Hate to say this, because people will get mad at me, but blame Tolkein. Tolkien was the one who started the 'unlikely hero saves the world' genre, and a generation or two of writers have been brought up sucking on that teat. It gets old, very quickly.gnombient said:Another peeve about fantasy... I don't like how most fantasy stories these days revolve around "saving the world" in one way or another-- defeating the evil _____, retrieving/destroying the dangerous artifact, fulfilling the prophecy, etc. Of course, this is done by the unlikely hero (who is recruited by the kindly Mysterious Stranger) and his loyal (but diverse) band of companions.
I long for the return of the likes of Conan, Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser, Nifft the Lean, et al. Why did they adventure? Often they had things stolen from them, had geases or other enchantments placed upon them by sorcerous types, were blackmailed by gods, or were hard up for some loot to replace that which they had just squandered; good old fashioned revenge was often a factor too...
Anyway, if you like that sort of novel, Simon R. Green's Hawk and Fisher series is pretty much worth checking out. It's a pretty interesting bunch of novels. Green's novels always start out over the top and get wierder as they go on, so you have to enjoy a pretty madcap pacing, but they're great fun (I personally like the Deathstalker series better, but technically it's not fantasy, and it's pretty much save the universe). The heroes are always pretty properly heroic - there's no everyman heroes in his worlds, and they always have an extra ace (or sometimes deck of cards) up their sleeve. Of course their enemies are properly powerful too, so it gets confusing.
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