Well, Anita has been frozen into Watertown for the night (freezing rain storm!), so I find myself at something of a loss. Hence, an anecdote:
With the new "The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe" movie out, the subject of fantasy came up recently. I haven't seen the movie, and don't really plan to. I have fondish memories of the BBC series, particularly "The Silver Chair" with Tom Baker as the marshwiggle, but I always thought C.S. Lewis' stuff was a little weak. I said as much, and there was some debate on what were the really good fantasy novels out there.
Madeline L'Engle and the venerable Dr. Tolkein were bandied about, and somebody or other expressed a lingering fondness for The Black Cauldron. Watership Down was dismissed as "not really fantasy" by some, which seems silly to me. The most "grown-up" books anyone mentioned were the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, which I despised, and Robert Jordan's ongoing epic, which I've avoided. My list of favorites met with blank looks, for the most part, but I suppose I should expect that by now.
In no particular order:
•Last Call by Tim Powers - although, frankly, everything he's written since The Anubis Gates has been brilliant, and I really, really liked both Expiration Date and On Stranger Tides. If only he didn't write novels so dang slowly.
•Perdido Street Station by China Mieville - stunningly inventive, reading this was like being punched in the gut repeatedly by H.P. Lovecraft and Karl Marx while watching a Terry Gilliam movie
•Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke - only came out last year, but is on my list of favorites already: set in the 1800's, the magic in this book has a lot of neat texture to it
•Rats And Gargoyles by Mary Gentle - possibly the most obscure thing on this list, but well worthwhile. She describes what she writes as "Hermetic science fiction", so obscurity may be what she's aiming for...
•The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll - I think everyone's favorite Jonathan Carroll novel is the first one they read. This one is mine.
I also mentioned Pratchett, who is reliably entertaining, and Neil Gaiman, who none of them had heard of. Startling revelation, that. I held off on bringing up old creakers like Mervyn Peake and E.R.R. Eddison and slowly extracted myself from the conversation. They probably wouldn't be interested in hearing about Jeffrey Barlough, the mutant lovechild of H.P. Lovecraft and Charles Dickens, anyway.
So, um, read anything interesting lately?
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8 comments:
I'm writing a role-playing game, billed in my head as the RPG I wish had been waiting for me when I was 12. It is firmly inspired by young adult fantasy novels, about leaving home with all of your baggage and saving the world.
Books piled up by my desk to read:
Just read The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander.
I am currently reading a more recent YA fantasy novel called Sabriel by Garth Nix, which is pretty nifty.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
Its fun holiday reading.
On to other things:
Jordan's books are nothing that you are missing. I read the first batch through high school and undergrad. When I couldn't plow through the book before last's 100 page Prologue, I put the series down and haven't missed it since.
George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is a series that is insanely popular and also insanely good.
Ooh, they are compiling Robert E. Howard's short stories in fine editions nowadays, those have been fun reading too when I've picked 'em up.
Mike, your book recommendations are always among my favorites and always in line with my own. They are fools not to listen to you. FOOLS! I say!
Happy holidays. Don't be a stranger.
Consider George Martin added to The List.
You know, I hate to admit it, but I've never read any of Robert Howard's stuff. I really should.
And how did I manage to forget to mention Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories? Some of the best sword-and-sorcery out there.
Is Philip Pullman any good? I've heard mixed reviews...
Janaki really liked Pullman, as did a few other close friends. I haven't read it yet but it sits in a pile next to my computer, taunting me with the other books I haven't read yet.
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser...holy shit that is some fun, fun stuff.
I really Like Charles De Lint. I prefer my fantasy grounded in reality - I'm not into series that take place in made-up worlds with made-up races that are practically Earth and human anyway. Charles de Lint write "urban fantasies" - modern fairy stories. Humans who have encounteres with the fae and such. They're pretty cool.
You'd probably really like Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, then, although it's not exactly modern.
I'm sure I've read some de Lint, but nothing's coming to mind at the moment. What's particularly good of his?
I really enjoyed Forests of the Heart and Greenmantle. But he's got several dozen books, and I've read, oh, about five.
I think that Neil Gaiman is the only name on your list I have read.
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