…should have been the first line of the book. It isn’t. If I’d started in the midst of prehistory I’d never have got where I wanted to go.

Fantasy stories are prone to have a past. Tolkien started it (1). Indeed, the Tolkien mould is very much the standard fantasy fare even now. The Tolkien past is a two-stage piece of combustion. Firstly, the mythic past, secondly the historic past, so…

(A) There is a glorious golden age when gods walk the land, magic is cheaper than toffee (2) and everything is lovely.

(B) Then the gods go away, there is still magic, but it’s nasty (3). A dark lord and his minions try to take over the world. They are defeated, so everyone thinks.

© When the book starts nobody really believes any of it but, oh, don’t look now, the dark lord’s back with more minions. (4)

There you go: potted fantasy backstory. Yeah, I’m not doing that. No gods (5). No ancient dark lord. Monster insects. Prehistory. Because some fantasy novels have a prehistory, rather than a mythology. Perhaps the most obvious example is Erikson, whose Malazan Book of the Dead has an extremely complex and relevant world prehistory, including the evolution of humankind, as well as a mythology. So far, so ingenious.

In the mists of prehistory, therefore, there arose the monster insects (6). For a mankind still in the stone age, for any decent-sized vertebrate, you’ve got to admit, that’s quite some challenge.

Next: Insects in Eden

(1) Try saying that to your parents, teacher or boss next time you screw up.

(2) I mean pretty cheap, nasty toffee, too. None of that fancy chocolatier stuff. Magic is still cheaper than that.

(3) More of a liquorice kind of thing I guess.

(4) And the bottom’s fallen out of the toffee market, like as not.

(5) No gods? What sort of a fantasy show are you running here? No gods? No evil priests? No temples of abomination? No. Not really. My lot just aren’t the religious types, sorry.

(6) And to hell with the square-cube rule.