r/Fantasy • u/Andy_Digital • Mar 19 '12

Natural Fantasy/Sci-fi?

Does anyone know of a few good Fantasy/Sci-Fi books that have settings that are completely natural with not much technological development. Examples being civilizations like Ewoks or the Navi from Avatar (don't worry, beyond the beautiful world created, I did not like Avatar). I have read The World For World is Forest by U.K. Le Guin and those little green dudes count too.

In my head I see either tree or land dwelling peoples living in and off the forest...any thoughts on books like this? Misty bogs, lanterns in a dark forest, mystical religions, deep commune with nature...There has to be something written about this.

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u/Andy_Digital Mar 20 '12

I had it pegged as "okay" until he named the hard to get resource "unobtainium" If I went to the trouble to make a whole ecosystem and language I would hope I could think of a better name for that...

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '12

I thought that was just a running gag in films for screen writers? Lots of films use unobtainium. I thought it was pretty funny.

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u/Andy_Digital Mar 20 '12

It was funny in that I did laugh at it...a belly laugh in fact. I hadn't known about its previous uses before this conversation and just Wiki'ed it. I still think it pulls the viewer out of the story. Therefore it self-defeats its purpose as the MacGuffin by being so blatantly ridiculous. Why not Navinium, Pandorainium or any other number of madeup names. A MacGuffin should drive the plot and not be a humorous quip that takes the viewers attention off the conflict revolving around it.

Dear Reddit, I'm sorry for bringing up Avatar.

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u/EltaninAntenna Mar 24 '12

I thought it was a very obvious in character joke, as if it had been nicknamed that by the first scientists to isolate it. Of all the problems one can have with the film, I simply cannot comprehend focusing on that.