When I wrote my first personal definition of fantasy fiction, I tried to write it as objective and concise as I could. With these goals in mind, I came up with a definition of fantasy that I still think stands true today. It is very unbiased and is easy to apply across the board to all fantasy fiction. However, in my attempt to be objective and concise, I left many things out. These things were either not objective enough, didn’t fit the rest of my definition, or were left out in an attempt to stay concise. When I read An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard and was tasked with figuring out how my definition had changed, I couldn’t come up with anything concrete as my definition was objective and left many things out. My definition goes like this, “Fantasy fiction is a subgenre of fiction that is set in a world that isn’t the same as ours. Whether this means that it has magic and is set in the middle ages or has aliens and set in present times, it is still fantasy fiction. The purpose of fantasy fiction is primarily to entertain, but it also broadens our perspectives, give us ideas that we would normally not have, and teaches us. For some people the purpose is to let them escape from the real world, though only for a limited time.” After reading the book, I realized that the object part of my definition had stayed true, but the things I left out had changed.
After finishing my first readthrough of An Unkindness Of Magicians, I was confused. I was trying to imagine the characters in my head, but I couldn’t. I tried to think about how the characters were described, but I couldn’t think of anything. On my second read I looked for description but I couldn’t find any. It occured to me that in my first read, I hadn’t just skipped all the description. Usually the first time I read a book I skip over most of the description and try to understand the plot. Instead, I had just read the book as it was meant to be read, that is, with minimal description. It was very interesting to look back and think about how I enjoyed the book even with very little description. Before this book, I had expected that a fantasy fiction book would have description if it was going to be good. This view generally comes from one of my favorite books, The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu. The first sentence of the first page of the prologue is this, “The brown ant had already forgotten its home. To the twilight Earth and the stars that were just coming out, the span of time may have been negligible, but, for the ant, it was eons.” (Cixin Liu 9) This rich prose fills the entirety of the book. This is what lets me read the book so many times as I find something new every time. There are so many details that it is so easy to miss important parts of the plot. After reading the last book of the Three Body Problem trilogy a few times, I agreed with a reviewer of the book, “In the future people will take neuro drugs that will selectively erase memories of this trilogy in order to be able to read them again for the first time.” (“Review of Death’s End by Cixin Liu”). Since this type of book was my favorite, I didn’t expect a book without description would be very good. An Unkindness of Magicians showed me that description isn’t needed to constitute a good fiction book.
This lack of description is very evident when you read chapter four. One of the main characters says out of the blue, “I am the only person with skin darker than pale competing in the Turning, and I’d bet every dollar in my bank accounts that I’d be the first black man to be named a House.” (Kat Howard 65-66) I looked back to where he was introduced and there is not a single word of description about what he looks like. That’s right, zero description. Even the protagonist’s description boils down to this: “A young woman with red-tipped black hair that is sharp and angular around her face.” (Kat Howard 1) This lack of description happens many times throughout the book but it never ruined the immersion. In fact, I think it helps people like me enjoy the book better. When I don’t have to worry about missing important details and am free to just read a book and experience good character development, I enjoy a book a lot more.
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Now, I don’t consider minimal description to be the best way to write a book. In fact, I think I would enjoy a book with more description better, if I was prepared for it. As I said previously, some books I read slowly and try to enjoy. If I had tried to do that with this book I would have been disappointed. Even reading through the book the second time, I was annoyed at the lack of description. I don’t want Tolkien level description, but I want a little bit more description of the main characters.
While I realize now that description doesn’t make a book, especially in fantasy novels, I didn’t consider how much character development makes a novel. I had never really cared about character development much until I read this book. I feel like Kat Howard intentionally decreased the amount of description to fit more character development. The lack of description made me wonder why I like the book so much. I finally settled on the fact that I liked the way the characters were portrayed throughout the entire book. They almost never did anything out of character. The dialogue (which consists of most of the book) is filled with character development. For example, in chapter eleven, when Sydney explains to her employer, Laurent, a secret that has been hinted at throughout the rest of the book, Laurent responds with this, “Okay. Let’s say you’re right. I mean, I get wanting things to be easy and not painful, but kids, Sydney? Kids?” She responds with “Easier to give someone up when you haven’t gotten to know them.” (Kat Howard 178) Laurent always wants to think the best of people who he had admired all his life, and so tries to defend them. On the other hand, we see that Sydney already knows what she thinks about the situation. Her tone is cold and uncaring; she just wants Laurent to know the truth. Another character with good character development is Miles Merlin. As seen early in the book: “He hadn’t won because he was the best magician–he allowed himself no illusions on that score. He won because he was able to see weak points and exploit them.” (Kat Howard 38) This quote as well as another one a few chapters later: “‘Of course, of course. I didn’t mean to imply anything untoward,’ Merlin said, in a voice that suggested that was precisely what he had meant to imply and that he was a bit surprised Laurent had caught on.” shows Miles’s character perfectly and sets up his character for the rest of the book. When we enter chapter eighteen, the quote, “Forgive me. I chose this table hoping to avoid interruptions. Now where was I? Oh yes.” (Kat Howard 276) doesn’t surprise us in the least. He is doing what he does best, making a point without being able to be criticized for it. He is a master manipulator and this is just one of the many characters in An Unkindness of Magicians. The lack of description in this book made me focus more on the character development and rethink my ideas about fantasy fiction.
There is one discrepancy in the character development that happens with almost every character and many times throughout the book. This is the amount of explicatives the characters say. Every character in the book says about the same amount. There are some characters who you expect to, i.e. Grey Prospero, who routinely kills women for their fingerbones, but there are some characters who you wouldn’t expect to. One of these is Ian Merlin. He is a well mannered young man who is portrayed as a good person. He doesn’t use the same evil that most magicians do. When he swore, I was surprised. His character development to that point in the story didn’t lead to that at all. This happens with many different characters throughout the book.
Even if many of the things that I left unsaid have changed, An Unkindness Of Magicians confirmed many of the objective things I had written in my personal definition. The world in this book, though minimal worldbuilding, was definitely different from ours. First and foremost, it has magic. This is very obvious and is definitely a main theme throughout the book. This book is a low fantasy novel. It is set in New York City in the 21st century and the author makes this clear in many ways. First of all, all the magicians of the “Unseen World” call normal humans “mundanes”. Many different characters use modern technology and visit real New York places (for example: The Angel of the Waters and Central Park Reservoir). As someone who has personally visited these places, it is interesting to make that connection to the story. To wonder if there are really magicians in New York that hide all their magic from the “mundanes” is a cool idea.
As I said in my definition, fantasy fiction’s primary purpose is to entertain. This book definitely checks that box. It was very entertaining for me to read. I am not going to expand on this point as it is self evident that a book should entertain people and this book is definitely entertaining. The next part to my definition was that a book broadens our perspectives. This book definitely did. It changed some of my personal ideas about fantasy fiction.
The last point that I made on the definition was this: “For some people the purpose is to let them escape from the real world, though only for a limited time.” As I said before, this book only took me five hours to read. I was so engrossed in it that I pushed everything off. Sadly for me, I read so fast that I was not able to escape for a long time. That is why I read the book again the next day. I was able to stay engrossed and immersed into the world.
Overall, I feel like my definition of fantasy fiction still is true. In my attempt to be objective and concise, I neglected a few personal things that I felt about fantasy fiction, and it is those things that changed most after reading An Unkindness of Magicians. The most important of these things is the importance of character development and the amount of description in a good fantasy fiction book. My definition still is true for me now and it hasn’t changed much.
Work Cited
- Howard, Kat. An Unkindness of Magicians. Saga Press, 2017.
- Liu, Cixin. The Three Body Problem. Tor Books, 2014.
- Sukiennik, Jan. Review of Death’s End by Cixin Liu. goodreads, 29 Sep. 2016, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1771432689
