Author question: What Was The Book that taught you the most about worldbuilding?

[karadinart]

For me, one of the earliest books that totally sucked me in was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this had a lot to do with the original illustrations I feel, but the detail in those books amazed me, like the city and people made of china, if you've never read the books and only seen the film, please check out the books!

The other was The Lord of the Rings, which is the standard (for me) in creating a complete fictional universe, if you consider the Silmarillion is a large appendix, part of what made the world of LOTR so deep was the references, songs, poems and tales to Tolkien's First, Second and early parts of the Third Age. And as remarkable as the society was in the present in those books, you had the feeling (or at least I did) of melancholy for the cities and civilizations that were ruined at that point.

YET, the background is not the story, and never overwhelms the story (in Tolkien), there are times I find pretty cool ideas in novels, movies, comics, and then the characters don't do much to engage me, so while background and worldbuilding is important to me, you also have to have characters that engage and excite you.

Comments

[gloria-scott.livejournal.com]

Definitely Lord of the Rings for me as well. Reading Tolkien both inspired and intimidated me, because I knew I would never be able to create something that deep. Frank Herbert's Dune series struck me the same way. I think the similarity between them stems from both authors taking their passion for their specialty and using that to create their stories. In Tolkien's case, he was a philologist - he created languages first and built a world and mythology around them. In Herbert's case he was an ecologist, and created an ecosystem then built a world around that. I sadly, have no such special are of knowledge with which to imbue a fantastical realm.

[karadin.livejournal.com]

Do you enjoy making up backstory? It may not be as complex as Tolkien, or it may not be something that you mention in the fic, but you as the writer know?

[gloria-scott.livejournal.com]

Sure - I have (sometimes varying versions of) head canon that I bring in. I guess I do the world building thing on a very small scale - I just would never be able to do anything so complex as Tolkien. He sort of ruined the fantasy genre for me, actually - nobody comes close to the complexity and richness of Middle Earth.

[karadin.livejournal.com]

I agree with you there, he is the Alpha and Omega, and other than some old school writers like Zealzny and Le Guin ... I think I surprise a lot of people when I write fanfic, they assume that I love fantasy/sci fi when it's actually mysteries I love.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Oh, well said! *takes notes*

[mamakinn.livejournal.com]

First ever would be CS Lewis' Narnia stories - but of course, he and Tolkien were great friends so may have influenced each other. More recently i have been delighted by Terry Pratchett's Discworld - so well-realised without being overdone ( so many "fantasy" worlds are terribly samey, especially now i have read Diana Wynne-Jones' "Rough Guide to Fantasy"). I used to love the "Oz" books, haven't read them in years but saw a fascinating BBC programme on L Frank Baum recently - hadn't realised what an innovator he was in terms of characterisation.

[karadin.livejournal.com]

And kudos to Baum for having a female lead character, he based his books on part on Alice in Wonderland, but wanted to make his fantasies with a more linear plot, and he humanized his characters by giving them self-doubts. He's very underrated I feel these days, because people pay more attention to the film.

[karadin.livejournal.com]

But I wanted to add here, yes, a lot of fantasy is 'samey' and that's why I've avoided it )for decades) but I did enjoy the books of Octavia Butler.

[mamakinn.livejournal.com]

I agree on avoiding fantasy - i did like Anne McCaffrey's early works but generally i like more cynicism and irony in my fiction - i will look out for Octavia Butler, i haven't come across her.

[lady-sallie.livejournal.com]

For me it was the Complete Sherlock Holmes. I found a copy in 2nd grade at the library garage sale from the 1930's. It was already starting to fall apart and the pages were bible thin sheets.

I still have it, still love it. It was the best 50 cents I ever spent. It's even more dog eared and falling apart now.

It sucked me right in. It's like I could see the London streets and smell the gaslamps, hear the cobblestones. For the longest time the plan was to get to London as soon as I was done with school and find a little flat.

It's still my go to book when I need to escape...

[karadin.livejournal.com]

Sherlock Holmes is definitely stirring for the characters and plots, but it was written in a different era, which I lends to it's atmosphere, but I was thinking of books where the world is created, either of an author writing what is to them history, or a make believe universe altogether.

[lady-sallie.livejournal.com]

Ahh...hmm, I have to think about that. I was caught up in mysteries....oh no, wait! How could I forget?! *slaps head*

The Mists of Avalon Series by Marion Zimmer Bradley. From the first book I was hooked. I still reread it at least once a year. A world slowly being lost into the mists, how I wanted to just go with sometimes.