Fantasy with Friends is a weekly meme hosted by the good people over at Pages Unbound. Fantasy with Friends poses questions each Monday about fantasy, either as a genre as a whole or individual works.
This week’s prompt is:
What fantasy books do you think will be classics in the future?
This question is making me stumble. That’s not Pages Unbound’s fault. It’s just the way my brain works.
First, I’m stumbling over the idea of “contemporary.” Are we talking about the last couple of years, the 21st century, or something else? And, yes, I’m certain that the way this question is phrased is that it’s up to me to decide for the purpose of this post. I’m sticking with this century, although I’m squeamish about calling it contemporary.
For the purposes of this post, I’m not going to define classic as anything more than “you know it when you see it.”
The other problem I’m having with this question is that I don’t know how many people can predict what’ll become a classic. How many people e reading about that band in the Mines of Moria back in 1954 were thinking, “There will be an entire genre that’s largely defined by people reacting to/reacting against/building from this book?” Did Peter S. Beagle’s editor know the impact that little book about a unicorn would have on countless readers for decades?
Who knows what effect the events in the world and what’s being published are going to have on the aesthetics of generations to come? It’s so hard to guess what books will be read in 2060, what books that writers of 2090 will resonate with. How many of those things we’re throwing awards at will be punchlines to our great-grandkids?
Isn’t that part of the fun? Reading something and having no idea what people who aren’t on social media are thinking about it? What’s going to get passed on to a child/grandchild—and what percentage of that will actually get read? (I know full well what my kids do with the books I give them, but that doesn’t stop me from trying). I love it when I stumble onto someone younger than me stumbling onto The Prydain Chronicles and feeling what I felt in elementary school. I imagine a lot of Tolkien’s early fans felt a sense of satisfaction and surprise seeing his work captivate their children and grandchildren. I’m eager to look around in my dotage and see what I recognize on bookstore shelves—or the shelves in people’s homes (I’m one of those people who spend half their attention as a guest scoping out the titles on my host’s shelves to really understand them)
And lastly, I know that no one is going to bring up my guesses in 25 years to point and laugh at me. No one is going to Nelson Muntz me. (Will anyone in 25 years know Nelson Muntz?) This is, of course, assuming I live to my mid-70s. (get your mockery in early, folks—you don’t know what this sedentary lifestyle is going to do to my longevity).* Still, I hate giving an answer I can’t feel reasonably sure is correct.
My big prediction is that there are going to be fewer White European Dudes (percentage-wise) in the Fantasy Canon. We’re going to see a lot of non-Europeans, a lot of Women, and read a lot of voices that will make Tom Bombadil say, “That’s a little strange.” There are plenty of future classics that aren’t making a lot of Best Seller lists here in the States/UK, and my grandkids are going to go wild over them and shake their heads at me for missing.
But that meandering is not what the question asked for. So here’s my stab at it…just a stream of consciousness here, totally not binding. I hope that The Name of the Wind will be seen with affection by a bunch of people who can’t be bothered to care about the fate of The Doors of Stone. I don’t know if I’d put money on The Lies of Locke Lamora standing the test of time, but I’d love it if it would. It’s possible that all/part of A Song of Ice and Fire will be considered a classic—see TNotW, but all of them feel less stand-alone-ish than Rothfuss’ book is, so we might actually need a conclusion. I’m sure something by Jemisin—if not her entire oeuvre—will be a classic, I don’t know that I can choose one. Brandon Sanderson almost has to have a future in the canon—if only because of volume. Terry Pratchett, too (but will people find him funny?) R.L. Kuang? John Gwynn? Nnedi Okorafor? S.A. Chakraborty?
As much as I adore some of Gaiman’s works** I’m guessing his stuff is doomed to obscurity***. I don’t know if Joe Abercrombie is going to last longer than this generation (I hate to say that, I hope he does), ditto for Seanan McGuire or Jim Butcher. I’m not trying to throw shade on the subgenres, but I don’t know that the best Romantasy or Cozy Fantasy authors are going to be remembered, much less celebrated.
I cannot wait to see what titles and authors are mentioned by the less cautious bloggers–a.k.a. those who don’t have to issue paragraphs of disclaimers before their anxiety will let them publish–have to say. Check out this post for links to the braver-than-me-souls.
* Wow, this is taking a dark turn.
** Stay with me here.
*** Deservedly.
Do you have responses to this? (either for the comment section below or from your own post)
Briana | Pages Unbound
We have a lot of the same thoughts! I was also thinking Nnedi Okorafor is a good candidate, but she is still in the category of authors I haven’t actually read anything by yet.
I also was trying to think about romantasy and cozy fantasy, but even of the ones I have enjoyed, none of them have stood out to me as Quality Literature That Will Stand the Test of Time. Which is fine. I love a good entertaining book, but you can just imagine most of these aren’t going to be remembered even a decade from now. Cozy fantasy is particularly hard because the point of most it is that not much is happening, and it’s not even that there’s little plot. I wouldn’t say most of them even have any idea of strong character development or theme going on.
Krysta
It will definitely be interesting to see which works stick around! I think some degree of popularity is needed. (Otherwise, you need someone influential to “rediscover” a book and bring it back into print/the general consciousness.) But also some degree of “seriousness” is needed. Books often become classics because they are taught in schools and thus passed on to the next generation as “worthy” of study. While cozies and romantasy are popular, they unfortunately aren’t the types of stories likely to get put onto school reading lists. So I agree it’s hard to see them labeled as future classics.
Interestingly, some books I already see on school reading lists are Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games. So–potential future classics there!