Too Young to Save the World: Ages in Fantasy

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ages in fantasy, despicable me, epic fantasy, historical fantasy, maturity, writing

I am an old maid by Roman standards. Nineteen and not even a suitor? What a tragedy. This realization struck me not so long ago and led me to consider ages in books (because everything leads back to books with me).

Lots of people seem prone to criticizing ages in fantasy. They say “he/she’s not old enough for that kind of responsibility/maturity/what have you.” It makes sense in our modern context, especially after hanging out in a high school cafeteria or even a college lounge for more than an hour, but it’s just that—context.

30 is the new 15.

People all the way until the last century didn’t live as long as we did. Most of them were dead by the time they hit forty or younger. That means twenty was about middle aged and you had best get to work building empires and fighting battles and making babies before then or the human race was going to go extinct.

When kids rule the world.

Queen Victoria was eighteen when the throne passed to her. The infamous Battle of Crecy provided Edward the Black Prince the chance to lead men and win his spurs at sixteen. Joan of Arc handed the English their backsides and saved her country even though she never reached twenty. Before he got to double digits, a certain Austrian boy was already hashing out melodies on his violin and Isabella the She-Wolf showed remarkable political maneuvering when she was just twelve—enough to get favorites of the king banished.

With this in mind, I see no reason a fantasy character can’t command armies or take a crown or become the most powerful mage their respective world has seen when they just hit mid-teens. When a writer wants to explore certain themes, audiences might cringe and be uncomfortable if the character is what they consider too young, but that does not mean someone younger couldn’t have the same reactions and experiences.

Just to clarify…

I don’t think it has to do with when a person was born, I think it has to do with how they were brought up. (Heck, crazy little me was able to raise a baby donkey by myself at eight. Yes, he survived and lives to bother me to this day.) When children have people around them who expect them to be a grown ups by a certain time, overall they tend to meet those cultural norms. Therefore, I see no reason that epic fantasy heroes/heroines can’t keep on being teenagers.

Because we tend to have much different standards in the Western World today doesn’t mean younger people couldn’t be capable of the grand and glorious deeds that are often attributed to them in fantasy. It depends on the person and it depends on what kind of setting they come from. So long as a writer sets it up properly, I see no reason a character can’t have a whole series in adventures before they’re out of their high school years.

My Rating System: An Explanation

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aristocats, despicable me, doctor who, gid, Harry potter, my review explanation, ratings, reviews

You may notice that there are a lot of 5- and 4-star reviews around here. Very rarely will you see a 3-star and I don’t think I’ve ever posted a 2-star on here. (Maybe one? Not many.)

Now, this does not mean I fall madly in love with the 5- and 4-star books. It is actually very rarely that a book gets me fangirling enough to earn itself a spot on my Shelf of Awesome. Sometimes I give 5 sparkly stars to a book when I know I don’t want to read the sequels (I have also been known to eventually go and gobble up whole series of the books I only gave three).

When I rate a book, I try to give credit where credit is due. Reading is a highly subjective thing and to some degree I try to stay objective. Like many writers, I tend to edit in my head a I read books, but I can turn down the volume on my inner editor enough to enjoy a book with bad mechanics, bad formatting, or even plot holes—so long as it has some other literary qualities I enjoy (such as dragons or pretty much any form of magic). By the same token, I might open a book to find flawless formatting, perfect copyediting, succinct dialogue—but for whatever reason it will just fall flat for me.

Just because I didn’t enjoy a book doesn’t mean I think it was written poorly and just because I enjoyed a book doesn’t mean I think it was written well. For example, Hidden by M. Lathan brought me far less enjoyment than Captured by Erica Stevens, yet I’ll be the first to admit that Hidden was the better book. From an editorial standpoint, the plot was better formed, the formatting was superior, the mechanics were pulled off without a hitch—I just couldn’t get into it the way I did Captured because Captured “clicked” for me and Hidden didn’t.

Certain books “click” for me that don’t “click” for other people and vice versa—that’s just the way it is. I try to take that into account when I write my reviews. I also try to take into account if a book is well written or not. That is why some of my favorites only got four stars and some of the five stars were deleted off my Kindle straightaway.

This is making me sound like a mature, focused reviewer, right? Wrong. There have been rare occasions where I have discounted a book down to 4-stars when the characters made me angry *coughcoughCrownofMidnightcoughcough* and given 5-stars to a book I loved that should have realistically been 3.5-stars. What can I say? I’m still human.

When it comes down to it, I really don’t like writing negative reviews. I really don’t. That’s why my star ratings hover around 4-5—if I enjoyed a book, it seems just rude to give it anything less. If I didn’t enjoy the book, but I think all the mechanics were decent, I still want to acknowledge the good points.

In the dreaded situation that the book fails both standards…well then I close my eyes, give it three stars and do my best not to feel like an evil witch.

Assemble the Minions!

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assemble the minions, despicable me, gru, keep calm, pixar