War-Free Fantasy [and sci-fi too]

[Overread]

So I was hit by a realisation today which was that a lot, if not the vast majority of fantasy, especially young adult and older, is built around one single concept - conquest, war and fighting Be it that the characters are involved in a war or that their actions are seeking to prevent (or encourage one) through their adventure in the story to result in a conflict; or seek to avoid a major conflict.

Ergo for all the many reasons and ways to live and write, fantasy is by and large focused so heavily upon war in the most popular of series.


So I started to try and think of fantasy influences which lacked war. Where there wasn't a huge conflict on the horizon or even on the cards; sure there'd be struggles and perhaps a fight, but there was no war nor conflict.

Well Discworld rose up its head, although there is plenty of fighting in most its not always the focus of the story and in several there isn't a major war on the horizon (although its interesting to note how many have it as a backdrop).

Then everything else I could think of was things like the Moonmen (tv). Ergo fantasy aimed at younger generations, although even then the tales of Narnia still feature war in most of their stories.



So here's a challenge for TFF - name war-free fantasy.

 

[nixie]

I most know some but nothing comes to mind at moment I'll have to think on it.

 

[Brian G Turner]

You may find this thread interesting: Recommend me some epic magic without much fighting

 

[HareBrain]

Megan Lindholm, The Reindeer People/Wolf's Brother; Patricia McKillip, Solstice Wood (I'm not sure if Riddle-Master of Hed has war in it); Alan Garner, The Owl Service; Ursula le Guin, the Earthsea Quartet; most things by Catherine Fisher. You're right though, it's very common, especially in stuff written by men.

 

[williamjm]

Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora
Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind
Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead
Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor
Josiah Bancroft's Senlin Ascends
Leigh Bardugo - The Dregs
Tim Powers - The Anubis Gates, Last Call, probably most of his books other than The Drawing of the Dark

I'd say most Urban Fantasy doesn't have much war going on - there probably are exceptions but generally it's not the focus.

 

[Overread]

Megan Lindholm, The Reindeer People/Wolf's Brother; Patricia McKillip, Solstice Wood (I'm not sure if Riddle-Master of Hed has war in it); Alan Garner, The Owl Service; Ursula le Guin, the Earthsea Quartet; most things by Catherine Fisher. You're right though, it's very common, especially in stuff written by men.

Ahh I'd forgotten Reindeer People series!
Though I'd not say its a male issue but more one of inspiration and market leading. I can think of a number of female authors who have war or conflict in their novels. I would say that its more a case that war-settings inspire more writers who write the same whilst publishers likely focus on them (because of proven track record of selling) which means any author following the market gets led down the similar pathway.

I'd wager the major market that breaks this is the werewolves and vampire romances where war isn't always a cornerstone (although a bubbling war vs men or such can often be a backdrop even there).

 

[Brian G Turner]

I would suggest that a reason war is often a feature in second-world fantasy is that it usually draws on the history of Mediaeval Europe where large-scale conflict was common.

 

[Montero]

Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric novellas. There is war implied in the background, as there are castles, various countries may not be on the best terms, one character in a later book is a general, but there is no actual war in the main story.

Tanya Huff, Sing the Four Quarters. (Pleasant, but not the best of her books.)

Julie Czerneda - A Turn of Light. (Again, war in the background as in one character is a retired soldier, but none in the book.)

 

[Randy M.]

Jonathan Carroll: The Land of Laughs; Voice of Our Shadow; The Marriage of Sticks
Caitlin Kiernan: The Red Tree; The Drowning Girl
Charles Finney: The Circus of Dr. Lao
Peter Beagle: A Fine and Private Place; The Last Unicorn
R. A. MacAvoy: Tea with the Black Dragon
Christopher Moore: Practical Demonkeeping



Randy M.

 

[Toby Frost]

It depends what you mean by war. In SF, the book that springs to mind is The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I've not read it, but from what I gather, people seem to either love it or find it very insipid.

In Fantasy, I suppose Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock would fit. It's got an extremely interesting premise and, while it's ultimately about a struggle between two people, it's pretty small-scale and so there is no war going on.

 

[Luiglin]

Without conflict of some sort a story would not work. Whether it is a world war, a personal vendetta between two families or an space race to land on the moon first.

It doesn't matter.

The key is in having a believable conflict.

Edit: Forgot to add my fave war free fantasy, apart from Discworld books, is Clive Barker's Weaveworld.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Without conflict of some sort a story would not work. Whether it is a world war, a personal vendetta between two families or an space race to land on the moon first.

It doesn't matter.

The key is in having a believable conflict.

Also, for me, small personal conflict works best even in the midst of huge wars. There can be so much more pathos in the small stories. I don’t know if that’s because if my background, that I see the personal tales, not the bigger horror, but it makes a more hard hitting story, imho

 

[Randy M.]

Not sure if this holds up to scrutiny, but it seems that most large scale fantasy depends on war to jump-start the plot. Overread wasn't asking for conflict-free fantasy, but for war-free fantasy. A vast amount of literature (not to mention life) has managed to find elsewhere than in war the kind of conflict that powers a story, be familial strife or natural disaster or crime. What works of fantasy do not take place in wartime?

At one point I typed, "...depends on war or rumors of war ..." and now I'm wondering if there's any fantasy that follows the steps and missteps of characters assuming war hasn't arrived but is on its way.


Randy M.

 

[williamjm]

It depends what you mean by war. In SF, the book that springs to mind is The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I've not read it, but from what I gather, people seem to either love it or find it very insipid.

I think there's a lot more SF than Fantasy which doesn't have any war in it, there's a long tradition of SF where the focus is on the science or on exploration rather than any kind of military conflict. See the likes of The City and The Stars, Childhood's End, 2001 : A Space Odyssey, Rendevous With Rama, Gateway, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, The Dispossessed, The Martian, Snow Crash, Replay, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and many others.

 

[Overread]

It actually surprises me now you mention it Williamjm - fantasy is renowned for its world building and yet exploration isn't really a fantasy feature. We treat fantasy almost like we treat our own history (indeed fantasy is almost akin to how Tolkien treated it in an alternate mythology) in focusing a lot on the periods of wartime.

Space though is how we'd treat it a little today as well; wonderment at discovery and exploration.

I wonder how much of this is a result of diverging inspirations (Lord of the Rings inspiring fantasy - mythologies too; whilst sci-fi has the likes of Star Trek); and how much is a result of marketing and publishers guiding the market down established profitable (proven) tropes.

 

[Toby Frost]

Yes, traditionally a lot of SF has been about exploring and problem-solving rather than fighting (and quite a lot of the stuff about fighting has been to the effect that war is bad). It might be that the golden age of SF came after a huge war and during the Cold War, and then moved into the counterculture of the 60s and 70s. Pro-war voices, like Heinlein in Starship Troopers, feel like the exception.

I think there is a lot of exploration in fantasy - books like The Fellowship of the Ring have a road-movie quality, at least in part - but the idea of exploring new places doesn't seem quite as important as it is in SF. Perhaps it's because those new places are often quite familiar to people who read fantasy, while SF can be really bizarre, a la Rama. Or maybe it's because the places are already known, but are just avoided by everyone.