Growing the Beard/Literature: Difference between revisions

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* The early ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' books (at the latest, up to ''Small Gods'') felt far different than their latter counterparts. Particularly glaring within the separate section of the Disc mythos: compare and contrast the Granny Weatherwax from ''Equal Rites'' to the one in ''Carpe Jugulum''. Or the Lord Vetinari in ''The Colour of Magic'' ([[Word of God]] had to step in and confirm that it was the same Patrician, and not one of his thoroughly insane predecessors) to the [[Magnificent Bastard]] of the Moist Von Lipwig books.

** Likewise, the first two ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' books are straight parodies of [[Sword and Sorcery]] fantasy. The series began to grow its beard in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Equal Rites|Equal Rites]]'' and ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Mort|Mort]]'', where it went from a parody of fantasy settings to using its fantasy setting to parody everything else.

* ''The Dragonbone Chair'', the first book in [[Tad Williams]]' [[~~Door Stopper~~]] fantasy series, ''[[Memory Sorrowand Thorn]]'', tends to drag on and doesn't introduce the main antagonist until several hundred pages in. Once the series gets going, it's very good, but you still have to get through much of the first book to get to the good stuff.

* ''The Dragonbone Chair'', the first book in [[Tad Williams]]' [[Doorstopper]] fantasy series, ''[[Memory Sorrowand Thorn]]'', tends to drag on and doesn't introduce the main antagonist until several hundred pages in. Once the series gets going, it's very good, but you still have to get through much of the first book to get to the good stuff.

** This seems to be the case with most of [[Tad Williams]]' [[~~Door Stopper~~|doorstoppers]]. The protagonists only know that their lives are going to hell; they don't know why, there are webs within webs, etc. Awesome characters, storytelling, worldbuilding, and prose keep this from becoming the problem it would be in the hands of a less capable author. But it's a given that you will have no idea what's actually going on until the last five hundred pages or so.

** This seems to be the case with most of [[Tad Williams]]' [[Doorstopper|doorstoppers]]. The protagonists only know that their lives are going to hell; they don't know why, there are webs within webs, etc. Awesome characters, storytelling, worldbuilding, and prose keep this from becoming the problem it would be in the hands of a less capable author. But it's a given that you will have no idea what's actually going on until the last five hundred pages or so.

** Incidentally, the main hero grows a literal beard in the course of the story, symbolizing his significant maturation from a lazy kid into a worthy {{spoiler|king}}. The cover art makes the difference especially striking.

* ''Gardens of the Moon'', the first book in Steven Erikson's gargantuan ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' sequence, drops the reader in the middle of an ongoing war with little explanation of what is going on. The lack of scene-setting or explanations for concepts in the book have led many to give up on the novel, as acknowledged in later editions by the author. Fans suggest that the book doesn't settle down and become comprehensible until a good 150 pages in, and many suggest skipping it and starting with the more traditionally-structured second book, ''Deadhouse Gates'' (set on a different continent with different characters) instead.