Review: Putting the Fact in Fantasy

Disclaimer

Hello, all. This will be a different review than normal because I contributed three essays to this anthology. I want to be clear that I benefit from any purchase of this book. Granted it’s a very, very tiny benefit. I believe in transparency; so, I’m placing this disclaimer up front. Even though I’m part of this project, I admire each one of the other essays that I’ve read. If I weren’t a part of this project, I’d still review it. There’s a lot of useful information in the essays. But – to be absolutely clear – I am apart of this project.

Review: Putting the Fact in Fantasy

Fantasy fiction requires that the author earn the reader’s trust. In order for a reader to suspend disbelief, the author has to get the basics of world-building correct. Don’t believe me? Then read Scott Lynch’s introduction to Putting the Fact in Fantasy edited by Dan Koboldt. Lynch, author of The Lies of Locke Lamora, explains it much, much better than I have. But don’t stop there. Dan Koboldt has collected an invaluable resource for fantasy authors. Thirty-five authors (including Lynch, Koboldt, and me) have essays for how to make fantasy stories richer and more believable. Because if the author earns the reader’s trust on mundane things, the reader will stick with the story for the fantastic things.

Disclaimer: Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

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TL;DR

Putting the Fact in Fantasy contains 52 essays meant to help fantasy authors build believable worlds. This is an excellent resource that I’ll use in my own writing.

Review: Putting the Fact in Fantasy - Book cover. A knight on a white horse uses a pencil as a lance against a black dragon.
Click the cover to learn more at Left Bank Books

From the Publisher

A collection of essays from historians, linguists, martial artists, and other experts to help you write more compelling fantasy by getting the facts right

Whether it’s correctly naming the parts of a horse, knowing how lords and ladies address one another, or building a realistic fantasy army, getting the details right takes fantasy writing to the next level. Featuring some of the most popular articles from Dan Koboldt’s Fact in Fantasy blog as well as several never-before-seen essays, this book gives aspiring and established fantasy writers alike an essential foundation to the fascinating history and cultures of our own world, which serve as a jumping-off point for more inspired and convincing fantasy.

Review: Putting the Fact in Fantasy

It’s good.

No, Seriously

It’s real good.

Book Topic Sections

Okay, now that we’ve got opinion out of the way, here’s a breakdown of the book. Lynch’s Introduction and my essay on Asking the Expert start the book. The rest of the essays are organized around central topics in six sections. Each section has a generic topic, like history, language, or world-building. The sections are:

  • It Already Happened: History as Inspiration
  • Speak, Friend, and Enter: Languages & Culture
  • How to Make It Up: World-building
  • Weapons and Warfare: When In Doubt, Add These
  • You Don’t Know Horses, But We Do
  • So You’re Going On An Adventure

I haven’t read all the essays from each section, but I’ve read at least one per section. For most, I’ve read several. Each essay is excellently constructed full of helpful information.

Prior to the book, I hadn’t read any of the horse essays in Dan Koboldt’s Science in Sci-Fi, Fact in Fantasy series. But once the book was put together, I read the book’s version of Rachel Annelise Chaney’s How to Write Horses Wrong. The myth busting was fantastic, and I used some of the lessons in my current work-in-progress. Horses have never interested me despite my mother’s father and my wife having owned horses in the past. But reading through these essays, I realized how much I didn’t know. The essays were informative while keeping my attention.

All the essays that I’ve read so far had the same level of quality. The more that I read, the more honored I am to be included with this group of experts.

Conclusion

Dan Koboldt has curated a collection of essays to help fantasy authors make the mundane aspects of their story believable. These 52 articles contain a lot of information delivered in entertaining essays. While I’m biased, I will also use this as a resource for my own writing.

Putting the Fact in Fantasy edited by Dan Koboldt is available from Penguin Random House now.

© PrimmLife.com 2022