I'm curious

[gretagarbled]

do other black people feel happy about the portrayal of black characters in fantasy literature? I'm 16yr old girl of Nigerian descent and have just re-read the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini and was thinking about this quite seriously. In many of the fantasy novels I've read, the author either goes with the 'Calormenes' school of thinking

Comments

[keptawake]

Being a fantasy writer gives us a lot of leeway with races. I'm white, but the lack of other races in fantasy always both interested and disturbed me. I mean, maybe it's the whole 'medieval' feel to much of fantasy, but I think that's a stupid excuse. If it's not earth-based, there can be any races you like.

I enjoy playing with races. I have two different fantasy worlds, and in both my main characters range from skin so dark it can reasonably be called black to mixed skin. I actually don't have many major 'white' characters, especially not early on. But the thing about it is that the color of their skin is, for the most part, arbitrary; they're still just people.

[joecloudheart]

It is annoying. That's one more reason to like Robert Jordan and George RR Martin. The cliche of "they are from a foreign kingdom and so they look black or Asian and they are gonna invade us" is a sign of the times from the 40s, 50's, and 60's, but modern era fantasy that plays that card is just lazy.

[joecloudheart]

also, I would recommend "The Etched City" to you for similar reasons.

[wordchick]

I'm mixed-race and from that point of view, I'm totally underrepresented. It's never truly bothered me, but I would love to see more characters of color in fantasy. Regarding that- it's young adult fiction, but Tamora Pierce has non-white protagonists in her Circle of Magic series and as I recall, they were pretty three-dimensional.

[wandadcampbell]

Hi Authoress,

I tend to agree with you, both as a reader and a writer. I would like to see all people portrayed as "people" with good and bad in all populations, because that is more realistic. I believe that fantasy and sci-fi, like all fiction, should be believable, no matter how impropable.

I remember reading a book once by Tracy Hickman where one of the main characters was dark-skinned...he was this basically good guy, with a bit of a dark side to him...I thought wow...he's so...human. I like that.