I’ve just read a fantasy series that I can’t possibly recommend. And yet…
(As always, in such cases, I will suppress identifying information to the best of my ability — that’s not the point of this discussion.)
To set the context of the story: a modern business man has ended up in a medieval-ish fantasy world in the body of a young boy (is there anything magic and a deity can’t do?) and proceeds from there to try and fit in while he hides what has happened. In the process, he starts to build businesses to take advantage of gaps in goods and services, generally earning money and prospering while still presenting as a quite odd young man.
The “build business” aspect is what appealed to me, and indeed the larger plot does operate as something of a business “cozy”.
Still, this is also supposed to be a generic medieval-ish fantasy. And I have standards even for Kindle Unlimited Indie publications that this was failing to meet. Bigtime. It’s saturated with issues. Some are the apparent lack of any editor’s attention: lots of typos, for example, but also lots of confused word choices (not the term she meant, but close enough to guess at it.) Spelling, grammar, agreement, complex sentence structures … they’re all at risk.
Worse than that, modern terms have a way of wandering into this world without notice. A character walks into a medieval bakery and asks someone to “hand him a water”. There’s a decoration described in authorial voice as resembling a “smiley face”. A sarcastic reply wonders “Is that what we’re going on with?” Someone wonders whether anyone will “provide a ride”.
Worst of all, there is a severe lack of understanding of how an awful lot of things work. Horses, for example… one doesn’t go shopping for “horse feed” at the end of a day where you’ve been riding through meadows, nor do you carry unnecessary heavy objects on your riding horse when you’re accompanying a carriage with room to spare or pulling a cart. (I swear, no load is enough for these horses to notice). And then there are the poorly conceived/understood guilds, cities, processes like distillation, and so forth.
Being a tad irritated at why I was still reading this series, even for free, I paused and went and read reviews (having failed to do so initially) to see if I was the only one. (And that’s why I was moved to write about this here.) Though the reviewers of various series entries made note of the evident editorial absence, it wasn’t something they dwelt on as important by and large. The reason they were reading through the series was that they found the story… satisfying. And the terms they used were the sorts of things one sees in reviews of cozy romances, where nothing’s too seriously at risk, good or bad, and happy endings are bound to occur eventually. It’s a quality I associate with a Xianxia Cultivation fantasy like Beware of Chicken.
And you know what? They were right. It was the same reason I kept reading the darn thing. The incompetence of the execution continued to irritate me, but I, too, wanted to find out what would eventually happen, no matter how low the stakes. It goes to show you what can matter in storytelling to the reader may not be what you’re focused on when you write.
When I write fantasy series I’m hard on my characters (and competent in my grammatical constructions) — and I don’t write cozies (though the characters do get to relax sometimes). But that’s not a sneer — I certainly read cozies, in the genres which support them, with pleasure. The existing reviewers of the series under discussion here were certainly not troubled by the things that irritated me (different reading imperatives). It makes me consider the implications of that for my own stories, that there may be a need for more seizing-of-the-moment cozy scenes to satisfy a wider audience than I had quite considered.
Where does your writing typically fall on the “cozy” scale? Is it central to your efforts, at least some of the time? genre-specific? Why do you think cozies are so effective? I suspect it’s because it induces trust in the readers that nothing too terrible will happen, no sudden deaths or unshakable disappointments, the way you learn that you can trust the content of children’s stories. And that makes the readers more forgiving, perhaps, when they encounter infelicities of expression.
Mad Genius Club 
11 responses to “Consider the Coziness…”
I definitely think it’s the comfort issue that makes them so attractive. I remember reading a lighthearted mystery series after recuperating from surgery, which made me think “I want to write the kind of book that people read when they’re ill or going through a stressful time.”
And a business cozy genre is intriguing! I think that may be why so many cozy mysteries have the MC running some sort of business (antique shop, etc) – though generally not much attention is given to the business in those cases, it just magically runs itself unless the business details relate to the plot in some way or to provide breathing space for the suspense.
Cozy . . . you know, I think I do, inside, well, several really poisonous societies. Friends and families, building. I seem to do a lot of fixing up old houses and building good families . . . hmm . . .
Yes Pam, you do. And your lower stakes books are some of my favorites.
*Wags paw* I’d say not very well, because of the mayhem and darkness. But my characters are also courting, marrying, chasing toddlers, sighing at teenagers, doting over grand kids, and buying home furnishings. So …
“The reason they were reading through the series was that they found the story… satisfying. And the terms they used were the sorts of things one sees in reviews of cozy romances, where nothing’s too seriously at risk, good or bad, and happy endings are bound to occur eventually.”
YES! Yes. This is why I’m doing what I’m doing, the way I’m doing it.
Yes the world may be at risk from Eldritch Forces We Know Naught Of, or scary alien creatures, or evilbad humans that need a hearty kicking. But the giant tanks and robot girlfriends are on OUR side, and there are lippy robot spiders wisecracking at the bad guys as they deliver 10K rounds per minute at 10K feet per second.
The characters don’t get bent out of shape by what’s going on, they just keep on paying attention to what’s important in life: smooching George, pushing each other over, and bragging rights.
Took a peek at Beware Of Chicken, that looks fun. ~:D
There are a bunch of these in anime lately. “The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army was a Human”, “That Time I Was Reincarnated As A Slime” and particularly “I Was Headhunted To Another World” which is very close to the story you’re mentioning here.
I think it’s a thing. I hope so anyway, given that I’m doing it. ~:D
It requires careful juggling to avoid the hobbits who are more concerned about Mr. Baggins giving up Bag End than the tales of trolls and monsters.
About the only really irate comment I’ve ever gotten was some Amazon reviewer who gave Unfair Advantage a two-star. He was quite angry that the nerd gets the girl. He was also angry that Ginny Westland doesn’t immediately dump George when he turns into a troll with a head like a pony.
Most other reviewers said some variation on “finally, a story that’s not depressing!” I get the feeling there are a lot of readers out there very done with dark themes and anti-heroes.
If you’re looking for more ‘cozy’ anime, you might try ‘Welcome To Japan, Ms. Elf’.
An ordinary salaryman has recurring dreams about a fantasy world. One night while exploring a dungeon with an elf, they both get roasted by a dragon. Just like always, he wakes up back in his apartment in Tokyo. UNlike ever before, the elf is there too. He shows her around Japan, in between their hopping back and forth between worlds.
Excellent recomendation. ~:D
Currently in WIP I have Hela, Queen of the Underworld, visiting Midgard.
““You are the one to say, James Carlson,” Hela continued sternly. “This is not Niflheim. This is Midgard. Here, I am a visitor. Beatrice is clearly a barbarian, we cannot expect her to behave properly.”
“Oh please,” scoffed Beatrice and gave her a friendly shove. “You’re loving having me around.” Hela shoved her back but smiled a little. She did love having cheeky Beatrice around.
“This is nuts,” complained Jimmy. “I am not qualified to be telling you what to do,” he said seriously to Hela. “Really.”
“This is your world,” she countered, raising an eyebrow at him. “In this place you know every path and pitfall. I am as a new lamb, rambunctious and carefree. Ignorant of the perils that await.”
“But you’re Hela!” he objected.
“Yes I am, and who had to teach mighty Hela how to cross the street the other day?” she countered. “You did. While Beatrice giggled, as I recall.”
“That was comedy gold!” Beatrice laughed. “You were getting ready to do battle with the traffic. Then the cars all stopped, and you were shocked. Bwaha, what a riot!”
Me? Not really. I tend to range from personal to kingdom-sized stakes, but even when the person is not in danger of death — Never Comment On A Likeness or Were I You — the stakes are really too high for cozy.
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