Angry Robot Round II: Epic Fantasy

Anne Lyle said:

As the entrants in the last Open Door discovered, they're not just looking for good books - they're looking for good books with an "Angry Robot" flavour, which is very hard to define but generally means something that's far enough off the beaten track to not be readily comparable to stuff that's out there, but not so interstitial that it's uncommercial.

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That's useful to hear. Because their guidelines basically said "If you're wondering if your book is epic fantasy it probably isn't" I was concerned they wanted something relatively conventional.

"Books with swords, dragons, castles, battles."

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Check, check, check, check.

Er, wait. Can we substitute castle with floating city? Is that acceptable? It's a palatial city.

brightlyiburn said:

Check, check, check, check.

Er, wait. Can we substitute castle with floating city? Is that acceptable? It's a palatial city.

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Just throw a few elves in to make up for it... or make the swords really big

A friend of mine is thinking about submitting. I really hope she does, because I adore what AR is doing. I once wrote a novel with them in mind actually (I'm focusing on YA now so it's unlikely to see the light of day anytime soon.)

Good luck to everyone planning to submit!

Oh, yeeeesssss....thanks for posting this! Must get to work!

Good luck, everyone!

ave said:

Just throw a few elves in to make up for it... or make the swords really big

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But it's floating! Surely that should be enough!

Anne Lyle said:

I think floating cities count as epic

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Oh good!

Also epic? The amount of work I'm going to have to do to get it in shape in time.

Anne Lyle said:

they're looking for good books with an "Angry Robot" flavour

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As much as I'd love to be published with AR, the more of their books I read, the more I realise that my writing lacks that flavour. It's a shame, but better off figuring this out now.

Oh wait, this is epic fantasy and there stand amongst us those who are yet undecided and those who do not believe. You know what that means....... *gets up onto the table*

One day we shall look back upon this time and know that we had a chance. A chance to change our destinies. A chance to throw off the shackles of ridiculous time frames, and stand side by side, pens drawn.... *and I'm afraid the rest was drowned out by the cheers of REALLY motivated AWers*

Filking will follow shortly.

Looks like they changed the wording from "epic fantasy" to "classic fantasy."

From the guidelines:

"...classic fantasy – swords, magic, kingdoms, castles. You might describe it as high fantasy, epic, magical, low, classic, medieval, or whatever. If you’ve written an urban fantasy or supernatural modern day chiller, that’s great, but not what we’re wanting this time around."

Holy crap, this is exactly what I'm writing, and Angry Robot sounds like a good fit for me. I doubt I'll have it ready by April, but it's something to work towards. Thanks for the heads up!

(Screams and hammers fists on desk, eyes scrunched up, face distorted with distress)

AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHH!!!!!!

Bleh heh heh. I had my hopes up. I'm writing fantasy, but not classic fantasy, as it has no swords. Nope. Well, it might, but that would only be the annoying elf woman trying to impress somebody, and has nothing to do with it. WHAT. A. PITY.

Thanks for letting us know!

Luciamaria said:

Bleh heh heh. I had my hopes up. I'm writing fantasy, but not classic fantasy, as it has no swords. Nope. Well, it might, but that would only be the annoying elf woman trying to impress somebody, and has nothing to do with it. WHAT. A. PITY.

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Assuming you're being serious here, I wouldn't automatically discount yourself. It's not like there's a checklist of elements that absolutely need to be in your story. Their two examples of what they don't want now (UF and thriller) are much, much further away from classic fantasy than your story is.

I took it as examples showing the flavor of the fiction. They're looking for books that people will see and say, "Yeah, that's fantasy." Not something that makes people tilt their heads and wonder about the exact genre, but fantasy itself is pretty broad.

Your story has elves. That sounds like the genre they're requesting to me. However, it can't compete with my planned submission, The Sword of the Magic Kingdom's Castle.

brightlyiburn said:

Hmm...I looked the guidelines over but I might have missed it (speed reader; it happens)...can you submit to both the epic fantasy open door and the YA open door?

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if they now have a YA imprint... well, I feel like holing myself away and finishing my stalled YA superhero novel. two months to their deadline, eh? gak.

Mine is, on the surface, a fantasy secondary universe with sentient swords, runaway immortals, ancient cities locked in political intrigue, and several big threats to the world.

But it's really science fantasy on an epic scale. Some of the cities are still powered by re-purposed starship engines, the main race was genetically engineered as a cross between humans and the natives, and the second-biggest threat is a group of interstellar colonists.

It's more like Scott Lynch's or Jack Vance's work, or some early Jo Clayton or C.J. Cherryh.

If I'm still unagented by April, I'll submit the beast.

Filigree said:

Mine is, on the surface, a fantasy secondary universe with sentient swords, runaway immortals, ancient cities locked in political intrigue, and several big threats to the world.

But it's really science fantasy on an epic scale. Some of the cities are still powered by re-purposed starship engines, the main race was genetically engineered as a cross between humans and the natives, and the second-biggest threat is a group of interstellar colonists.

It's more like Scott Lynch's or Jack Vance's work, or some early Jo Clayton or C.J. Cherryh.

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Or Richard Morgan's A Land Fit For Heroes series! (Which I love and totally wish there was more of.)

The novel I'm considering submitting is also science fantasy, but it reads like fantasy. Swords? Check. Castles? Check. Godlike, insane A.I. from a different epoch? Um, also check. Hopefully, that's okay.

Why can't they say "hard science fantasy" for their genre. boo

I would be interested except that I'm not confident I'll have anything finished by April (I have 1,416 words in so far, all written today).

Anne Lyle said:

However I think my friend Andrew may have beaten Ian with his proposed entry: "Castle of Swords: Battle of the Dragons"

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Curses, I need to raise my game. Time to begin writing my masterpiece, The Dragon King's Dark Sword: Elvish Castle of the Quest Battle Chronicles.

Ian Isaro said:

Curses, I need to raise my game. Time to begin writing my masterpiece, The Dragon King's Dark Sword: Elvish Castle of the Quest Battle Chronicles.

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Whoaw, that names epic enough to submit without a book.