Do you believe in monsters?

Today, I’ll be talking about two books, by the same author. They’re different stories, not in the same series at all, but I think they’re both incredibly good in one specific aspect, so I thought it best to discuss both of them at the same time. Besides, then you’ll have options in deciding which story you want to read when it comes down to it. 

Also, mild spoilers throughout this post, so if you really hate spoilers, might want to skip this one. If you're someone who reads a lot though, you probably wouldn't count what I'm about to tell you as a spoiler, because you'll already have inferred what's going on by the time you read the books' descriptions. 

Monster & The Oath – Frank Peretti

For once, this is something I’ve actually never touched in any of my stories—but it is something that I’ve considered writing on, because I do greatly enjoy stories of this nature. That’s also part of why I decided to bring it up, in general.

If there’s one thing that Peretti excels at doing, it’s writing legend as though it were a natural part of life, as though of course it should exist, as though it fit perfectly into the real world without stretching our imagination at all. That’s what we’re talking about today, hopefully with a general lack of spoilers.

I read a lot of fantasy fiction. And I do mean a lot. RAD Writing gets a lot of fantasy submissions, plus I have a lot of friends who write in the genre. Oh yeah, and it’s the predominate genre I’ve been published in as of late. I know what makes good fantasy and what makes very poorly worked fantasy. I really do. So I know how hard it is to make good fantasy fiction, to make everything flow seamlessly. Which is why I bring up Peretti. Partially because I don’t like to use my own work as an example. That just seems conceited, doesn’t it?

Peretti has this way of writing spectacular fiction, all of which really forces the reader to think, but he does so as though it’s the simplest thing in the world. He portrays things like sasquatches and dragons as though it should be obvious that they exist—so much so that readers don’t even notice when they’ve suspended reality to delve into the book.

I’ll tell you right now, that’s not very common in fantasy fiction taking place on earth. Most of the time, there’s a period in the beginning of the book where the reader has to focus, to make themselves really believe that this is the way the world works. Even in stories that take place on other worlds, there’s almost always a short number of chapters where the reader struggles to really believe what’s going on in the story.

There’s usually no way around it. Dragons aren’t real, after all. We have difficulty believing in them as actual things, especially in today’s modern world.

But there are some stories (a lot of them, actually) where authors could easily benefit by reading books like Peretti’s, by reading stories where of course sasquatch is real, didn’t you know? It’s the most obvious thing in the world.

If you want to get better at that, if you want to be better at writing creatures of this nature in general, read some Peretti. And if you want to be thrilled out of your seats, try out This Present Darkness as well. I still haven’t made it all the way through, and not for lack of amazing writing.

[love]

{Rani D.}