Aussies Taking on the World

All that red desert soil... and not much else. It's about as far from the European fantasy we've come to love and recognise as the "only" type of fantasy.

Let's face it when you think of fantasy it's usually got something to do with elves, fairies, or giants (you know the rest). Out imaginings of fantasy worlds have a lot to do with the shared understanding of European mythology and its fey creatures.

How is it possible then that so many Australian authors are making it in the world of fantasy?

It is country with an entirely different heritage, and its first inhabitants with their own variety of fey creatures from the Dream Time. Australia is not the image many will come up with when they think of Middle Earth. No, you'll imagine lush rolling landscapes with well foliaged trees and dirt that is well dirt coloured. Now I won't say that all of Australia has red dirt, but a fair whack of it certainly does.

The trick to being able to write well "they" say is to stick with what you know and take it from there. Along those lines it's pretty hard for any Australian author to repeat the same tired landscapes. From an author that has grown up in a different 'world' any thing written to resemble the classics is going to look pretty cardboard.

Instead the writers emerging at the moment are creating a whole new landscape. Good for them and even better for us.

Sara Douglass is literally taking the world by storm with her battle-axe. Those of you who have read anything else I've written may notice my fondness for this woman's writing. It's not misplaced though. It all began for her with a trilogy that scored her many, many devoted fans. It's that very same trilogy that is putting her on the world map. In September of this year her Battle axe trilogy will be released in America. I hope she flourishes.

While her series has been marketed in Australia as two separate trilogies in America it will be done as a complete series of 6 books. This is an important change. What must be remembered is the significant time period between the two sections. It is very obvious when you know, from the first three books to the second there is a great improvement in her style and most importantly her characterisation. There is definitely more Australia in the last three.

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