1. dmdutcher says:

    People groups. Tough question.

    I think my favorite group as a whole are espers. People with psychic abilities. Timothy Zahn had a great concept in A Coming of Age where on another planet, children develop psychic abilities only to lose them at puberty. So the entire society is about guiding and restraining those kids in positive ways till they Transition out of being a danger.

    I also like the concept in the old BBC show The Tomorrow People. The next generation of children are seeing espers pop up in their ranks, and they have to solve problems while avoiding people who want to use them. Very cheesy, but kind of cool, too.

    I think the concept is cool because it in a weird way is related to how we all connect on the internet. Like now you are reading my thoughts on this, as I am yours, regardless of distance. We are all connected, but espers make the connection even closer. I made one of my own in my book Triune, with the character Jamie. He’s more of a physical esper, in that he can do things like manipulate the nervous system and spoof nerve impulses to send his messages and read thoughts instead of it being a psychic thing.

  2. Have you seen the TV program The Listener, David? That’s based on a guy who has psychic ability—actually to hear another person’s thoughts. It also reminds me of Jill Williamson’s Blood of Kings trilogy, with a character gifted to hear other’s thoughts—a gift only found in the royal line.

    It’s interesting to see what writers have done with this concept. Donita Paul gave some of her characters this ability in The DragonKeeper Chronicles.  I don’t remember if it was an entire race or just some individuals. I do know that a dragon and hjs rider had a psychic connection. It’s a pretty powerful tool!

    Stephen Lawhead in his Bright Empires series, which involves a type of time travel (but not really), had a group of prehistoric people who all communicated telepathically, in images rather than in language. It was quite interesting. He created a really beautiful, pacific life for those people. I was sorry when the main character ended up shifting to another place and time.

    Thanks for adding you thoughts to the discussion, David.

    Becky

  3. Tim Frankovich says:

    Comments on the various subjects:

    Bright Empires – the prehistoric part was the best part of the whole series. It was overall disappointing to me, because it was hyped and promoted as “high fantasy” before it began… then it became traveling to “alternate” worlds… which ended up not really being alternate so much as different times. So: time travel. Meh.

    DragonKeeper Chronicles – I loved that Donita Paul spent so much effort to create so many different races. It was an admirable effort. Unfortunately, to me, it never fully paid off. Most of the races seemed very interchangeable, and a particular character’s race never seemed to be all that important for the story. I’ll admit I may not be remembering accurately – part of the problem here was that each time a new book came out, I had to re-learn the races again, because they were so unfamiliar.

    By contrast, the races of Middle-Earth are so familiar to me that it’s hard to imagine “fantasy” without them.

    Also of special note – the hrossa and other races of C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy.

    It’s really hard to think of another one that has made an impression on me.

  4. Tim, thanks for adding your thoughts here. I can’t say I disagree to any of them. I liked the prehistoric part of The Bright Empires the best, also. I thought the main character finally started acting in a way that made me care for him.

    I really liked Donita Paul’s inventiveness, but the seven high and low races, while a good organizing principle for that world, didn’t really hold true and some of the more interesting people groups weren’t counted in the original 14. I don’t think meech dragons were, and their race actually did affect their part of the story quite a bit. I think kimens were also a later add, and their part of the story was absolutely tied to their race.

    Like you, I especially like Lewis’s space trilogy people. I was planning to add them to this article, but it was already getting too long. I was hoping someone else would include them, so I’m especially happy you mentioned them. Really unforgettable.

    Becky

What do you think?