Top 10 Themes of My Epic Fantasy Series: The Fabled Quest Chronicles

Strangely, for as much as I loved the Lord of the Rings saga, both the Rankin-Bass animated movies of the late ‘70s and 1980 to the epic Peter Jackson movies of the early 2000s, I had no intention of ever writing fantasy as a published author. That was until HBO’s adaption of Game of Thrones hit TV. Despite its popularity, and don’t be offended if you love it, I loathed it and barely got past the first episode. In fact, I really don’t consider it fantasy at all–it’s more like a medieval and lesser version of House of Cards with a dragon or two thrown in. As for the books, I can’t comment because I have yet to finish even one of Martin’s novels—I’m more of a sci-fi, mystery and thriller reader.

Always, I try to put a new spin on a genre that I write in, whether it’s the provocative “religious science fiction” of my After Eden series, or my Liquid Cool series being cyberpunk reimagined—personally, I love the term “cyber-noir”—I wanted to do the same for my new fantasy series. I created the Fabled Quest Chronicles—six main novels, a prequel, and a companion novella.

What are the major themes of the fantasy genre that I put my unique twist on? Here’s my Top 10 List!

1) Good Versus Evil.
It doesn’t have to be the over-used, two-dimensional Hero versus Dark Lord structure, fulfilling some ancient prophecy. I’m equally unimpressed with most anti-hero(ines) or evil versus evil stories. Good versus evil is a universal trope for a very good reason (with good triumphing over evil in the end)–because that’s how audiences expect the universe to be, any universe, even the ones we fiction writers create.

2) A New World.
Also, called world-building, the first novel often has to spend some time acclimating the reader to your universe. If done well, it all feels natural and welcome. For a lot of fantasy, it seems there’s some boilerplate that everyone follows. If we’re doing fantasy, okay elves and dwarves are fine—I have the former and not the latter. However, there’s a lot more in historical mythology than just that, a lot more.

For my new fantasy series, I want to show readers sophisticated and diverse societies, realistic nation-states, and complex social structures. When I use the word “diverse” I don’t mean the often silly, politically-correct use of the term in our time, for the new series, I mean one where humans are merely one of many in this “universe.”

3) Mythical Races.
I need to expand of this point because it has been a source frustration with me for a long time. As a kid who was fascinated with Ancient Greek and Roman mythology and later medieval mythology, much of it due to my Lord of the Rings fandom, I often asked why do we see only dwarves, elves, orcs, satyrs, and a couple of others? There are dozens and dozens of different races. I do add quite a few of my own, but finally you get to see some of those other races from historical myths.

4) Mythical Creatures.
Dragons? Sorry, no, and it’s not just because that’s my last name. I have often felt that throwing in some dragon to be a cheat in most epic fantasy fiction. I even polled my fans from my author website and they too came up a ton of mythical creatures that I’d like to see too. In my new fantasy series, you’ll get to see them!

5) Magic.
I do believe magic is an important ingredient in fantasy. It goes beyond wizards, warlocks, sorcerers, witches or whatever term we use for the practitioners. At the core, these are lands, beings, and creatures of magic. It plays a key role in my new fantasy series as well.