"fantastic history or historical fantasy Vox Day" Topic
9 Posts
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doc mcb | 28 Jul 2013 2:08 p.m. PST |
From Wiki: Theodore Beale, born c.1968, is an American writer, sometimes using the pseudonym Vox Day. He has also designed computer games and been a musician. • The Wardog's Coin (2013) ISBN 978-1-935929-97-0 • A Throne of Bones (2012) ISBN 978-1-935929-82-6 • A Magic Broken (2012) ISBN 978-1-935929-79-6 • Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy (2008) ISBN 978-0-9821049-2-7 Doc: He is a conservative Christian and a controversialist, and will not be to everyone's taste, though he is to mine. For TMP purposes, I suggest his books above (and others forthcoming) as an interesting world for fantasy campaigns AND an interesting but possibly unsatisfactory blend of fantasy with history. Beale's world contains humans plus the standard fantasy races, presented pretty much according to the "norm" we've come to expect in movies and games: elves and dwarves, orcs and goblins, etc. Not much originality there, although the leonines who feature in one story are interesting and the witchkings and their mutations may also be outside the standard. Beale's humans center around the "Amorans" (Roma backwards, of course) who resemble the Romans of the late republic: two consuls, a senate, tribunes, etc. Amora dominates other human nations, again like the late Republic and empire. The Amoran army is recognizably Roman in organization and tactics. Amoran politics are bitterly factional with actual or potential civil wars. BUT the Amorans are Christians, worshiping what is plainly the Trinity including the Incarnate One (i.e. Christ). The world's geography is not earth. And of course Augustus had already ended the civil wars and created the stable empire when Jesus was born, and Christianity did not become the religion of Rome for another three centuries. I enjoy the books and the setting, yet find myself bemused by the combination of fantasy races a la Warhammer or D&D with Roman political history circa 100 BC and Christian history circa 400 AD. The first book I read was Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy in which a young Amoran noble is the the third member of a church delegation charged with determining whether elves have souls and so whether or not the Amorans can lawfully make war on or exterminate them. (This turns out to be a novel of high adventure and not a treatise on theology – but the theology is taken very seriously, as it should be.) Most of the stories in the books are military, and Beale writes a good battle. Others are political maneuvering, and comport with what I know of Republican Roman politics (VERY complex). Beale is doing something similar to what I aspire to do in the Splintered Lands, but doing it in ways that would never have occurred to me to attempt. I enjoy his work, but am happy to be going in my own direction towards a similar goal. |
snodipous | 28 Jul 2013 5:19 p.m. PST |
Doc: He is a conservative Christian and a controversialist ..and a raging misogynist, racist, antisemite, and all-around piece of work. "I very much like women and wish them well, which is precisely why I consider women's rights to be a disease that should be eradicated." "
those self-defense laws have been put in place to let whites defend themselves by shooting people, like her, who are savages engaged in attacking white people." etc. etc. Finding examples of this guy's deranged ranting isn't hard. Sorry, not interested (to put it mildly). |
doc mcb | 28 Jul 2013 5:42 p.m. PST |
Well, I've read four of his novels and a couple of his other books. He is critical of radical feminism, as am I, but that doesn't make either of us a misogynist. Haven't seen any indication of antisemitism, either. As to your quote on self-defense, I'd have to see it in context. But I agree you'd find nothing but aggravation in his writing, which is why I warned about him being a controversialist. |
Turtle | 28 Jul 2013 9:35 p.m. PST |
There's controversy, and there's stupidity, history has already shown what side of that he landed on. Cool stories, but I suspect we already have better ones out there to read these days, especially since this is yet another fantasy retelling of history. Not sure what this is going cross posted to Game Design either. |
doc mcb | 29 Jul 2013 4:57 a.m. PST |
I crossposted to GD because there's no forum for World Design -- which is for me an aspect of game design, if you are doing, e.g., a campaign or (in fantasy) a magic system that has some sort of internal coherence. |
fullerena | 31 Jul 2013 3:45 a.m. PST |
This link has some of his more recent
posting. Highlights include describing a fellow author as "not equally homo sapiens sapiens." She's the "savage" he's eager to shoot when she inevitably goes feral and attacks him, in the quote above. That was the context. He's been at it for years and this is just one of his recent incidents. |
doc mcb | 31 Jul 2013 7:50 a.m. PST |
I checked the link, but haven't the time or inclination to trace out who is at fault in such flame wars. Some people's temperment changes for the worst when talking online. All I will say is that none of that is at all evident in his fiction or in two non-fiction books I've read, and I'm looking forward to his next novel. As I originally stated, I think his fantasy world is a fascinating but somewhat problematical combination of several periods of history with standard fantasy and some Christian theology. |
123Mac | 31 Jul 2013 8:08 a.m. PST |
I'm not terribly familiar with Vox Day apart from a few snippets here and there. For all I know he's exactly the goon you all say he is. But two thoughts: 1.) A compendium of grotesque quotes from an ideologically antagonistic blog is perhaps not the best place to seek "context." 2.) Even if he is a goon, that should have little bearing on what we think of his creative output. Any number of authors or other artists have said any number of reprehensible things, but our appreciation of their art shouldn't suffer because of it. Kurt Vonnegut, for example, towards the end of his life waxed dreamily about the incredible high suicide bombers must feel. It was categorically a crazy, awful thing to say, but that shouldn't change what we think of the man's literary output. |
doc mcb | 31 Jul 2013 4:10 p.m. PST |
Mac, yes, agree completely. Your #1 point states well what was precisely my reaction. As to #2, yes again, though I think we probably OUGHT to hold artists more accountable than we do, but you are correct that we tend to give them a pass, especially if we like their work otherwise (which may be what I am doing here!) |
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