Fantasy and science fiction have the unique ability to captivate audiences in ways no other genre can. From extraordinary worlds built into the pages of the text to magical encounters with unexpected heroes, these novels deliver on the promise of intrigue and adventure.
We talked to three of our favorite authors to get their take on science fiction and fantasy—from what inspires them and what they love to writing and world-building.
Zilpha Keatley Snyder, author of The Green Sky Trilogy
Q: How would you define fantasy?
A: Well, a fantasy is a story where things happen that you wouldn’t really expect to happen. Or maybe couldn’t possibly happen, until you begin to read it.
Q: You choose to incorporate a lot of magical, supernatural elements in your books. Why is that?
A: I just enjoy fantasy—I enjoy using my imagination. I guess I have all my life. It used to drive my mother crazy.
Daniel Handler, also known by his pen name Lemony Snicket, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events
Q: Why do you think it’s important for children to read fantasy?
A: I’m probably not a good person to ask because I live in my imagination, you know, a good 75% of the time. But I think you imagine a different world in order to get a grip on the one you’re stuck with. And I think, particularly when you’re a child, so much of the world is bewildering that you begin to make up a mythology that helps you deal with it.
Q: Who were your inspirations at the beginning of your writing career?
A: When it first occurred to me to start to write for children, Zilpha [Keatley Snyder] was definitely someone that I began to re-read more carefully . . . But it was the first time that I began to think of writing for children, and what she did, and maybe that I could steal some of it.
Q: What about her writing intrigued you so?
A: Certainly, the idea of the kind of darkness that she weaves in is atmospheric. Darkness was important to me—I stole that for sure . . . She also has this kind of fantastic world of imagining, things that you’ve glommed from mythology, and from your reading, and from your own imagination that become this other world. I think her books explore the world of childhood—both the literal world of childhood and the imaginary world of childhood.
Q: Would you say that you’ve successfully incorporated bits of her style in your own?
A: I think my work and Zil’s work both peer into this secret and dark world that is scary but also watchable from a distance, and that both my work and her work have some imaginary characteristics. But they always reflect on a real darkness that I think any kid can relate to.
Q: You say that you’ve read her books as an adult. How did that experience compare to your childhood reading?
A: There’s a lot of children’s literature about a group of kids getting along. And there’s children’s literature about a fantastical situation. But she really has intertwined those two and . . . she makes the reader realize that those are the same thing. And when you’re a child, you know that instinctively, because you’re playing and all your boundaries are loose between who your friend is and who you’re imagining. But when you’re an adult, you might forget some of that. When you read her work now, it’s a reminder that those are all part of the same experience.
Patricia C. Wrede, author of The Cecelia and Kate Novelsand The Lyra Novels
Q: What elements of fantasy writing would you consider paramount?
A: World-building, in fantasy, is really important. But in major ways it’s not all that different from world-building in real life. . . . You’re presenting a world that the reader is not familiar with and trying to make it real to them.
Q: How do you build convincing worlds for readers?
A: You do that by giving the reader very specific details about certain aspects of life—it’s kind of a soap bubble effect where you provide just a few specific details and then it looks like you know everything about the world, but really it’s a soap bubble. It’s full of air. And the other thing is by internal consistency.
Q: What do you mean by “internal consistency”?
A: A fantasy, in particular, doesn’t have to be consistent with reality, because it isn’t real. It’s got magic. But if you say that the magician cannot wave his hand and create fire, then he better not wave his hand and create fire three chapters later just because you need it to happen. There has to be an internal consistency about what happens and how it happens and why it happens. It’s one of the more powerful tools that a fantasy writer has, that consistency.