FOR READERS
Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth:
Some readers prefer a certain amount of violence in their fantasy and paranormal novels. Is the violence necessary to these genres? It doesn’t have to be physical violence, one of the things I like about Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint series and Melissa Scott’s Astreiant, is the kind of social violence that can be inflicted and those results.
Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks!
Oh yes, Kushner’s books have such an interesting take on what one person can do to another without ever actually lifting a finger to do physical harm. I’m sort of in love with that universe.
You know, though, I never really consiously thought about this aspect of the genre before. I just tried to think about a book I might have read in either genre that isn’t long on violence and didn’t come up with much. Some of Guy Gavriel Kay’s books if I remember them properly, maybe, but even then, where physical aggression is absent, there are all kinds of other ways the characters manage to damage each other.