Pete says: “I’ve read three of Chris’s books and loved ’em. Diverse subject matter but all featuring grit and terrific world-building. Chris writes here about the most influential SFF stories for him, growing up…(and I particularly love his comments on Battlefield Earth!)”
What were the top five stories that influenced me and my decision to become a writer? It all started when I was a wee sapling…
Star Wars
I saw Star Wars when it came out in cinemas (yes, I was born in the hippy era) and was instantly obsessed with it. As a kid I wanted to be Luke Skywalker and use the Force. Alas…
Star Wars is Luke Skywalker’s origin story, and something about heroes and origin stories have always worked for me. Maybe it was Star Wars.
Pawn of Prophecy – The Belgariad
As a teenager, The Belgariad introduced me to a concept called The Will and the Word, where you will something to happen, speak the word, and… well, it happens.
In The Belgariad, the protagonist Garion discovers he’s a sorcerer and must learn to use the Will and the Word or the entire world will be overcome by evil.
Who wouldn’t want magic powers? It’s no wonder my characters almost always evolve into something more than they start out as.
Dune
I discovered something vast, epic, and intellectual in Frank Herbet’s Dune.
I’ve read a lot of Frank Herbert’s work since.
Dune starts off as an origin story charting the rise of a young hero who pits himself against a tyrannical empire, yet leads into something vastly different – politics on a grand scale, thought-provoking themes and concepts, and planning carried out over generations.
If you’ve read some of Frank Herbert’s other works you might see elements of Dune in them, particularly in The Godmakers, as if he were testing ideas.
In Dune, he got everything right from a storytelling perspective, making it one of the most respected and beloved sci-fi books of all time.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and believe it or not, Twilight (three sides of the same coin)
How do you follow up Dune? With Buffy the Vampire Slayer, of course!
Buffy was groundbreaking
Why?
Buffy was urban fantasy at its best, and followed up with the slightly more ‘grown up’ version, Angel. Whedon seamlessly blended horror with comedy, yet both series were all about the care factor.
‘The Care Factor’ was driven home for me when I saw Twilight. How did a niche paranormal romance novel create a world-wide phenomenon?
Simple (though very hard to do). Stephanie Meyer made her readers care deeply about her characters and what happened to them. Not a lot of authors succeed at that.
Joss Whedon did it, but Twilight made it obvious how effective that is.
Magician by Raymond E Fiest.
Magician was the novel I aspired to emulate when I started writing. I’ve read it more times than I can remember, though on a recent re-read it didn’t live up to my memory.
Like Stephanie Meyer and Joss Whedon and plenty of others I could name, Fiest has the ability to invest you in his characters.
They’re people you want to spend time with. My love of Magician led me to the Daughter of The Empire series that Fiest co-wrote with Janny Wurtz. In Janny Wurtz I discovered fantasy built with gritty reality and powerful worldbuilding.
Battlefield Earth by L Ron Hubbard
“Err, what?!” you ask? “The scientology dude?”
Yep. <sigh>
I read Battlefield Earth in high school, and, well… it felt so dumbed-down and kidsy I announced to my friends that even I could write a better story.
“So why don’t you, then?” one of them challenged.
Ever met a teenage boy who backed down from a challenge in front of his friends?
Me neither.
About Chris Andrews
Chris is a dashingly good-looking author (or might have been dashing if he’d had hair) with unquenchable curiosity and a love of fantasy.
His latest novel, A Soul Incarnate, is a gritty urban fantasy set in the heart of Canberra, Australia’s capital city. It follows Allura, an ex-cop struggling with the devastating loss of her daughter. After accidentally bonding with a shapeshifting tigress girl, Allura becomes the target in an ancient feud that’s been threatening to erupt for millennia.
- Chris’s website: http://www.chrisandrews.me/
- Buy A Soul Incarnate: https://books.chrisandrews.me/ASoulIncarnate1
- Get a free review copy: https://books.chrisandrews.me/ASoulIncarnate
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