How much action do you like in your fantasy?

Kindness · Dec 16, 2011

I personally love action, and any story that exposes the main characters to lots of danger and allows them to do badass things is a good story in my book. What about you guys?

CobraMisfit · Dec 16, 2011

Depends on the story, but normally I prefer action. Keeps the story clipping along. But as much as I love me some boom-boom kickassery, if the structure and pacing is poor, I won't finish it.

On the flip side, a story with little to no action will also keep me hooked if the author creates a world/character/plot that is well-written and engaging.

JSDR · Dec 16, 2011

What do you mean by action? Like, fighty stuff, or battley stuff, or people arguing and threatening stuff, or chasey stuff? Or other stuff I haven't listed?

Anninyn · Dec 16, 2011

It really does depend on what you mean by action. My favourite fantasies are rarely ones with huge battle set-pieces (or at least, said battles are few and far between) but they do have the characters getting into a lot of trouble and having to get out of it. Ben Aaranovitch does it well in Rivers of London and Moon over Soho- while there are some big, high stakes happenings most of the action is police procedural stuff.

Rhea · Dec 16, 2011

What to others said. For me, action in general terms is a must. I wouldn't want to read or write a book where people sit on their comfy chairs, complaining about the quality of coffee they've been offered and chat about philosophy. I like the sensation of moving forward (or backward). Philosophy is nice and all, but it's non-fiction.
If by action you mean what JSDR said, bring it on!

Grunkins · Dec 16, 2011

It depends on the story. If I'm reading a Harry Dresden novel I expect a large dose of action and would be disappointed if it were just Harry sitting around BSing or pouting for a whole novel. The Name Of The Wind has very little combat in it (though plenty of dramatic action) and I didn't miss it at all.

Chasing the Horizon · Dec 16, 2011

All my favorite books have well-developed characters facing down a continuous series of creative action/adventure sequences (and by 'creative' I mean that each sequence is very different from the others, with many different threats and environments in which the scenes take place). Nothing ruins a book faster than a bunch of people sitting around talking/arguing about plot-related stuff. One reason I love quest fantasy is that it rarely spends much time discussing the plot because, face it, there ain't much there to discuss.

I like my non-action/adventure scenes to be character development and romance scenes.

Obviously this is just personal preference. There are lots of fantasy books with long, intricate plots full of people sitting around engaging in intrigue and lots of people enjoy them. I just prefer pure action/adventure.

KyraDune · Dec 16, 2011

I like a lot of action. I can read books without it, and even like them, but it's better if the characters are running from one crazy scene to another.

It's my world · Dec 16, 2011

If you are reffering to battle type action I like it in moderation. I wouldn't like the whole story to be one huge battle. I like it when the characters have to use their wit and cleverness to get out of a certain situation.

Ian Isaro · Dec 16, 2011

I'm fine with stories with zero violence, assuming they have other interesting things, like court intrigue or a strong atmosphere. However, in general I like action.

The amount I want is directly related to the quality and variety of the fighting. If the fights are clever and in different forms, an author can get away with a lot of them. If everything is one on one (or a chaotic battle, or pure tactics) then I get tired of them faster.

Xelebes · Dec 16, 2011

They have to be doing something, but I generally dislike reading combat or whiteknuckle scenes.

robjvargas · Dec 16, 2011

Kindness said:
I personally love action, and any story that exposes the main characters to lots of danger and allows them to do badass things is a good story in my book. What about you guys?

Yes, it depends on the action. But, too, it depends on the story. There may or may not be "action" in a coming-of-age story, but there *is* some kind of tension. There's got to be some kind of involvement by the reader in order for them to want to continue through the telling.

Physical action is just one form of tension. I think it's very well-done in Robert McCammon's Stinger. But a whole novel can be written without a single swing of the proverbial or literal sword.

_Sian_ · Dec 17, 2011

Depends. I remember reading a book about a spy, and how they set up their group of contacts and helped bring about a revolution. The main character didn't do a lot of fighting, and didn't take part in the war part of the revolution, but it was still rather tense. I loved it. So it really depends, I guess

Faide · Dec 17, 2011

sianshan said:
Depends. I remember reading a book about a spy, and how they set up their group of contacts and helped bring about a revolution. The main character didn't do a lot of fighting, and didn't take part in the war part of the revolution, but it was still rather tense. I loved it. So it really depends, I guess

Oooo, which book was this? /derail

To answer the OP: depends on the story. I like tension and feeling that the characters are at risk and won't necessarily make it out alive, I like intrigues and things like planning and carrying out assassinations and heists, but action as in wars and long fight scenes, nope, not really my cup of tea.

Tiberium Tleilaxu · Dec 17, 2011

A good action scene is hard to do well, I find... but I suppose as has been said, it depends what the character is, and what they do. If they have a life with plenty of action, it probably should crop up.

thothguard51 · Dec 17, 2011

While I likes me a good fight or all out battle scene, it's conflict and resolution that keeps me turning pages, along with a well developed world and characters.

Anne Lyle · Dec 17, 2011

thothguard51 said:
While I likes me a good fight or all out battle scene, it's conflict and resolution that keeps me turning pages, along with a well developed world and characters.

This.

Too much action can be exhausting to read - I find it hard work to follow long action scenes because prose is not a visual medium, after all. The occasional fight or chase is good for livening things up, but as long as the story is moving forward, then I'm happy for there to be quieter scenes where the conflict is more subtle.

A bit of action, a bit of sneaking around, some verbal fencing - I like a mix of everything!

mephet · Dec 17, 2011

Action as in "doing stuff"? There needs to be a lot of that.

But action as in "fighting lots of stuff" is a little different. It can be done well (though not necessarily by me), but it's sometimes easy to loose the heart in it. While a 30-minute battle scene works in the Lord of the Rings movies, the books don't elaborate on those scenes - and I think that's for a good reason. Books work differently, and the weight needs to be more on "why" and "who" than on "how"... If that makes any sense. I don't know if it does. It's late, I should probably stop talking.

Anne Lyle · Dec 17, 2011

No, you're right. Books can get into internal motivation in a way that movies can't, whereas movies can do awesome action scenes that would be tedious, if not impossible, to describe in prose.

Kindness · Dec 19, 2011

Cool

It's nice to see how other people feel about this. I won't pick up a book unless I think there'll be action in it, and I think lack of action is why I'm not as big a Harry Potter (for example) fan as most people. I need the rush of physical conflict, lol. Btw, I meant "action" as a catch-all term for anything risky and physical, but it doesn't make much difference overall

Thanks for answering!

halfbloodprincess · Dec 20, 2011

I like action in my books, but I think if there's to much action there's never that wow climax moment. If the book is all excitement and action it gets predictable and dull

Liosse de Velishaf · Dec 22, 2011

I like action, but I prefer smaller groups of combatants. Epic battles are cool, but I've never put a book down because it didn't have enough of them.

blacbird · Dec 23, 2011

I want dragons frying zombies on every page, interspersed with sword-wielding strongmen dressed in animal skins and grunting a lot. Blood-spewing is always good, too. With vampires slaughtering elves involved. Throw in a major car-chase every five or six pages, and I'm good to go.

caw

francist44 · Dec 28, 2011

I like a lot of action as long as it makes sense; belongs in the story and was not written-in just to have some.
My WIP has a medieval flavor, yet I try to limit the swordplay and such action in my fights scenes to keep it from becoming too repetitious. The verbal responses between the opponents and many other elements carry the scenes. I find that more interesting than, his sword almost did this or that, and his maul crushed the man's skull, etc etc.

sunandshadow · Dec 28, 2011

I like romance and introspection, both of which sort of fight for space with action. If a novel has a person sneaking around in disguise or avoiding traps, an argument, a party or shopping expedition, and some sex, that's enough action for me. Not that I object to more action, but I really don't want to see people dying right and left, or battles that go on for several pages, or sports tournaments unless they are really darn clever and interesting.

How much action do you like in your fantasy?

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