Author of The Wycherleys series, Annaliese Avery, sheds light on how fantasy fiction can offer hope to readers – and explores the roots of where modern fantasy all started. A fascinating guest post from one of YA’s top fantasy authors!
by Annaliese Avery
There is a reason why in times of darkness and troubles we turn to fantasy fiction, and it is not just for the escapism but for the light that it shines on complex issues that we find ourselves dealing with in the real world.
When reality is full of issues that we feel too close to and that are too big for us to digest, placing them in a fantasy world can help us shine a light on these dark troubles. Within the epic landscape of a fantasy novel these issues somehow don’t feel as overwhelming, they appear more manageable and by viewing them in a fantastical setting they also feel removed so that we can see them with an objectivity that we can’t when we encounter them in reality,
In the dark days of the early twentieth century, fantasy spread its wings. Writers like Tolkien and Lewis took the broken post war world around them and to make better sense of it all they placed it in a fantasy setting that had enough room for them and their readers to hold these troubles at arm’s length and examine them. Fantasy fiction often feels like past wisdom, truths and knowledge from a time out of time from a people out of our reality – wisdom that is available to us all if we are willing to step through a wardrobe or join a wizard on an adventure.
In the later twentieth century fantasy fiction’s sister, science fiction, did something similar – taking the cold war and threat of nuclear annihilation and placing it in a galactic setting, one with the scope of stars and a wisdom ahead of our time, or from another place entirely, most likely a galaxy far far away.
If history is doomed to repeat itself then science fiction looks ahead at the inevitable repetition and questions is there another way? Do we have to wait till we can trave the stars to find out how to quell the darkness, or could we do it here and now?
Towards the end of the twentieth century, while we were living through a reality of relative peace and stability, another of fantasy fictions sisters, dystopia explored thoughts about this, shining a light on the fragility of peace and progress.
Dystopia spoke mostly in fiction for a young adult audience, specifically young women readers, women who had relatively recently in the grand history of the real world gained their liberty and stepped into their power. These stories where mostly female protagonists looked upon the horrors of a world that did not learn from the past, that suffered the same mistakes or worse, and in these worlds young women like Katniss, Triss, Cassia, to name a few, fought for a better world because the one they found themselves in was not only wanting, but it was fragile and had so far to go in order to be mended.
In the dark days of the early twentieth century, fantasy spread its wings, writers like Tolkien and Lewis took the broken post-war world around them and, to make better sense of it all, they placed it in a fantasy setting.
As we stand at the beginning of the twenty-first century, fantasy fictions youngest sister romantasy is shining brightly. Coming out of a time where COVID restrictions saw us all in need of comfort and company, the need for connection helped to drive the romantasy trope into a genre.
Led mostly but women, read by women and written for women; giving voice to those who would not have been heard as readily as they are today when fantasy and science fiction emerged. (Or course there were female voices in those waves: LeGuin, Atwood, Butler, Wynn-Jones, but the vast majority of the voices in this space were men.) Romantasy writers have created a space for themselves and they are holding it and growing it.
The romance genre has historically been seen as a space for women and by bring it more actively into the fantasy genre we are being given that expansive space to look at the darkness that is growing in our world but also to examine what it is to be a woman. Female leads charge the way with their strength and skill and ability, the fate of the world is on their shoulders as they must restore the magic, bringdown the corrupt king, fly the dragon – even become one, and they must do so while building friendships and saving the boy too.
The light that Romantasy is shining in the darkness of our world shows that we can not only kill the creatures and save the world, but we can save our shadow daddy too – mostly from himself.
After all women have been told for decades that they can have it all, that with a little girl power we can have the career we want, and the homelife too, saving the world on top of this is a small ask.
In a world where women have fought hard to have their voice finally heard, a world where rights are under threat it is no wonder that romantasy with its resonating themes of overcoming oppression, and its strong female character who are giving all they can to save the world as well as their own relationships, strikes a chord with many readers.
We are looking for heroes, and the ones we find in romantasy are real and flawed, they care deeply, they want the same thing we all do, they want to be happy, and they want their family (whatever that looks like) to be safe, and for their world to prosper. Violet Sorrengail, Feyra Archeron, Iris Winnow, Aurelia Wycherley, and so many more are all facing the darkness of their worlds, are all leveraging their skills, and going above and beyond to make their world better, something that we can all resonate with – especially in times like these.
Fantasy fiction provides readers with a light that can be shone in the darkness and with characters that tell us that we can overcome the troubles around us.
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The Wycherleys: Love and Other Curses is OUT NOW and published by Simon & Schuster
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The Wycherleys: Love and Other Curses
For the Kingdom. For the magic. And for love . . .
Aurelia Wycherley has found someone to tether her magic to – her enigmatic former enemy, Jules Nightly. Now, they are heading off to coven college to learn advanced magic. But they are also on a secret mission: to discover the Lost Quarter of the college, create their own coven of twelve and try to discover a way to bring back the Old Magic.
When malevolent magic interrupts their first night at college, Aurelia and Jules discover that Jonathan and his coven of untethered witches has escaped and now they are after her magic, curse and all…
Can they save the magic and the world – or will Aurelia lose her magic for good?
Annaliese Avery
Annaliese Avery has spent most of her life surrounded by stories, both at work as a library manager and at home writing them. She holds an MA in Creative Writing and has worked as a children and young adult book editor, and has taught creative writing workshops across the UK.
She has worked at a global conservation charity, and is a keen amateur astronomer who founded an astronomical society in 2013. In January 2020, Annaliese was shortlisted for the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices 2020 anthology.
Her debut middle-grade novel, The Nightsilver Promise, was released in 2021, followed but The Doomfire Secret in 2022. In 2023 Annaliese’s YA debut The Immortal Games was released. The Wycherleys – Annaliese’s latest YA – was the inaugural Waterstones YA book of the month in May 25.
The Wycherleys: Love and Other Curses is her latest book.
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