Literature Opinions Wanted: My New Fantasy Novel

[RitnFool]

My name is Michael and I'm a writer. Although I've never sold anything, I've been writing everything from short stories to novels to poetry for the balance of my life. I'm thinking about starting a new fantasy project, and wanted opinions. As a general rule, would you be more interested in reading:

1) a standard "Lord of the Rings" type fantasy, with orcs, elves, etc., or
2) a story in the format of a James Michener novel - he was a mainstream novelist (not a fantasy writer) who wrote epic-type stories that began literally with the beginning of the earth and progressed forward to "modern" times, mostly to tell about the development of a specific state or area (Hawaii, Texas, etc.).

and a story with the villain being

A) your standard fantasy villain, either craving power over everything or dealing with new-found power, or
B) a "villain" that isn't a traditional character but perhaps a literal force of nature

The story I've been toying with is one where the world in question developed with several volcanoes, which were one of the main forces in the creation of magic. The volcano goes out of control, and my heroes must travel inside to discover what the problem is, and fix it.

Any and all opinions are welcome. And thanks for your help!

 

[Eye of Nowhere]

So basically a research team has to stop an erruption from happening in your fantasy land? Sounds neat.

 

[RitnFool]

So basically a research team has to stop an erruption from happening in your fantasy land? Sounds neat.

The closest analogy I can come to is: Lord of the Rings Meets Volcano (or Dante's Peak)...With Magic, and written in the style of James Michener. It won't be "just" a volcano, there's more going on!

 

[Eye of Nowhere]

The closest analogy I can come to is: Lord of the Rings Meets Volcano (or Dante's Peak)...With Magic, and written in the style of James Michener. It won't be "just" a volcano, there's more going on!

Let's call it Steve

 

[Oliverknit]

Personally I prefer reading option 1 standard lord of the rings but thats not to say I wouldn't also enjoy 2. Definitely option B out of those two for the villain but that just me, I also think it would interesting to see a villain who you know doesn't see himself as the villain but the hero trying to save the world if you like option A more. Either way I think as long as you throw yourself into your work I think it'll be a good read.

 

[r72666]

I think I'll be more interested in 2 simply because just reading it now gripped more than the high-fantasy 1 option.
I'd love to see how someone can create basically the overarching development of a world from scratch.
That's one mighty-fine and ambitious project, if I may say so.

As for villains, I was hoping for an anti-villain, but between your choices perhaps a literal force of nature would be closer to my type.
Villains can make or break a story. Too contrived, and the obstacles the hero overcomes will feel uninspired or dull.
But maybe get some empathy in there, a believable or maybe even noble goal but with twisted means, then you'll get a captive audience. I'm definitely not biased

Anyway, if you have more questions I'll be glad to answer them. Hope this helped!

 

[The_Omega_Effect]

To be honest, unless you come up with a new brilliant take on the whole lord of the rings type thing, I'd much prefer option 2. The whole high fantasy genre is a bit oversaturated in my opinion so it is quite challenging to come up with original ideas. Not to mention how time consuming it is to craft a world.

In terms of the villain, you could just go for a combination of the two. People nowadays love rooting for the villain at times so writing your typical power hungry villain won't be too good of an idea. But having your villain be literally a force of nature that does its bidding through magic would be tricky to pull off. My suggestion would be to write a villain that has a perspective or a goal that some people can actually get behind. Think of your villain as a protagonist in his own story, with you then writing how he seems from the perspective of a story where these other people are the main characters if you catch my drift. Just a suggestion, dabble with having a main villain that is like the champion of this force of nature.