(1) GONE IN 60 SECONDS. They did the Monster Mash on Terry Pratchett’s hard drive, fulfilling his request that his unfinished work be destroyed: “Terry Pratchett’s unfinished novels destroyed by steamroller”.
The unfinished books of Sir Terry Pratchett have been destroyed by a steamroller, following the late fantasy novelist’s wishes.
Pratchett’s hard drive was crushed by a vintage John Fowler & Co steamroller named Lord Jericho at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, ahead of the opening of a new exhibition about the author’s life and work.
…The hard drive will go on display as part of a major exhibition about the author’s life and work, Terry Pratchett: HisWorld, which opens at the Salisbury museum in September.
https://twitter.com/BBCEngland/status/902938332052717569
(2) FIFTH HUNDREDTH. StarShipSofa posted its 500th show today, a reading of Harlan Ellison’s Nebula-winning story “How Interesting: A Tiny Man” by George Hrab.
10 years young, StarShipSofa features the best of speculative fiction and fact articles, delivered weekly by host and editor Tony C. Smith, fiction editor Jeremy Szal, and authors, narrators, and contributors from all over the world. Born from the most humble beginnings, StarShipSofa has gone on to present works by legends and rising stars in the field, as well as showcasing new or lesser known voices, diverse authors and stories, and works in translation. Among many highlights over the last decade, StarShipSofa has presented exclusive interviews including Pat Cadigan, Ted Chiang, Ursula K. LeGuin, Samuel R. Delany, and the late Ray Bradbury.
Last week, Show 499 featured Joe Haldeman (Aug 23), and next week Show 501 will air a story by Robert Silverberg (Sept 6).
(3) SERRIED RANKS. Vox Day, in a post otherwise spent cutting down the Game of Thrones TV show and the writing of George R.R. Martin, “Compression and decompression”, includes an irresistible list that ranks the top epic fantasy authors. Does your mileage vary?
Here is how I rank the writers of epic fantasy:
- JRR Tolkien
- Stephen Donaldson (Covenant)
- Margaret Weis & Terry Hickman (Dragonlance)
- David Eddings (Belgariad)
- Glen Cook
- Steven Erikson
- Raymond Feist
- George RR Martin
- Joe Abercrombie
- CS Friedman
- Tad Williams
- Daniel Abraham
- Brandon Sanderson
- R. Scott Bakker
- Mark Lawrence
- Terry Brooks
- Robert Jordan
- Terry Goodkind
Obviously, your mileage may vary, as may what you consider to be “epic fantasy”. I would have Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander, Tanith Lee, and Anne McCaffrey all ranked above Dragonlance, but their work is better categorized in other categories.
(4) IT’S A THEORY. Dragon Con advocates make their case: “5 Reasons You Should Attend Dragon*Con This Year”.
After 31 years, it’s safe to say that Dragon*Con is not a fad. Last Labor Day weekend saw a record 77,000+ attendees roar into the streets of Atlanta, which beat the previous high from 2015. 2017 is on track to break the record yet again, with 82,000+ people expected to attend. By comparison, the Chick-Fil-A kickoff game between Georgia and North Carolina, which was at the Georgia Dome the same weekend last year, drew 75,000 people. It’s no secret that college football in the south is like a religion. Dragon*Con has officially become the go-to place for gamers, sci-fi, fantasy and pop culture fans to convene in the Southeast. Here are 5 reasons why you should attend this year.
- Fan-Centric
Unlike other big conventions around the nation (Comic Con, Wonder Con, etc), Dragon*Con remains the last big “fan-driven” con. Usually corporations sense the success of any event and put their grubby little hands all over it. Then, instead of enjoying yourself, it begins to feel like you’re walking in an ad. Dragon*Con’s popularity has done nothing but balloon over the last few years, but it still feels as fan-centric as when it started. It says a lot when you’re surrounded by 70,000+ other people and yet you still feel the intimacy and care put into each detail of the entire weekend. This factor is crucial for the first time con-goer, because it keeps everything from feeling as overwhelming as it could get.
(5) TESTING, TESTING. Coast-to-coast in half-an-hour? That’s the goal: “Anyone for the Hyperloop? Testing high-speed pods in a vacuum tube”.
“Guys, this is getting awkward,” billionaire Elon Musk told a group of students from Switzerland as they struggled to control their Hyperloop pod.
If all goes well, their pod would eventually travel at more than 700mph (1,120km/h), propelling people between Los Angeles and San Francisco in half an hour, instead of six hours in a car or an hour-long flight.
But this is early days and the students are testing their pod for the first time on a nearly mile-long vacuum tube track outside Mr Musk’s office in Hawthorne near Los Angeles.
They’d lost connectivity. The vacuum needs to be unsealed and the pod fiddled with. Then the vacuum must be resealed and all the air inside pumped out. Revolutionising transport takes time
… None went even close to 700mph, but the winners, German’s Warr team from the Technical University of Munich, blew away the competition.
“Congratulations to the Warr team,” Mr Musk said as the crowd of students applauded. “That was an amazing job. That pod just went 324km/h, over 200mph.”
(6) SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW. The BBC says “Cassini hints at young age for Saturn’s rings”.
The spectacular rings of Saturn may be relatively young, perhaps just 100 million years or so old.
This is the early interpretation of data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft on its final orbits of the giant world.
The same article includes the precise time the probe is expected to break up. A little over two weeks from now.
Cassini is scheduled to make only two more close-in passes before driving itself to destruction in Saturn’s atmosphere on 15 September.
The probe is being disposed of in this way because it will soon run out of fuel. That would render it uncontrollable, and mission managers at the US space agency Nasa do not want it crashing into – and contaminating – moons that could conceivably host microbial lifeforms.
Cassini will melt and be torn apart as it dives into the planet’s gases at over 120,000km/h. Controllers will know the probe has been destroyed when Earth antennas lose radio contact, which is expected to occur at 11:54 GMT (12:54 BST; 07:54 EDT; 04:54 PDT) on Friday 15 September.
(7) TODAY’S DAYS
Frankenstein Day
The crackle of electricity, and the patter of rain drops on the stone walls and terracotta roof give an eerie feeling when combined with the dank laboratory that houses various experiments. Give yourself a bit of liquid courage, and step forward to embrace a little bit of darkness in Frankenstein Day.
Slinky Day
The Slinky was originally designed and sold in the 1940s. The inventor had accidentally knocked a spring off the shelf, and watched it ‘walk’ down a series of books, to a tabletop, and then to the floor where it neatly coiled itself. The creator, Richard James, had gone home to his wife Betty and said “I think if I got the right property of steel and the right tension, I could make it walk. ” It took the better part of a year, but he had done it. Making 400 Slinky units with a five hundred dollar loan, James and his wife had founded a company to make, and sell, this unique toy to the masses.
(8) TIPTREE FELLOWSHIPS. Applications are being taken for this year’s Tiptree Fellowships until September 15. The $500 grants are given to emerging creators “who are changing the way we think about gender through speculative narrative.”
Tiptree Fellows can be writers, artists, scholars, media makers, remix artists, performers, musicians, or something else entirely; so far our Fellows have been creators of visual art, poetry, fiction, and games.
The Tiptree Fellowship is designed to provide support and recognition for the new voices who are making visible the forces that are changing our view of gender today. The Fellowship Committee particularly encourages applications from members of communities that have been historically underrepresented in the science fiction and fantasy genre and from creators who are creating speculative narratives in media other than traditional fiction
Applicants will need to write short responses to two questions and to share a sample of their work. The guidelines are at this link.
The 2017 Tiptree Fellowships selection committee is Gretchen Treu (chair), Mia Sereno, Porpentine Charity Heartscape, and Pat Schmatz.
(9) OTHER COVENANTS. ChiZine Publications has opened a call for submissions for Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People, by award-winning writers and editors Andrea D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum. Contributors already confirmed include science fiction grand masters Harry Turtledove and Jack Dann.
Boy Eating
Other Covenants is now open to submissions of short fiction, through Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018, at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Submissions must be between 1,000 and 10,000 words in length, and may be in English or French (the book will be published in English and authors will be responsible for translations). Original stories are preferred, but the editors will consider reprints of significant works on a case-by-case basis. Payment will be 8 cents (Canadian funds) per word. Authors may be from anywhere in the world and do not need to be Jewish.
Full submission guidelines and the online submission system are here.
(10) TEQUILA! He knows how to set up the perfect shot – whether in the studio or at the bar: “Film Director Guillermo del Toro’s Exclusive Tequila Project”.
Patrón Tequila just released a special edition that you helped create. Can you tell me about the project?
“The idea was to create a centerpiece and make the tequila the centerpiece of the centerpiece. It’s a shrine. And I think it looks beautiful as the centerpiece of any bar.”
How long did it take you to design the intricate bottle and case?
“You know we went through many permutations. In total, the whole adventure took three and a half years. First the idea was a reliquary but reliquary for me is too European and I thought altar. And we started thinking of a journey narratively for the box. First and foremost, the box is covered in a black suede with a silver skull. You start with black and then you open it and you see the box, which depicts all the stages of the processing of tequila, which is being done by skeletons to signal the ancestral tradition. Then all of a sudden you go from black to that beautiful two-dimensional box and then you open the wings and you reveal huge color and three-dimensions. You end up having a journey. You have votive candles that you can light. It’s a very beautiful piece.”
The maker’s website has a photo-filled display about how Del Toro came up with the design, and how all the components look, both in and out of the box.
(11) FANDOM AT THE GALLOP. The 18th issue of Rich Lynch’s personal fanthology My Back Pages is now online at the efanzines.com website.
Issue #18 notes my absence from both this year’s Worldcon and NASFiC, and has essays involving colonial debates, rescued conventions, curated fanzine collections, golden domes, long escalators, large aquariums, famous domiciles, notable science fiction fans, extinct stadiums, lingering controversies, divine ideas, memorable encounters, autographed books, enigmatic composers, 50-year reunions, fuel-efficient vehicles, personal records, motorcycle rallies, art museums, scenic sunsets, medieval cathedrals, and lots of snow-covered mountainous terrain.
(12) WHAT GOES UP. Another theory to explain dinosaur extinction: a “reverse gravitational event.” Proposed by James Propp at BAHFest East 2017.
(13) MUST COME DOWN. The Hollywood Reporter remembers “That Time on ‘Batman’ When Alfred Fought the Joker”.
And with it being made clear in the new Justice League trailer (which already has more than 23 million views on YouTube) that Jeremy Irons’ incarnation will once again take a more hands-on role with Batman’s adventures, it is time to look back at the heroics of the first live-action Alfred, played by Alan Napier.
Napier, who died in 1988 at the age 85, appeared as Alfred in all 120 episodes of the 1960s Batman television series.
And of all that character’s most memorable moments, the top one has to be when he fought The Joker (Cesar Romero), who forced his way into Wayne Manor with a hostage in the season two episode, “Flop Goes The Joker.” The best part of the three-minute clip is when Alfred and The Joker sword fight with fire[place] pokers.
[Thanks to JJ, John King Tarpinian, Cat Eldridge, Daniel Dern, Mark-kitteh, IanP, Rich Lynch, and Alan Baumler for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Soon Lee.]
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Ticky
3) Yeah, I would not have the Dragonlance books anywhere near my list of top “epic fantasy” authors. And my list would be quite different (as well as my definition of “epic”). For example, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Patricia McKillip would be there.
[and godstalk]
@1, my husband the net-admin says that the hard drive shown is an IDE which hasn’t been used in years. So maybe there’s a more modern drive out there…? (Or maybe he hadn’t updated his computer in some time.)
<edit to add> Sacrificial fourth….
(1) GONE IN 60 SECONDS.
I’m a little sad about this.
(3) SERRIED RANKS.
Given the high placement of Dragonlance, I wonder if he’s re-read them recently, or is he going by teenage memories of reading them.
ETA: Woohoo! Fifth! & Title Credit too!
2) If anyone’s curious: it took me two hand-written letters and a (very lengthy) phone call with Harlan Ellison to convince him to sell us the short story (audio reprint) rights. I initially doubted he’d fork ’em over, considering how protective he is off his work and he’s scarcely (if ever) reprinted in modern online venues, but he was very eager to proceed by the end.
I’ll say this, though: the man sure lives up to his reputation. The word “asshole” was said at least half a hundred times, and he might have threatened to kill me if I botched the story production. Age hasn’t slowed the bloke down in the slightest.
(1) No posthumous collaborations for Pterry. A part of me is sad for Pratchett scholars, but a part of me is also shouting, “Great news!”
Is VD a time traveling 14-year old from 1988? Because that’s what his top 4 suggests.
I’m behind on these, but here is my review for Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey.
@Nerds of a Feather: That would explain a lot.
@3: I would invert most of that list (except for leaving the last 3 at the bottom, based mostly on the fact that what I’ve read about them makes me unwilling to read them). However, I disagree with @Rob Thornton’s additions; maybe some of Howard (whom I’ve read only bits of), but McKillip and Le Guin are personal scale rather than epic, and Leiber is generally closer to personal than epic.
@Chip Hitchcock
I can agree to strike out Leiber and maybe Howard, but I believe that McKillip’s Riddle Masters of Hed and the Earthsea series are more than epic enough. Ged has to repair a hole in the wall between life and death, for goodness’ sake! But there’s definitely room for disagreement over the definition of “epic.”
So Mr. Beale thinks that the Dragonlance authors are in the top five of all time…but he doesn’t think well enough of them to, you know, remember their names. It’s Tracy Hickman, not Terry.
(No, I never read them, and I didn’t go looking it up either. That’s just the way my brain works.)
More epic fantasy writers. As in more epic than most of the writers on VD’s list: Robert E. Howard, Michael Shea, Michael Moorcock, Poul Andersen, Gene Wolfe, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Diana Paxson, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Karl Edward Wagner, David Drake, Samuel R. Delany, David Gemmell, P. C. Hodgell (Godstalk!), Steven Brust, Emma Bull, Patrick Rothfuss, Jennifer Roberson, Barbara Hambly, Robin Hobb, Katharine Kerr, Jay Lake, China Mieville, Elizabeth Moon, Martha Wells, Max Gladstone, and last but not least, N. K. Jemisin. I’m sure I’m missing several others.
@4: That’s too many people. And what is that whiff of “there are only commercialized cons and Dragon*Con.” Pop that bubble!
@7 a: Appropriate music.
@7 b: At the age of 12, having spent truly ridiculous amounts of time trying to get a Slinky to “walk,” it takes precise stepwise gradations (I still own a metal Slinky. Somewhere) to work.
Speaking of Vox, this continues to be hilarious https://stevejwright.wordpress.com/2017/08/29/a-throne-of-bones-world-tour-in-chapters-6-11/
@Camestros
And the list above helps explain quite a lot of Throne of Bones 🙂
(3) SERRIED RANKS
That list has quite a strong correlation with what I liked at age 14 or so. Admittedly that’s the Golden Age of Epic Fantasy, but even so….
Dragonlance was undoubtedly seminal, just for the sheer number of people who read it and were influenced by it, but unfortunately it’s not actually that good. Eddings and Feist have probably suffered the worst from the suck fairy though. (Although as discussed quite a few Scrolls ago, Feist’s “…of the Empire” books with Wurts still stand up pretty well)
(1) GONE IN 60 SECONDS
Given that pterry was a techhead who probably learned the “multiple backups” lesson pretty early, I doubt that that was the hard drive, more a symbolic sacrificial victim.
Mind you, my PCs tend to include the harddrive from the last one, and the one before that, etc etc, purely down to my laziness in sorting out my filing system.
Doesn’t it just! That and war gaming.
I will just duck in, mention E.R. Eddison and C.L. Moore, and duck out again… oh, wait, we could argue for William Morris’s works as foundational or precursors of epic fantasy (can’t say I’m a huge fan of Morris as a writer, but there’s no denying his significance to the early formation of the genre.)
3) That’s the sort of list, as Mark mentioned above, I might have made a couple of decades back. 1990 me might have made such a list.
Also, sausage fest, much?
(3) I wonder what VD manages to appreciate in Tanith Lee’s writings? Also, Your Epic Fantasy May Vary.
(4) I think the author of the piece simply isn’t that knowledgable about fandom and con culture. Though at the 20,000+ person level, Dragon Con is the only fan-driven con. Not because it’s the last, but it’s the only one which has managed to reach that size.
@Paul Weimer: The sausage fest was sort of a given, given that source.
@Paul Weimer
Hey, he managed to include one and a half women, which is more than I expected. Though maybe he doesn’t know about C.S. Friedman.
I think the most surprisingly thing about (3) is how … unsurprising it is. My own list wouldn’t be that much different, although yes, Weis/Hickman would be much lower (I reread the Dragonlance Chronicles a few years ago and even a very heavy patina of nostalgia can only do so much; I do plan on rereading Dragonlance Legends at some point, though, and I think that’s a much more interesting trilogy). I’d also add Eddison and maybe William Morris and Guy Gavriel Kay. Oh, and Jacqueline Carey! And almost certainly Kate Elliott, at least once I’ve read some of her bigger series — so far I’ve only read the first two Court of Fives novels, both of which I enjoyed immensely.
Oh, oh, oh! And Elizabeth Bear’s Eternal Sky trilogy belongs on any such list!
Duh. And also Jemisin, of course.
4: there’s something a bit “unfannish” about touting your numbers as the primary appeal.
Can’t miss out C J Cherryh’s Morgaine cycle either.
@IanP Re: Morgaine: but there you hit boundary problems again. Is it more Sword and Sorcery? Science Fantasy (given its in the SFnal Alliance-Union universe)?
1) I’m a bit puzzled that this is happening now, so many months after his passing away.
And I’d probably swap out Raymond Feist for Janny Wurts, after careful consideration. And I wonder if I could work Jo Clayton and/or Jane Gaskell into the list somewhere?
Anyone can make a list. Everyone will be different. Its just that the list is by VD, and must be argued with.
For however much it’s worth, only two writers have ever popularized fantasy fiction to the point where they have an audience of ‘casuals’ to go along with the hardcore fantasy readers/viewers, who will read and view everything. Tolkien and Martin.
To make a comic book comparison, prior to the big movie explosion, Iron Man and Captain America and Green Arrow might have had plenty of comic book fans, but everyone knew who Batman and Superman were. To me, that is what differentiates Tolkien and Martin now from the rest of the fantasy field. People can quibble about what their favorite fantasy works might be, but there’s no argument about which two writers have been the most influential.
Bookworm, I’m guessing it has to do with a) Probate and b) the timing of the Exhibition.
@Ultragotha & Bookworm: I understand it was also down to logistics — the difficulty of actually finding someone who a) owned or had access to an actual steamroller and b) was willing to drive over a computer hard drive with it.
Influential fantasy writers: has Lord Dunsany been forgotten?
@Paul Weimer
But, there’s taverns and snow, and everything. It must be fantasy…
Dunsany: No, not forgotten — he remains one of my favorites. But this particular list said epic fantasy, which I don’t quite regard him as.
(And if we did broaden the net like that, then I’d certainly want spaces for Clark Ashton Smith and C.L. Moore (whom I know was mentioned elsewhere above).)
Robert Whitaker Sirignano on August 31, 2017 at 6:30 am said:
Most lists make good discussion pieces, which is why you see them often and are often argued about as people about placement, relevance, etc. Which is why they’re used by many sites for all sorts of topics for generating discussion.
I mean it doesn’t help that the person who wrote this particular list crap slinging poop-gibbon who tries to project himself as an authority in SFF.
My own list would include Melanie Rawn (Dragon Star/Prince), Pratchett (Discworld), Brent Weeks (Night Angel/Lightbringer), NK Jemisin (Broken World), Robin Hobb (Farseer & multiple series), Zelazny (Amber), Brian McClellan (Powder Mage), Robert Jackson Bennett (The Divine Cities), Rowling (Potter), Andrej Sapkowski (The Witcher, more for the world than the writing really), Clive Barker (Imajica), Butcher (Codex Alera, surprised not to see Day list him), Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastards), RA Salvatore (still like the Drizzt books). Of course you gotta through Homer in there can’t get much more epic than Illiad and the Odyssey.
His list does include many that had a lot of impact on the genre though and if he was just judging by some of the top people who’ve influenced the genre I can see the reasoning behind a lot of the picks even if I wouldn’t put them at the top of my own list of where I’d rank their quality. But Tolkien, Williams, Jordan, Abercrombie, and Sanderson are tastes he and I share.
More shocked that no author who writes fantasy on his vanity press made it, I guess they don’t write epic enough fantasy.
idontknow on August 31, 2017 at 6:47 am said:
Stephen King’s The Gunslinger is considered fantasy and I suspect fairly well known by the casual reader.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is epic! It even has epic in the title.
Matt Y on August 31, 2017 at 7:42 am said:
Definitely Homer – his stuff even has fanfic!
Orlando Furioso! It has the same complete disregard for geography and other cultures that we’ve come to know and love from other books on the list!
The Morgaine books may be epic, but they are clearly SF — post-holocaust, superstition-in-the-ruins SF (cf Nelson Bond, or “By the Waters of Babylon” (recently discussed by @Nicoll’s youthful readers), but the driver of the series is shutting down tech that made a hash of reality. Consider it her take on Clarke’s Third Laws.
re the disk crushing — I’m sure there were plenty of steamrollers around; the UK has roads needing repair, even if they aren’t as temperature-cycled as in much of North America. Getting someone to use such a machine publicly (or even bring it out of storage) would have been difficult (i.e., expensive); using a named antique at the steam festival was a touch of style. (Finding a machine named “Lady Margaret” would have been more stfnal, but I wouldn’t bet that one exists.)
I am fascinated by how widely some people are drawing the line for epic fantasy; I think it requires a cast of thousands (even if most of them are spear-carriers), but as we’re not the Dragon Awards each Filer can draw their own lines without claiming some overarching validity. My only caution would be that people who “don’t like epic fantasy” shouldn’t automatically steer clear of all the names on these lists.
Chip
I take it as fantasy that spans multiple titles that typically involves the fate of the world or at least the fate of several nations, which would include a lot of spear carriers. Like my listed above, Dragon Prince/Star involves a death toll so high that the summaries of the prior novels are done with a list of who died. Codex Alera starts with local kingdoms and then encompasses entire nations. Lightbringer, Powder Mage, The Divine Cities involve the Gods or equivalent actively taking sides of a conflict that span the world. The Broken Earth features the death of thousands an more and is on a planetary level.
I mean Odysseus went on a 3 hour tour that involved mostly just his crew but I’d consider it fairly epic.
Re Eddings and Feist: Imho the best series of these authors were their first ones. Eddings especially suffered when he extended his series from retconning the previous books. I found Feist far superior and he would have made my list. I especially like his realistic feel about battles. But his books became a bit much later.
Moorcock clearly is an oversight, his shared universe is epic (if somewhat strange)
I have fond memories of many series from Weis/Hickman, but Dragonlance wasnt their best work. It was their first TMK and it shows (even if the original series were better than the later Dragonlancebooks). I think my favorite was the sovereign stone triology.
I never got into Earthsea. The first three books never did it for me. Same Terry Brooks.
I do like Sanderson for their magic systems.
Nobody these days actually uses *steam* rollers for day to day road mending, the devices used by the relevant local authority will be diesel engined for the most part. Actual steam rollers turn up at Steam Fairs during the nicer months, though such events are often held in fields so one problem may have been finding somewhere with a hard surface so the drive won’t just be pushed into the mud…
If we’re having Orlando Furioso, we should probably have Tirant lo Blanc as well. (But we’re perilously close to dragging in heroic literature like the Song of Roland, and from there it’s just a step to the Morte d’Arthur, and before you know it, you’re on the hard stuff – Norse sagas. It’s a slippery slope, I’m telling you.)
If body count is a criterion, then K.J. Parker’s Engineer trilogy needs to be on the list.
If you think the list is being debated on qualitative grounds only because Beale made it, you don’t know File 770. That kind of list is our catnip. It’s actually one of the only times Beale could get attention around here for something other than an obnoxious provocation.
I think you’ll find that commenters at this site will discuss/argue this sort of list no-matter who comes up with it. Have you met the File770 brackets?
Epic: Eddison’s (sp?) The Worm Orouboros? There were millions of people in that.
Steve Wright
I’m not sure the sagas count as epic, especially since most of the surviving ones are Icelandic. (Just reread Njal’s Saga a couple of weeks ago to celebrate actually visiting Thingvellir in Iceland. Yay. Bucket list item!) Maybe magical realism with a high body count?
Considering I first encountered Njal’s Saga in a college course called “Justice and Equity in Literature and Law” it may be a bad example.