Myths & Legends of Substack: 5 Writers Who Have Changed Fiction on Substack
Part 1
I’m not doing this to compare these writers to anyone, I just want to do a detailed analysis of them and take a closer look at their work while I’m being driven insane (I’m alone, with a day off an unusual experience) with nothing to do but wait for tomorrow and to write.
So here we go; this essay was inspired by a duo of REALLY well-written essays by the eminent scholars and fiction writers Eric Falden & Maximilian Siddell, their essays can be found here; Maximilian’s Essay & Eric’s Essay both are life-changing ones, they are awesome and while I wrote my own humbler piece, one can see that they poured heart, soul and a lot of brain-power into theirs.
But while I can’t find anything to disagree with them about, and have no intention to (why do such a false, undignified act?), I felt it was time to follow up not with another love-letter to the greatest genre in human history, but to take the time to analyze those works hereon Substack that will likely stand the test of time, analyze them and get into them a little if only for fun. None of these will be listed in any top anything order, I really have little interest in doing that as it would only undermine some of them.
First I’ll get into therefore is;
, this guy and I have a bit of a bromance that’s been going on for awhile. Honestly, after I discovered his world I fell in as much love with it as I did Dragonlance or Dragonslayer, or even Dragonheart.Part 1 tells the story of a Gladiator, and the story is one about love between this man who in Roman terms would be at the total bottom pole of society. He is however, being used in a way that may make some uncomfortable.
And that is something very important. Fiction should make us uncomfortable, we should be made to confront the darker sides of our psyche, but also to learn and grow. Atilius is his name, and he has much to learn about himself, he at the start is being used as a ‘sperm donor’ to be polite. He is also one of the finest fighters the Arena of Noveria has ever seen.
Noveria is a fascinating Empire, obviously derived from Rome in her hey-day. She is however confronted by distinct problems, not only socially as there is a sharp divide between the social classes as Rome faced, but also by internal issues as various parts of the Empire have begun to rebel.
The interesting thing about Noveria’s current issues is that it also appears as though this is not the era of the thriving 2nd century, or the golden age that was Augustus’ reign but rather an ad-hoc mixture of three different eras in Roman history; the time of the Macedonian Wars, a great era that doesn’t get enough study and attention, there is also the Julio-Claudian period and the 3rd century.
The story involves the ‘brood ox’ that is our hero Atilius and his love affair with Sibylla who has fallen for him, and longs to run away with him, and away from her wicked husband. Atilius is pained by this, and doesn’t think it is a good idea, and the two break-up, here there is something interesting that happens.
We have our hero who wishes to pull away as is sometimes the case in Rome-focused literature, one can see a nod to Gladiator, but also to Rome which has some scenes of this sort in it’s episodes, but there is also a nod here to the Aeneid. Within the story of the Aeneid, early on there’s an extremely passionate love affair that takes place between Dido the Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas. Dido doesn’t take the break-up very well, so that Tatter has done a nod to these stories.
Roman women are often depicted as haughty, cold yet brimming with passion beneath the surface there is therefore something of a stereotype being depicted here. And yet, there is also a poignant commentary here about the need for compromise, and also on the difficulty for a noblewoman to accept a warrior-archetype character like Atilius.
To wed Atilius is near impossible, as he is a warrior archetype and lives to fight and kill, on top of which with his reluctance to risk everything for so many uncertainties shows us that he has his own insecurites and apprehensions, as he’s not entirely ready yet either. Sibylla turns out to be the real hero of the story, swooping in to the rescue and whisking him away and thus starting a conflict that may well split Noveria apart.
Part 2 is about a grand battle, one that Josh describes in great detail and does a superb job of also showing not only the clash between the different warriors. The Hoplites are superbly described, are shown to be clinging to their native lands and culture in spite of the nature of the Noverian Empire.
It is the nature of Empires to attempt to push through uniformity and conformity, one need only look to the Roman Empire though the current American one is even more forceful about its culture and values, and this has been the case for decades (not judging just observing). The thing about the Noverian Empire is that one has the sense that conformity here is a cultural must for all vassals.
This naturally leads to conflict, and the fact is that it is also evident that there is little love for the Imperial forces on the part of the Spartan inspired Lionsguard.
There is a conflict here taking place between naturalism in a way, that is to say the natural forces of a peoples, their culture, their own way of life and the monotonous and forceful nature of imperialism. Some Empires are rich in culture, such as those of Rome, France & Britain, but others have little in the way of culture and less in the nature of poetry and music. At least most of these Empires began culturally rich, with Rome having a rich culture and tradition of literature and architecture and such until the 3rd century, while France offered little in the way of value beyond a slogan under Napoleon, only to vastly improve itself as an Empire by Napoleon III.
As to Britain, her intial imperial period which arguably began under Elizabeth was a mixed thing; while it offered some literary beauty and cultural value it had periods of mediocrity until the 19th century which was its peak in some ways.
Noveria is certainly not in its peak period, and seems to be dipping, it is becoming ever more metallic, more hum drum and monotone, and also more bloodthirsty as she gives into base pleasures as offered by the arena and also seeks to suck ever more blood and life out of her vassals. Could she turn things around? Certainly.
Out on the provinces Elves, and men though might prefer it if were otherwise.
This can especially be seen in Part 3 where there’s a much more Nordic culture, and one which is utterly at odds with that of Noveria. Once more the focus is on a warrior archetype and on his conflict with a woman he loves, in this case she chose other than him some time ago, and is now choosing him.
What was so interesting was that in the first part, the lady had a chip on her shoulder about not being chosen, and now it is Arlyn with that same chip. But how they behave, how they come at things are quite differently, and this has to do with the fact that one is female and the other is male.
Josh in all is as you can see a talented writer, he works with archetypes and likes his highly masculine battle and war situations. Typically in my experience there’s something between this story and his Mousquetaire story that Josh weaves into his stories; battle between male bucks so to speak, a test of manhood and manliness of sorts with the unworthy punished and the victor being rescued through love and the grace of the ‘goddess’ that is to say the female lover archetype.
is brilliant, there’s much to be said about his story, which is a slow-burn one that begins in a manner really reminiscent of the Dragonbone Chair. The idea being that Nick chose to celebrate the mundanity, the ordinary at the start of his story and like Tad Williams seems to be building up a Celtic styled world.The difference is that where Tad kind of began to subvert with his second novel, Richards isn’t doing that. He’s sticking to classic themes and motifs and ideas, with things like the ‘secret royal kids’, the twin leads (like from Star Wars) (one girl and one boy), he also has other things like the Elvish love-interest who is a princess that he’s building up.
All of these are classic ideas in the first volume of his story.
But where he differs is in how proudly he demonstrates that he will stick to classic ideas, refusing to subvert, refusing to twist. It has honestly been generations since we’ve seen stories like this. Instead of prepping for a twist, or otherwise trying to outsmart the reader or going for cheap thrills, Nick is preferring to do that which Tolkien and Howard did; he is deepening his core two characters.
Kara is the female lead, a spunky if sensitive young woman who has a lot in common with Supergirl (who might well be the namesake), but also the likes of characters of Betty Cooper from Archie comics and Pippin from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings all seem to serve as some sort of spiritual set of predecessors. There’s something capable about Kara, but also something very feminine.
Never do you get the feeling that Kara is tacked onto Felanar’s story (Felanar being the male lead and main character). Nick has admitted to me in private that Kara grew in the telling and that she quickly grew into one of his favourite characters.
Kara though feels very natural with her and her brother having a very wholesome relationship with her brother, so that she serves like Leia does to Luke’s journey in quite a few stories from the Star Wars universe.
Felanar for his part, between his Elf love story, his dreaming nature, his love of the sea and the great destiny that looms ahead of him is obviously supposed to be a bildungsroman (I believe the term is) lead, who will one day be King. But the truth is there’s a depth to the character, a love of the simple in him that reminds of Jim from the Office, he has the same wit, the same funny nature so that it is impossible not to connect with the character.
Felanar has a passion for fishing at the start of the story, so that there’s an entirely relatable element to him, much like Luke Skywalker also. But where Luke is destined to only ever be a Jedi (a kind of Sci-Fi Monk) and never a King or ruler, it is likely Felanar’s destiny to be a King.
But a King of what? Likely Tranith Argan. And what is Tranith Argan? I will tell you. It is a Celtic or Irish seeming mythological world full of wonder and beauty. My gosh the descriptions that Richards uses are magical, as he dives into a world of beauty and water, and forests.
It is a world which seems to have its own personality. If I’m being honest, I like to wander through a local forest, everyday and while I’m in the woods I have a sense of a spirit and a personality about the place. Tranith Argan feels like that place. It is a place of fey and spirits of trees and water and rivers. It is a place of magic, and one that feels intimately familiar to any person who has read old Irish, Scottish and French folk-tales.
It is a place of wonder, and one that is filled with lochs, rivers, forests and with simple folks, ones who express curiosity about Elves and the mysteries of the world but little more. They are all content lower-ranking people who love the land, the sea and who are content to survive, compose poetry and who seem to live in a world full of nature and dragons (yes a dragon appears and it is awesome, and feels properly majestic and unbelievably beyond human comprehension and ability to fight).
The archetypes are painted clearly, the world is one that feels every inch Celtic where Tolkien’s was Anglo-Germanic with a touch of Celtic. Howard’s feels alien with a dab of Nordic-Celtic. Richards taps the most elusive of ideas and archetypes and even stereotypes, and fairy-lore whirls them together in his cauldron in such a way that only Williams seems to have attempted but where Williams abandoned his project, Richards doesn’t.
Richards’ gives a clear idea, a clear personality to his world. He knows that in fantasy it is not the characters who are the leads, but the world itself. This is what separates him from a great many writers, a great many fantasy creatives.
has in the past written a great many works, and you know what this has in common with the present? He’s still doing it.Jokes aside, this was my first introduction to his works. This project of his is one that apparently is quite different from what I hear of his two even grander projects; Jarl’s Son & Castle on the Hill (I get the impression given how fondly he talks about the latter it might just be his favourite). Yet there’s still something special about this story, as it is one that though I have the sense is somewhat lesser than the other two (I’m very much excited for them) but this one feels real.
It feels like a world that might have been written by Rudyard Kipling… not only that but it READS like a Kipling story. You can also certainly detect if you even just glance through it the influence of stories such as Tarzan (Disney’s) and Jungle Book 1994, and also films such as Palm Trees in the Snow in some ways.
What it also does is interact with a kind of African fantasy world, with a feeling akin to how one feels whenever seeing paintings, drawings, pictures or literature set in Africa. The leads are not African though, and there is also a feeling of the Jurassic or Triassic about the world, as there are dinosaurs to be sure.
The world has thus like with Nick Richards’ its own personality a distinctive one that is quite a bit different from that of the Celtic world of Richards. This world built and written about by Man, who has built a much more primordial world.
But isn’t as though this is all there is to it, as there are explorers that come in, and you get something of a similar plot as the Tarzan movie from Disney, if a little better as the Clayton part of the story had issues in that movie, yet here Man fixes such flaws.
French culture has a great fairy-tale literary hero by the name of ‘P’tit-Jean’ or ‘Little John’, this hero is the archetypal French ‘Prince Charming’ (though usually a dopey, clumsy or uber clever hero), and the thing about this story is that it seems to draw if unconsciously upon such tales.
The thing I love about this story is that it takes me back to my childhood and youth reading fairy-stories day in day out. There’s an element of Brothers Grimm, an element of P’tit Jean and yet there’s also an element that is all its own.
That last element is Harold himself. He is a great writer, one who composes a story with a great deal of feeling but also a knowledge of when to laugh, when to weep and when to simply feel. This is not something that can simply be taught, it must be learnt as a writer, and one of the best ways it can be is from reading as much as Harold has.
Witty and cultivated it cannot be stressed enough, how wondrous this story is, with the hero the archetypal warrior. The thing though is that the Sir Knight in the story, is supposed to simply be the archetype but there’s more to him than just that so that he feels like a fully realized character.
Honestly if there was one story on Substack I’d want to see star in a movie it is this character, as this story feels like a movie from the mid-90s (which was the peak era for fantasy movies in my view).
Yet never does the story seem hackneyed or like it’s been done a million times, it takes a simple idea we’re all fairly familiar with and plays it through straightly all while taking things in its own direction.
In terms of the prose it is evident Ember kept it simple, and tried to strive for a style that fits more with fairy-tales, it is eye-pleasing and rich without ever seeming over-done or forced. Harold alongside Nick Richards has probably the most natural style hereon Substack.
The
is a funny guy. He’s also an avid DnD player and it shows in his work. One gets the sense from his dialogue and his style he isn’t aiming after Tolkien or Howard, but rather trying to chart his own direction whilst also chasing after that elusive third great fantasy-pioneer who in some ways unlike the first two was genuinely a ‘fantasy fiction’ guy; Gary Gygax.And yet, there’s in the characterization something a lot more elevated than most fantasy writers are capable of in the post-80s era. It is interesting how vivid his characters are, how faithful to the roots and seeds planted by Gygax Black Knight remains.
He keeps to archetypal ideas sure, and tries to use older styles of speech but there’s a dream like quality to his stories.
This dream like quality is reminiscent of Wagner. Wagner’s opera is a grandiose one, and one can see the influence of Nordic mythology also, in Knight’s works, and so you get this fascinating mixture; Gygaxian style of fantasy with Nordic influence and the Romantic era’s love of paintings and imagery. And make no mistake if there’s anyone’s work that should be captured in a painting it is Black Knight’s.
The Dream like world shows hags and monsters abound, but they struggle just as the heroes do, with good and evil markedly contrasted against one another all while the world gives way to nightmarish scenes of darkness and drabness then an explosion of colour.
Where a great many writers prefer to slowly reveal character backstories and such, there’s no such pretenses with Black Knight, and yet there is no contradiction between the characters’ actions and their backstory. The past shapes the present and the future, so that one never gets the feeling that there’s some sort of out of character moments or dichotomy. All makes sense, and all flows naturally as said like Wagner’s opera did.
One of my favourite tales hereon Substack is one written by the brilliant
who also voiced it. If ever I get the chance to interview him for the podcast, you can bet I’ll carry out that threat of celebrating the whole time up to it (and afterwards).Faenon doesn’t start off his story in the best way or on the surest footing at first glance. Now for some this may turn them off, but if you pay close attention you’ll note that the starting point is reminiscent of games such as Fable & also Final Fantasy IV, V & VI, all of which have enormous influence over his literature. He also includes considerable influence from the first FF game, with the jewels/crystals holding enormous power.
The world of the Saga of the Jewels like FF has air-ships, has an evil Empire and has all sorts of fantasy races and cultures alien to our own. What makes his world so interesting though is that it improves on a lot of what’s found in the early FF games until #5, so that the world feels so much more complete and has a great deal more flavour.
There are constantly moving parts, from the moment that Ryn is captured and then finds himself inadvertently semi-free from General Vorr we have a desperate quest that takes over the story. The tale is definitely plot-driven and yet the characters for the most part do feel fairly real, and are firmly set to the benefit of writer and reader alike, within archetypal Jungian notions. A good example of this is how Ryn is evidently both the magician and the lover archetype, as there is a romantic angle between him and the princess. After the first few chapters it never feels too forced, and the gradual shift in relationship is good and well-written. Thankfully though this is never hte focus of the story, but rather it is on the plight of the world and characters who populate the world.
There are interesting twists, turns and betrayals, many you’d never see in any Final Fantasy after #6 (X excluded as there are plenty of those in that game), but where 7, 8, 9, 12, 13 and so all lack such things, this story has all that used to make FF compelling. The characterization though is tighter and if I were to compare it to another game it’d be more fitting to compare it to the masterfully written Tales of Symphonia, or one of the novels of the Redwall saga, or even Dragonlance where twists and betrayals abound.
What is more is that though he has plenty of emotional scenes, where he differs from some writers I’ve observed he knows that men should only weep at the death of a loved one, and in extreme circumstances and never over excessively so as can be observed in his story. You might ask why this is, and that is because men are generally like that, yet the brilliant Faenon also portrays women as women, so that the characters never feel any less than what they are. There are lessons to be learn here.
He’s also a brilliant reader, so do give his audiobook reading a listen.
At the advice of a few people, I have chosen to chop up this post in half, and the other half will be delivered after reading through a few more authors, getting my thoughts together and then writing it slowly as the size of this post honestly took me by surprise.
Hope everyone liked it, and will take a look at these writers as there is much more to their writing than just what was mentioned here.
Thank you for the kind words. It always takes me aback when people compare me to established greats. I've had some draw comparisons to Bradbury, others to Moorcock, some few to Howard or Lieber, and now Kipling. It's a humbling thing, one I'm never quite sure I agree with, but that I don't contest. If readers get these feelings from my work naturally, I see no reason to deny them this just because I'm not certain I reach that same level.
I'll clue you in on a little secret to the setting, though - all of my longer stories here share the same setting. Dekhand, the primordial jungle that Blackpaw and White-eye call home, is just one corner of it.
I am so happy that I made you happy with my writings! Wait till you read the last chapters of Lord Of Bones :D