit more on completing the next part of the series: Dance of Dragons.
For more information about George R.R. Martin and his works, go to his Official website.
After having discussed the origins of fantasy earlier, here is a short overview of how the genre developed during the second half of the twentieth century and positioned itself as a genre to be taken seriously.
Authors and their works
After publishing The Hobbit in 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954-1955. The books became very popular and influenced the whole genre. Around the same time C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia and not long after, during the late sixties and early seventies, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote her Earthsee novels. Soon after, several other influential authors entered the scene. Most noticeble were Terry Brooks (Shannara) and David Eddings (Belgariad) who wrote their fantasy series mainly in the late seventies, the eighties and the early nineties.
The likes of Raymond E. Feist, Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb and Robert Jordan joined the genre throughout the eighties and nineties, helping to make fantasy into a mature genre.
Movies in the eighties
Not only the world of literature picked up and started to accept fantasy, Hollywood also stepped in. Many great fantasy movies were produced of which several were big hits with mainstream audiences. Everyone has heard of movies like The Neverending Story, Conan the Barbarian, Legend and Willow, and probably can name a few more they remember from those days. Together with the new fantasy books and series that were coming out, these movies helped introduce fantasy to the masses and make it allright to like the genre: people no longer needed to feel embarressed to read or watch fantasy.
This is how a genre that started out as myths told over camp fires and children’s tales, became a mature literature and movie genre, read and watched by many millions.
Next time, I will go into the developments during the first decade of the new millenium.
