Juliet McKenna: The Gambler's Fortune

What if all the gray compromises of modern living could be cut through, with a broadsword for preference? Heroic fantasy, often with a hard edge all its own in writers like David Gemmell, pursues those ideas and their unforeseen consequences. Much of heroic fantasy is highly virtuous; simple tales where evil is punished and right triumphs. This may well be a welcome escape from the grim reality of news bulletins, but unconsciously absorbing the teachings of Aslan as a child makes aggression and injustice all the more intolerable for the adult.

At its best, SF/Fantasy offers answers to all of these questions, but more than that, the genre gives us superb stories. Characters leap off the page and grab you by the throat, vivid description transports you with no need for twenty-fourth-century technology, plots keep you turning the pages long past lights out. Celebrated modern writers such as Iain Banks find their talents equally at home in the best of mainstream fiction and of SF/Fantasy.

And then there is the nonsense. We have the surreal imaginations of Tom Holt and Robert Rankin, the inspired comedy of Terry Pratchett. Laughter is certainly an escape, but aren’t we all refreshed by that release? For satire and parody to work, the reader also has to share the author’s piercing eye for the absurd in the everyday world. While mainstream fiction can be inclined to take itself rather too seriously, SF/Fantasy gleefully sends up the ridiculous within the genre with titles such as The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.

So is SF/Fantasy an escape for people who can’t cope with reality? Not as far as I’m concerned. Reality is a refuge for those who can’t handle the challenge of SF/Fantasy!