Timescales in fantasy novels

[FionaW]

I'm writing a blog post on this topic, and it's not going very well. I've looked at multi-volume stories that cover a lot of time to start with, and less time in more detail towards the end (I realised, partway through, that LOTR is an example of this). Then there's the story that simply covers a fixed period of time, with few or no gaps.

...then I ran out of ideas.

Any thoughts?

 

[ChrisQ]

Maybe it's just too early in the morning, but I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Are you asking for more examples besides LOTR, how this might be pulled off in your own works, or the difference in timeline gaps and how they might effect a storyline of long duration?

 

[Culhwch]

What about the framing narrative - where there is a framework of story set in one time and place that serves to, well, frame, the main narrative, in another time and place. An example being The Princess Bride, or something like Kim Wilkins' Angel of Ruin.

 

[FionaW]

I'd forgotten Princess Bride! Probably because I've never actually read the book. Does the book do the bit where the boy interrupts his grandfather, who then has to backtrack over the story, or was that an invention for the film?

Yes, that's exactly the sort of thing I meant; any different fantasy novels/trilogies/whatever that do different things with the timeline.

 

[ChrisQ]

Well, if I'm not mistaken, the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L'Engle, did some strange things with timelines, but it's been a long time since I read them. I can't think of any more fantasy books with out of the ordinary timelines, but I have seen jumps back and forth in time through characters. Say character #1 is born in a series and grows up and then in the next book it jumps back to when the character #1 was a teen or young adult. Instead of following time, it follows characters. Character #2 dies in book three, but in book four you get to see the journey character #2 had before he died. I can't think of a fantasy book that does this, but I'm not an avid fantasy reader.

Oh wait! I did think of a book that does strange things with timelines. Stephen King's "It" it jumps back and forth from past to present as the characters start remembering their past that they forgot.

 

[Culhwch]

I'd forgotten Princess Bride! Probably because I've never actually read the book. Does the book do the bit where the boy interrupts his grandfather, who then has to backtrack over the story, or was that an invention for the film?

Yes, that's exactly the sort of thing I meant; any different fantasy novels/trilogies/whatever that do different things with the timeline.

It's been a long time since I read The Princess Bride but I'm fairly certain there was elements of that - though I don't think it was exactly the same. But another example that I can't believe I didn't think of last night - Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind.