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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Favourite classic fantasy novels
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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
Neil Gaiman's Stardust is actually a rather good recommendation for postmodern fantasy.
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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
The other thing you could hardly fail at is to select from the list of winners of the World Fantasy Award. Some really sterling works there: REPLAY, by Ken Grimwood ("Groundhog Day" before there was the movie). THE PRESTIGE, by Christopher Priest (Victorian magicians duel -- added bonus, a movie version starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, and, OMG, David Bowie as Nicola Tesla).
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
It sounds as though I might be filing it [Boneland] with Red Shift.
I would file it with Thursbitch, which, speaking of modern fantasy, is another in the same mould as Boneland that bears re-reading and close scrutiny but is a disturbing book to read.
quote:
Have you read Strandloper? I have that waiting as well.
I went off Garner after reading Boneland and Thursbitch. They're very clever novels, but difficult to like.
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
Niminypiminy,
What do you mean by romance? That there be a romantic element or that it be a Romance Novel with wizards and dragons?
If the former, you will not find much better than The King of Efland's Daughter.
If the latter, you may struggle to find anything decent. And what little there is will likely be in the YA category.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Tch. There are some profoundly romantic fantasy novels, written specifically to straddle the genres. The great Anne McCaffrey was the one of the earliest writers to do this; her RESTOREE specifically tried to do both things. CURSE OF CHALION is deliciously romantic, or you could move onto Bujold's Sharing Knife series, also specifically designed to be both romance and fantasy.
Here is an entire page of suggestions from Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/genres/fantasy-romance
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
I did say decent didn't I?
![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
Alright, I will have to admit a bias against romance novels in general.* Adding swords and magic doesn't change this.
And I consider McCaffrey to be YA.
*In general, there is good in nearly every genre.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
Would Lanark count as fantasy? Or would it now the term exists, be classed a Magic Realism?
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Niminypiminy
Shipmate
# 15489
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Posted
These are fascinating questions -- and the kind that the course is intended to raise. What is a genre -- how elastic is the term romance? what's the overlap between romance and other genres? And romance is particularly interesting because at all stages of its development it's been derided. The argument I'm making is that latterly the genre of romance has bifurcated, becoming romance fiction on the one hand, and fantasy on the other -- both of these genres draw from the conventions and themes of earlier romances.
To put this in context, the course starts with medieval romances of various kinds, the Winter's Tale, then The Female Quixote (C18th novel about the dangers of reading romances), Phantastes, Woolf's Orlando and then a Mills&Boon or Harlequin, and ending up with Bridget Jones's Diary. The fantasy novel will come somewhere in the last third.
So many of the novels mentioned will pick up on themes from throughout the course. In fact there are so many excellent suggestions I am now considering proposing a course on fantasy...
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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
That sounds ambitious.
The problem with 'romance' as a genre term is that the development of the novel is bound up with the ostensible rejection of the romance form while being heavily indebted to it. Think obviously of Tom Jones as a comic romance, or Richardson's Pamela named after one of the princesses in Sidney's Arcadia, or the complex attitude that Northanger Abbey has to the Mysteries of Udolpho. If romance is what the novel defines itself against, then romance is as broad as the novel itself, since novels mostly define themselves against other novels. (I don't know whether one can even make the same distinction in French as one does in English.)
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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
If LOTR is too long, then you're going to have issues with a lot of the classics because so many of them are series of books rather than single novels.
I'm quite a fan of Stephen Donaldson myself, but I'm not sure I could recommend Lord Foul's Bane as a stand-alone book, and any of the later of his fantasy books might not make a great deal of sense on its own.*
Oh heck. I could recommend Lord Foul's Bane, actually, as a kind of anti-fantasy fantasy. I just don't think it's the best of the series. But it's still better than a lot of other stuff.
It would certainly raise a lot of questions about genre. I actually first read it, or tried to read it, aged about 13 because it was sitting in the high school library with the other fantasy and sci fi books. Clearly, the librarians had no idea it involves a rape scene quite early on. They just lumped all of it together, with a thoroughly adult book stuck next to the silly David Eddings stuff (I tried Eddings several years later, and my God did it seem childish after Donaldson).
*Plus the finest work of his that I've read is his SF series, rather than fantasy.
[ 19. June 2014, 22:56: Message edited by: orfeo ]
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
Everybody else has already covered anything I might have suggested, but it might be worth reading the list of Fantasy Masterworks published by Gollancz. There's some good stuff on there, apart from those works already mentioned.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Yes, there has been a change in the meaning of the word over about the last hundred years or so. Certainly between the wars when you said a novel was a romance it had a clear sense of adventure, buckles being swashed, and action. Love might come into it, but that was only a part of the mosaic. Works might include THE THREE MUSKETEERS, or KING SOLOMON'S MINES, or SHE, even KIM. All the works of John Buchan were romances.
The word -now- tends to mean what we might unkindly term bodice rippers. Works that revolve mainly around a romantic relationship, everything else second to that. The Romance Writers of America have a clear definition of the term (it's on their web site), and among the other requisites is a happy ending, either Happily Ever After (HEA) or Happy For Now (HFN). A work that does not have HEA or HFN cannot be a romance novel. If you write such a work, it cannot be published as romance; if you publish such a work and say it is a romance novel the readers complain bitterly.
You can see that the two meanings of the term can, but do not necessarily, overlap. There are many works that fully meet both criteria, and there are many works that not only meet both criteria but also take in the conventions of SF or mystery or Westerns or horror. Much, MUCH time can be wasted talking to people who are thinking of one while you are thinking of the other.
So your first task might be to fix upon which definition of the word you are working with. (I would get it into the course description as well so that the students will know what they're getting, and to save yourself time.)
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Alaric the Goth
Shipmate
# 511
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Posted
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock is rather good, though I didn't like/finish the sequel, Lavondyss
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
The Phoenix and The Mirror by Avram DAvidson is wonderful, although the romantic relationship in it is not central and not a good one. The book may be hard to find.
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Niminypiminy
Shipmate
# 15489
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Dafyd:
That sounds ambitious.
The problem with 'romance' as a genre term is that the development of the novel is bound up with the ostensible rejection of the romance form while being heavily indebted to it. Think obviously of Tom Jones as a comic romance, or Richardson's Pamela named after one of the princesses in Sidney's Arcadia, or the complex attitude that Northanger Abbey has to the Mysteries of Udolpho. If romance is what the novel defines itself against, then romance is as broad as the novel itself, since novels mostly define themselves against other novels. (I don't know whether one can even make the same distinction in French as one does in English.)
Yes indeed. The Female Quixote raises all those questions very well (and very funnily) because it's a comic novel all about what happens if you mistake romance for reality. Sadly it's now out of print, so I'm going to replace it with Northanger Abbey.
But I think romance is interesting because it's so elastic -- but also because it's always been regarded as trashy and escapist, the thing that the serious novel defines itself against while (as you say) being repeatedly borrowed and parodied by the novel.
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Posts: 776 | From: Edge of the Fens | Registered: Feb 2010
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Tolkien's Essay on Fairie Tales (sp?) It was published in a wee book called Tree and Leaf along with a delightful short story called Leaf, by Niggle
Of Alan Garner I would go for Red Shift or The Owl Service but that's because I didn't like Boneland
Ursula Le Guin The Lathe Of Heaven or Tehanu the last of the Earthsea books.
and other vote for Neil Gaiman, who I hadn't read until someone mentioned him on the Ship.
Huia
[ 20. June 2014, 08:45: Message edited by: Huia ]
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fletcher christian
Mutinous Seadog
# 13919
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Posted
I would give George MacDonald's 'Lilith' a go. I know it's the same author, but in my opinion, it is by far the greatest fantasy novel ever written.
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'God is love insaturable, love impossible to describe'
Staretz Silouan
Posts: 5235 | From: a prefecture | Registered: Jul 2008
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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Niminypiminy:
The Female Quixote raises all those questions very well (and very funnily) because it's a comic novel all about what happens if you mistake romance for reality. Sadly it's now out of print, so I'm going to replace it with Northanger Abbey.
The Oxford World Classics website doesn't say anything about Female Quixote being out of print.
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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
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Arch Anglo Catholic
Shipmate
# 15181
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Posted
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper has my vote.
Fun, relatively short, a good moral message and a prize winner, set at Christmas and the protagonist is 11 years old, so what's not to like for the early teen?
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by fletcher christian:
I would give George MacDonald's 'Lilith' a go. I know it's the same author, but in my opinion, it is by far the greatest fantasy novel ever written.
I nearly recommended it, but then I thought of Lorna and the Little Ones, the cats and the "seeberries", and went off it.
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agingjb
Shipmate
# 16555
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Posted
Stephen Donaldson's Mordant's Need, just two books, may not be too long, and is very much a romance.
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Refraction Villanelles
Posts: 464 | From: Southern England | Registered: Jul 2011
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Yes, it is important to consider the age of the students. Some material possibly not suitable for the more tender age.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
The OPer has already said it's a degree-level course for adults, do I think we need not hold back on recommendations with challenging content.
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Organ Builder
Shipmate
# 12478
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Posted
I'm going to put in a passing nomination for Arthur C. Clarke's "The City and the Stars". He could spin a tale, even if his characters are a bit wooden. There is speculation about the future of the human race, a quest and--well, a little bit of romance. Romance isn't central to the story, but it does exist (done about as well as one might expect from a male science fiction writer of his period). It's one of the few things I read in my childhood which stuck with me until I finally re-read it 40 years later.
[ 20. June 2014, 16:23: Message edited by: Organ Builder ]
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How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people.--E.F. Benson
Posts: 3337 | From: ...somewhere in between 40 and death... | Registered: Mar 2007
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
It is a course for adults not YA but the best YA fantasy is better than most adult stuff. Hence the discussion of it here.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
OK. Mark Chadbourn's World's End is pretty definitely not for children. Grim, gritty, raw, compelling, it tells the story of how the old Celtic gods and the irrational, wild and supernatural side come back into everyday 20th century life. Five very different Londoners find themselves picked to carry out the quest to restore the Lost Treasures to the land, with the aid of someone they much later discover is Thomas the Rhymer, who appears as an ageing hippy. They are hunted mercilessly by the powers of evil and none of them remain unscathed.
It's closer to horror, dark and detailed, but excellently told and with a few twists you don't see coming. This trilogy (World's End is the first in the series, and the complete trilogy is called Age of Misrule) is a gripping read and left me wanting more. His other books in and around the trilogy are also pretty good.
Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant novels are dark with an unlikeable anti-hero. I have the set, but they always make me feel a bit queasy. There's nothing beautiful or refreshing about them, as Donaldson seems to enjoy dwelling on the more repulsive elements, and there's plenty of unpleasant imagery to go with the leper hero, the rape he commits, the fights and blood-spills, etc.
LOTR is actually three books in one, which everybody knows but which often gets overlooked. If you wanted to bring that in, The Fellowship of the Ring is the first one, and lighter in tone than the rest, with the cheerful hobbits setting out on the adventure, before it progresses into the darker story told in the next two books.
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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
Thomas Covenant is the sort of thing that teenagers think is brilliant - angst, gratuitous suffering, gray vs jet black morality. It's a precursor of the grim dark aesthetic that was all over genre fiction in the early nineties. Unfortunately the grimdark aesthetic was not an automatic guarantee of quality, and when it was bad it was horrid. I have a feeling that Thomas Covenant, while not horrid, was not actually all that good either.
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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I thought that; the author's writing style and vocabulary annoyed me as well.
"Hellfire," grated Covenant, his ire roused as he regarded Linden's mien and the roiling clouds behind her.
Nobody ever just has (for example) a face in the Covenant stories. They have a visage, countenance or mien, but never just a simple face. And so it goes.
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
On a mata-tangent, I'm fond of the Ursula Leguin essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" which discusses the nature of fantasy.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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not entirely me
Shipmate
# 17637
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Posted
Neverwhere and Stardust by Neil Gaiman both seem like pretty good suggestions to me.
Although for something a tad obscure and more philosophy than fantasy you could try Maya by Jostein Gaarder.
Posts: 68 | From: England | Registered: Apr 2013
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I have an allergy to Stephen Donaldson, also Robert Jordan and Stephen King.However, there is no accounting for taste.
There are all kinds of subgenrelets in fantasy fiction. Steampunk, for instance, or vampires or zombies. Or historical military -- a great example would be TEMERAIRE by Naomi Novik. I coined one of my own, contemporary suburban fantasy (in which the protagonists drive minivans instead of dragons).
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
Charles Williams's 'All Hallow's Eve' was mentioned upthread. IMO, his 'War in Heaven' is a better place to start with his novels. My favorite is perhaps 'Many Dimensions,' which has one major character first encountered in 'War in Heaven.'
In re: CSLewis space trilogy, they are each 'stand-alone,' in that one doesn't HAVE to read them together or in sequence, though it's surely better to do so. But in any case, the grand crescendo of the final chapters of 'That Hideous Strength' well repays some of the rather horrifying preceding events.
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by agingjb:
Stephen Donaldson's Mordant's Need, just two books, may not be too long, and is very much a romance.
Actually YES, why didn't I think of that for Donaldson??
Probably because truth be told, I don't like it quite as much as some of his other work, but you're right, it is far more in a romantic vein than his other work, too.
EDIT: And I recognise why some people have an issue with Donaldson's writing style. My instinct is to say that his later SF series, 'The Gap', is better than the Thomas Covenant books, but in truth I can't guarantee that the writing style has changed that much. Maybe I was just gripped by the drama of the story (which is inspired to a degree by Wagner's Ring Cycle).
[ 21. June 2014, 00:27: Message edited by: orfeo ]
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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Oscar the Grouch
Adopted Cascadian
# 1916
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Posted
Although they are series of books, rather than a single book, I would heartily recommend the Belgariad and the Malloreon by David Eddings (both sets of 5 books), closely followed by the Elenium and the Tamuli (both sets of 3 books). The Belgariad especially has interesting characters and good dollops of humour to go with the magic and the quest.
Depending upon how you define "fantasy", I would also nominate American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Thinking of him also brings to mind Neverwhere (which became a book after being a brilliant TV series). And how about the most amazing Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett. I read this book probably once a year and still laugh out loud.
Finally, how about Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch? It is the start of a series of books about the same character, but is self contained.
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Faradiu, dundeibáwa weyu lárigi weyu
Posts: 3871 | From: Gamma Quadrant, just to the left of Galifrey | Registered: Dec 2001
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
I don't have much to suggest that hasn't been mentioned (though I recoil in horror from some <cough>Stephen Donaldson<cough>), but I would say that if you want something in the classic vein (by which I mean a more or less medieval setting with wizards and dragons, etc.), A Wizard of Earthsea is probably your best choice.
Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn is a true classic, though in some ways it's a parody, and will be best appreciated by those who are deeply familiar with the genre. His more recent work is also terrific: The Innkeeper's Song is the one he considers his best, and it is outstanding, and in that medieval quest territory, though with a modern feel (especially about sex and gender roles).
However, if you want something that feels a bit more contemporary, you might consider urban fantasy, of which Charles DeLint is the leading practitioner: Trader and Onion Girl are two of my favorites. Also Emma Bull's War for the Oaks and Finder; R.A. MacAvoy's Tea With the Black Dragon; Terri Windling's The Wood Wife; and Robin Mckinley's Sunshine.
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
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Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
If you're going urban, Tom Holt's books set in John Wellington Well's business in Simmery Axe might fit the bill.
I didn't really get into Donaldson - I read through a few Covenant books but gave up. I had to go down to the library with a list of words I could not deduce from context because he always used them in exactly the same way and never used another word to describe the same thing. And when I got there, I found that many of them were not to be found in the 20 volume Oxford. I needed Webster, and then they were classified as obselete. Roynish is the only one I recall - still without its meaning.
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Would George R. Stewart's Earth Abides qualify as being of that genre? It is about mid as 20th Century as you can get, is well written and has a believable plot - I was about to write that it is both depressing and hopeful but am not at all sure that makes any sort of sense.
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Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
I was about to write that it is both depressing and hopeful but am not at all sure that makes any sort of sense.
I makes sense to any genre of fiction written in the immediate post-war period.
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Last ever sig ...
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Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Another who couldn't get into Stephen Donaldson and I was so irritated by David Eddings' portrayal of female characters in the Malloreon series (having read the Belgariad series) that I stopped reading fantasy for years, but I love the Ben Aaronovitch books and think the Colour of Magic books by Pratchett were redeemed by The Luggage and the descriptions of the Unseen University. None of which really fit a romantic theme although Ben Aaronovitch has a very modern take on relationships.
It's ages since I read any, but I found Piers Anthony's books an interesting way of dealing with real life issues - he tackled things like self-harm, for example, through fantasy, but that's about all I can remember.
If you want classic, there's Dune or Asimov
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Curious Kitten
Shipmate
# 11953
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Posted
If you've got to do a Ursula le Guin I'd suggest Left Hand of Darkness, which is technically a sci-fi but very influential.
Asimov's First Contact, is free from project Gutenburg, short and amazing. It makes far more use of the tropes and tricks of the fantasy genre than his Foundations series as brilliant as that is.
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Happiness is not having what we want but wanting what we have.
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
None of which really fit a romantic theme although Ben Aaronovitch has a very modern take on relationships.
File under "Occult Detectives" in the tradition of John Silence, Carnacki, Dr Taverner, Duke de Richleau, etc etc.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
I was so irritated by David Eddings' portrayal of female characters in the Malloreon series (having read the Belgariad series)
I only remember one female character in David Eddings. She's a master of disguise and appears with a number of different names and hairstyles, and can even appear more than once in the same scene talking to herself like Tatiana Maslany, but she's obviously the same person every time.
I can remember three male characters. Each one made out of the very best cardboard.
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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams
Posts: 10567 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Feb 2004
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Oscar the Grouch
Adopted Cascadian
# 1916
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Posted
It's interesting how different people see things. I really enjoyed the Belgariad and Mallorean and didn't see problems with the characterisations.
But then, I did read them after trying (for the umpteenth time) to read Stephen Donaldson's "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" - which I found to be the most tedious pile of horse manure I had ever encountered.
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Faradiu, dundeibáwa weyu lárigi weyu
Posts: 3871 | From: Gamma Quadrant, just to the left of Galifrey | Registered: Dec 2001
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
The funny thing about the Thomas Covenant books is that, when I first read them as a teenager, I found every one of the first 3 books, at least, to be problematic.
In fact I think it took me 3 attempts before I made it through the first one.
I'm not sure why I kept trying. I think as much as anything it was probably because that had never happened to me before. I was a good reader. I'd never found getting through a book challenging.
So I went back.
And here's the interesting thing: again with at least the first 3 books, in each case I'd get to about a third of the way through the book and suddenly the dam would break. From then on I'd be in the rhythm of the language and it would be fine. The second book, The Illearth War, is now one of my favourites. For me, events rise to a desperate and gripping crescendo. To me that's pretty much what Donaldson is about, desperate and gripping crescendos.
Anyway, I guess I've effectively ruled them out for a class, you don't really want something that most people will struggle through at first (even if they'd enjoy it if they persevered). I still like the suggestion of the Mordant's Need pair of books, though - distinctly less 'tough' than Donaldson's other works and more 'romantic'.
Can't see anything wrong with the Ursula le Guin or Neil Gaiman suggestions either, by the way. I thoroughly enjoyed Gaiman's American Gods. There were a couple of other suggestions of series I remember fondly but they seemed more for younger readers. I personally have zero interest in ever reading more David Eddings.
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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Boadicea Trott
Shipmate
# 9621
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Posted
The Fionavar Tapestry series by Guy Gavriel Kay: "The Summer Tree", "The Wandering Fire" and "The Darkest Road".
It is a cross-over between Toronto and Fionavar, with great themes on free will decisions and forgiveness.
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X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
Posts: 563 | From: Roaming the World in my imagination..... | Registered: Jun 2005
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Robert Armin
All licens'd fool
# 182
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Oscar the Grouch:
It's interesting how different people see things. I really enjoyed the Belgariad and Mallorean and didn't see problems with the characterisations.
But then, I did read them after trying (for the umpteenth time) to read Stephen Donaldson's "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" - which I found to be the most tedious pile of horse manure I had ever encountered.
I can't read either Eddings or Donaldson, I'm afraid. The first is so silly I suspect him of playing an elaborate practical joke on his readers, the second so dismal I fear for his sanity - and neither one can write well.
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Keeping fit was an obsession with Fr Moity .... He did chin ups in the vestry, calisthenics in the pulpit, and had developed a series of Tai-Chi exercises to correspond with ritual movements of the Mass. The Antipope Robert Rankin
Posts: 8927 | From: In the pack | Registered: May 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
I can't think how I forgot T H White. Yes, the Sword in the Stone is for the young, but the later three in the sequence are not. The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Illmade Knight, and The Candle in the Wind all deal with the Malory themes of incest, betrayal, and so on in the Arthurian cycle.
Just because of this thread, I went and read a couple of my favourite chapters of The Candle in the Wind. I'd forgotten how painfully beautiful that book is! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
All of them were extensively reworked to become THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING, and there is a further book, THE BOOK OF MERLYN, which was published posthumously.
What is fascinating about White is the way he took a quite elaborate and definite mythos and overlaid upon it an entire modern theme and sensibility. One of the finest examples of upcycling you will ever see.
And, his stand-alone fantasy MISTRESS MASHAM'S REPOSE is a gem that should be far better known.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
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Posted
How about modern fairy tales, Snow White, Blood Red is a good anthology, there was a second by the same editors - Black Thorn, White Rose.
They are really very good.
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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
The Merlin trilogy by Mary Stewart is an excellent retelling of the Arthur story. The first one, The Crystal Cave stands alone well enough to be used by itself in a course.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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