Secondary world fantasy has always been my favorite. Despite the number of good books out there, I just never got into contemporary or urban fantasy to the same extent.
One of my favorite authors when I was growing up was Andre Norton. She had a long career, publishing her first novel in 1934 and her last completed one in 2005, and her books always seemed a bit ahead of their time. She chose her characters from a wide variety of races and cultures, and had Native American and African American protagonists. Her characters were usually young people who felt alone, were set apart or isolated in some way, and she came up with some concepts that are now standard in science fiction and fantasy. And while she also used contemporary or historical settings, she created a huge variety of fascinating secondary worlds.
One thing she did that I enjoyed the most was her technique of starting the characters out in a strange secondary world, only to have them transported somehow to somewhere even stranger. In her secondary world fiction, anything could happen and there were no assumptions and no rules. (Or if there were, nobody told her.) Fantasy could have the trappings of science fiction and vice verse.
One of my favorites is Star Gate, published in 1958. The main character Kincar is from a pre-technological world with a feudal society. At some point in the distant past, the Star Lords, members of an advanced culture fleeing their own dying planet, have taken refuge on his world. They’re peaceful people who don’t want to colonize or invade, but they’re the last remnant of their race, their starships can’t go any further, and they’re stuck there. They’ve tried to integrate themselves into the native culture, intermarrying and generally getting along pretty well, but recently the political climate has turned drastically against them. They’ve been trying to leave, working on a way to go to a parallel universe where intelligent life never developed on this world. It would be the planet they’ve come to love, but uninhabited.
Kincar discovers he’s half-Star Lord, and has the opportunity to leave with them and their other mixed race children. (The Star Lords are tall and brown while the native race is smaller and white. Kincar can pass for a native, but there are other differences, and enemies who may discover who he really is, so he ends up fleeing with his new relatives.)
But the Star Lords have to leave in a hurry and have no time to check out their new world. When they arrive there they find it’s a parallel universe inhabited by their exact duplicates. On this version of their world, instead of tired refugees looking for a place to rest, the Star Lords were evil invaders bent on conquest. They even meet their own evil counterparts. Yes, it’s just like that Star Trek episode where Spock has a beard. Andre Norton got there first.
Reading Andre Norton when I was growing up, she taught me that secondary world fiction doesn’t have to be derivative from Tolkien, and it doesn’t have to take place in pseudo-medieval version of Europe. It can be anything, anywhere, and the only boundary is your imagination.
***
This is the official release week for my book The Cloud Roads. It’s now available in both print and ebook versions and there are reviews and the first two chapters as a sample at that link. We’re also doing a book giveaway for it here on The Night Bazaar. Just comment on this post, or on any other post this week, with the title of a novel set in a secondary world, and you’ll be entered in the drawing at the end of the week for one of at least four autographed and personalized copies of The Cloud Roads.
Eric Francis on March 13, 2011
It would be hard to quantify just how happy I am that you’ve got a new book in print! Congratulations!
Martha on March 13, 2011
Thanks very much, Eric!
Christopher Kastensmidt on March 13, 2011
Great post, Marha, especially loved that last line. I’m trying to get a Renovation panel set up about fantasy in non-medieval European settings.
Good luck with the giveaway!
Martha on March 13, 2011
Thanks, Chris!
Kristen on March 13, 2011
This book sounds wonderful! I love this post on secondary world fantasy as well since I love reading about different worlds. It’s hard to pick just one book from a secondary world to mention since I love a lot of them, but one I’m thinking of right now is Transformation by Carol Berg – one of my favorites.
Mary on March 13, 2011
Work set in secondary world — let’s go for the old reliable — The Lord of the Rings.
Sasha on March 13, 2011
I’m so looking forward to The Cloud Roads, it looks wonderful. I’m also a fan of secondary worlds in sci-fi and fantasy.
One of my favorites is The Anvil of the World, by the late Kage Baker.
Dottie on March 13, 2011
I loved The Beast Master by Norton.
One of the things that I like about The Cloud Roads (yes, I’ve read it already and I advise everyone to run out and buy it!) was the world you built, Martha. It’s a place I’d like to go to and explore and I’d like to meet the beings who live there.
April on March 13, 2011
I like pretty much any kind of fantasy in any setting, including the medieval Europe-type.
For the drawing, I’m gonna go with Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
Elanya on March 13, 2011
Yay new book! Sadly I am not having a lot of time for reading lately, but sometimes one needs to make exceptions!
For the drawing, I’m going to look to J.V.Jones’s Sword of Shadows series. But since you just asked for one book, I’ll take the first: A Cavern of Black Ice.
Ita on March 13, 2011
I love the world of Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword. Don’t know how many times I’ve read that book.Like Dottie, I also really enjoy Norton’s Beast Master world.
I’ve also read The Cloud Roads (you’re an author I *must* buy right away) and love the intricate world you’ve created. I’m dying to read more!
Diane on March 13, 2011
I was immensely pleased to see that you have a new book out, and happy to see too that it’s apparently available at my local B&N. Yay!
I grew up reading Andre Norton, starting with Star Man’s Son in the late 50s, and loved both her SF and her fantasy. She ought to be back in print for the kids who want to move on from Harry Potter.
Secondary-world fantasy offers a lot of great choices; one favorite of mine is Ursula LeGuin’s A Wizard of Earthsea.
thanate on March 14, 2011
One of my favorites for alternate fantasy worlds is Patricia McKillip’s Alphabet of Thorn, which has several temporally-nested alternate worlds of its own.
(I also definitely agree with those saying that The Cloud Roads had some thoroughly worth reading world building as well!)
Paul (@princejvstin) on March 14, 2011
One of my favorite secondary worlds is Ile-Rien. I started with the Element of Fire, went through Death of the Necromancer, and finished up with the Wizard Hunters books. I loved, Martha, how you allowed the nations to evolve, in terms of culture and technology over the series of books. Element of Fire felt lke “Musketeers with magic”, DOTN felt like Victoriana, and the Wizard Hunters felt like Edwardian/Great War in terms of technology and tone.
I’ve not picked up a copy of the Cloud Roads…yet.
susan on March 14, 2011
I just read N. K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which was really good.
Rose on March 14, 2011
Man, now I have to make time to read Star Gate, too. Finding a good book is normally wonderful, but right now I have several that’ve been screaming at me from my TBR pile for months. =/
For the drawing: My favorite book has to be Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs; as for a non-European world, though, I recently read Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon,which was also very good.
Katrina on March 14, 2011
I used to really like urban fantasy as well as secondary world fantasy but lately the urban fantasy has mostly started to seem all the same. Vampires, werewolves and demons get old after a while. Two recent acquisitions that I’m looking forward to reading are Karen Miller’s The Reluctant Mage and Kristen Britain’s Blackveil.
StephCat on March 15, 2011
I love Robin Hobb’s Farseer books….Fool’s Fate…
Joe on March 15, 2011
Secondary worlds — so many to choose from . . . A couple of personal favorites: The setting of Stephen Hunt’s steampunk books (Court of the Air et al.), which calls to mind Dickens, the Napoleonic wars and Rider Haggard at various times, and M.A.R. Barker’s Tekumel, an ancient, layered and decidedly non-Western setting.
My copy of Cloud Roads came directly from Night Shade a while back; I’m really looking forward to it.
Maryann on March 15, 2011
Delighted you have a new book out. For my secondary world’s pick, I’m going with “Empire in Black and Gold” by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Wishing you every success.
Chris Chittleborough on March 15, 2011
Secondary worlds? “Changeweaver” by Margaret Ball is at the top of one of my piles, but it’s main setting is an alternate history, not a separate world. So I guess I’ll go with this terrific book I just finished rereading, “Wheel of the Infinite”
Casey on March 16, 2011
Patricia A. McKillip, “The Riddle-Master of Hed” and following books. I’ve re-read them periodically ever since junior high, and in college I wrote a paper on the use of names for a folklore class and promptly pimped the whole trilogy to my professor *laughs*