Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
It may be a bit of miscommunication. When I hear something referred to as 'epic fantasy' I tend to think of a small group of adventurers trying to prevent the Big Bad from conquering the land/world/kingdom.
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My brain first read that as "Big Bird" and it was quite the hilarious mental image.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Drib
^
Yes, but I would occasionally like to see a paradigm shift in these 'epic' fantasy novels:
I want Hansel and Gretel put into a cauldron with a hearty supply of onions and carrots.
I would like to see the villain succeed and the heroes utterly destroyed - or become undead.
I would like to see the heroes take a short journey (preferably around the block), and then they go home and make love or watch television - perhaps both at the same time and/or with each other - until the next threat in their kingdom.
Now, I ask you: Is that asking too much? Huh? |
Along those lines, but not a book, there's some video games where you play as the bad guy. I particularly like
Dungeons 2 &
Dungeons 3. You're the ultimate evil, but due to the good guys locking you away many years ago you can't act directly for the most part. You have to command your creatures (starting with little snots, who do all the mining, building & harvesting of gold) to build up a dungeon and fend off those nasty do-gooders. It's quite satisfying to have a gauntlet of traps built up so that the invading good guys never make it into your dungeon proper. I particularly enjoyed it because the narrator's really sarcastic and will even make snide comments about you. For example if you're not doing things as fast as he thinks you should. The whole story's very tongue-in-cheek as well.
There's also a board game called
Dungeon Lords where players compete in building dungeons to fend off invaders.