An unappealing combination…
Romantasy? Definition: An extremely awful and illiterate creation of a genre that’s a combination of “romance” and “fantasy” to describe the trash that authors and publishers are now dumping on the reading public. God help us! Neither genre will ever recover from this abuse.
Sappy romances have long been “bestsellers,” especially those that are replete with passionate wrestling matches that are a lazy substitute for real plots and themes. It’s mind-numbing fiction with their only claim to fame being a boost for some readers’ flagging libidos. At least a novel like Emma might have some redeeming literary qualities (not much more than Lady Chatterly’s Lover, Fanny Hill, or Tom Jones, though). Current romances are as trashy as Trump’s White House waste bins and golden toilets.
Modern fantasies aren’t much better. Forget Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy or Lewis’s Narnia series. There’s nothing remarkable about those Harry Potter books beyond Rowling’s excessive verbosity. It’s said that fantasy and sci-fi are closely related genres? No way! Today’s fantasy departs too much from reality. (I do like Ireland’s leprechauns, if only to imagine finding their pots of gold at rainbow ends, something a lot more probable than winning the Powerball lottery.) No one writes good fantasy anymore: Rowling, who’s scooped up tons of money writing her schlock, makes new rules up for her Potter world whenever she finds it convenient. I like fantasy worlds where the rules, however strange, are consistent and constant, and characters, antagonists and protagonists alike, must follow them.
“Romantasy” combines all that’s bad with today’s romance and fantasy. It’s the faddiest among all the fictional fads (cozy mysteries come close) and exists only because too many writers and publishers will flood the diminishing markets with any trash to improve sales figures by degrading their art. Too strong, you say? Discriminating readers have kept good fiction alive for centuries (many centuries, if you count caveman Ugh’s tales told around the campfire). Now some readers and publishers are killing good fiction slowly but surely by preferring to read and publish garbage. Where will it all end? With some schlock-filled romantasy based on Epstein and Maxwell’s lives?
This combination of fantasy and romance called “romantasy” can only lead to one big fantastic mess. I refuse to read this kind of garbage; I won’t write it either. And I’ll assume that any other author who does belongs in a straitjacket and locked up in a padded cell.
‘Nough said!
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Fantasy, romance, or sci-fi? There’s nothing wrong with writing a novel that has elements of these three genres. My novel Rogue Planet isn’t a romantasy; it’s hard sci-fi that makes a bow to the “Game of Thrones” fantasy series (far better than anything Rowling ever wrote!) and something like the musical Camelot or the tales about King Arthur’s court; but it’s more a profound statement against evil fascist theocracies like Iran’s (and what the US is becoming?). I often challenge myself in my storytelling. This is one challenge I met that I’m rather proud of. Try it to see how I did!
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
