Classic (and Current) Fantasy (and Sci-fi) and Why You Should Read It

I think I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy reading, right? To the point that some of my books have little red stains on the pages because I like Italian food, and I like to read while I’m eating. Yes, my heartmate still loves me and forgives my obsession. I love reading so much, I prefer the exercise bike to the treadmill because I can’t walk and read at the same time–and that’s a coordination thing, not anything against walking.

Now, I realize it’s not a real “reveal moment” that an author enjoys reading books. In other news, park rangers like working outdoors! People who work for NASA tend to be super smart!

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I read The Hobbit in 3rd grade, and by the time I was in middle school, I had graduated to the Dune trilogy. I know, precocious. I tended to split my reading between science fiction and fantasy with very little in between. I realized quite early that I wanted not just escapism (although definitely that), but ideas that were challenging, leaning toward authors who came up with new and interesting ideas. 

This doesn’t mean that I didn’t appreciate the comfort of the “classics” like Tolkien, early Terry Brooks, or Weis and Hickman’s Dragonlance series, but I came to cherish those who tried something new. Many were the authors who created tales of people from our world ending up in another world, like Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia (or go waaaay back to Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court), but Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series from the early 80s (which stretched to the early aughts) gives you a real taste of how something like that would actually pan out, breaking a lot of the tropes that had been established for the genre. Definitely worth a read!

It was while reading Lord Foul’s Bane in high school that I discovered that I really, really don’t like anti-heroes. It also made me think I didn’t like subversive writers. For the uninitiated, the story involves a man from our world who finds himself in a fantasy realm. Some think Thomas Covenant a returned hero of destiny. One of his first acts of significance in this new world he finds himself in, however, is to rape someone, so I immediately put the book down. Donaldson is a great writer, but I really wasn’t interested in learning whether or not his character found redemption.

If someone were to tell me that Martin was inspired to write A Song of Fire and Ice after reading Donaldson’s Chronicles, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. Again, well-written stuff, but to me it seems like a big middle finger to traditional fantasy in the same way the television series, “The Boys,” is to the classic Superhero genres. I know a lot of people enjoy those dark, even savage, twists, but this kind of storytelling, to quote Austin Powers, “ain’t my bag, baby.”

So, what are some books that did inspire me in my journey to get here? The first series that edged me out of science fiction and into fantasy was David Eddings’ The Belgariad and The Mallorean. It’s very safe and traditional, yes, but the biggest takeaway for me was how well Eddings’ characters came alive with the dialogue. By about two books into the series, you knew who was speaking by the way they were speaking, and by the third book, you really didn’t need the tags at the ends of a sentence to know who said what. 

I’ve received a lot of compliments from readers about my dialogue in Prelude to the Storm, and I’d definitely be remiss in not mentioning how I was inspired by Eddings’ ability to capture the word choices made by characters and how they can differ. You could ask me a complicated question that was posed to Imar, Kitoor, and Garith, and I could tell you how each would answer–not just what the answer was, but how they would answer it–even if all three came to the same conclusion to the question. Each answer should sound different to you, the reader, because each one of them sounds different in my head.

It seems like there are a hundred sub-genres in fantasy these days. A series about people from Earth finding themselves magically transported to another world is just one of the many. There’s romantic fantasy, urban fantasy, grimdark fantasy, epic fantasy, stories about mage schools, series about military academies, and–something that also became a favorite of mine–tales involving the mentor-student dynamic. For me, there were few better at it than David Gemmell–especially in his Drenai Saga.

He brought a real sense of what it can mean to grow old as a warrior when your occupation favors the speed and agility of youth. He was very good at bringing a sense of mortality, even fatalism, to his heroes. That feeling of, “I’ve done the right thing for three or more decades now, I’m not going to quit doing it just because I’m in my late forties.” And, yes, that meant that honorable heroes fell, but Gemmell was very good at making us believe that they had trained the next generation to carry on the good fight before their Legend ended (I hope some of you see what I did there).

Hopefully, the spirit of David Gemmell will live on in the Garith/Damar and Imar/Tel’torim dynamics (Tel’torim debuts in Storm Clouds Gather).

Lest people believe that I only read or have love for fantasy books, I would be most remiss indeed if I didn’t mention my favorite female protagonist of all time, Honor Harrington. David Weber’s heroine (who has been oft maligned with the label Mary Sue) is the epitome of a person who always tries to do the right thing, no matter the personal cost–and, yes, it costs her. 

Some people might think that Garith is the man of honor in The Storm Cycle, but when you see Kitoor pushing through his grief and agony to finish what he started, you're seeing Weber’s influence in my work.

Finally, before I start telling y’all about every book I’ve ever read, I want to talk about a few of the authors who convinced me that it’s okay to steer away from norms and to trust in your readers. I like to tell people that The Storm Cycle is hard fantasy. Not because it’s full of blood and sex, but because I’m creating an entire world with some very nontraditional elements thrown in that I don’t immediately explain–something that can be a challenge to people who like their fantasy a little more conventional. 

As a real believer in the adage, “show, don’t tell,” I wasn’t sure how I was going to present Auren to my readers without walls of exposition explaining how everything interacted. I didn’t want to introduce a young character who needed enlightenment from the adults as to “what everyone knew”. And I’ve always hated two characters who are talking about a “mechanic” of the world, and one says to the other, “Well, as you know, a week is nine days.” If someone were to tell you, “As you know, January is the first month of the year,” you’d probably give them a little side eye. “Mmm-hmmm. And ‘up’ isn’t ‘down’, right, I get it.”

Then along came Richard K. Morgan (see, not everyone I like is a David) with Altered Carbon. He was introducing a radical new concept in a noir sci-fi world, and he didn’t really have time to hold anyone’s hand–he had a brilliant story to write. I spent the first few chapters just sort of nodding as if I knew what was going on and trusted him to eventually explain everything to me. Which he did, I just had to be patient. 

And I..loved it! This guy just absolutely trusted his readers. It was like he walked into an amphitheater full of avid listeners and said, “I’mma tell you a story. You’re gonna love it. Keep up!” Now, certainly, he’s not the first author to do this, but he was the first who really made it clear to me that it’s okay to believe in your audience. To treat them like adults who love this kind of stuff, and if you spin them a good yarn, they’re going to reward you with some patience to let you do it at your own pace.

A little while later, Brandon Sanderson popped onto the scene and started doing this with just about everything he wrote. You want full immersion, whether you’re ready or not? Check out how The Way of Kings just starts like you’re already in book three of a trilogy, and you totally know about storms and safehands and Lashings, because, why wouldn’t you know?

How about Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice? You want to be confused by pronouns for a few chapters and try to figure out what it really means to be an artificial intelligence without a safety net? But she writes such a compelling narrative, you just can’t step away from the book and say, “Now wait, is someone going to explain this to me?” Trust her, she really knows what she’s doing.

Okay, I think that’s enough for this blog. It’s gone on quite a bit longer than my other ones, but you get me talking about books and, well, I could write a novel about what I like to read! And maybe I’ve left you with some ideas for your next good book to pick up.

Maybe, too many good choices? 

In my mind…there’s no such thing. 

All artwork by Forge. Copyright Leonard J. Chastain 2026