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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Favourite classic fantasy novels
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Armin:
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,
Well, he managed to write the same story twice, in 16 books plus spin-offs, and get paid for it.
(Belgariad / Elenium: Oh no! big disaster! Our Hero (tm) and his gang of cardboard buddies (one representing each group of good guys) have to trek half way around the world to find a magic blue rock. Oh, and kill an evil god.
Malloreon / Tamuli: Oh no! Now there's an evil red rock! Our Hero (tm) and his cardboard buddies have to trek half way across the world with the magic blue rock to fight it. Along the way, we discover that the magic coloured rocks are even more powerful than we thought before.)
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
In the field, we have a term for this. It is Extruded Fantasy Product, on the analogy of Cheez Whiz.
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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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Net Spinster
Shipmate
# 16058
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Posted
Lot of suggestions I agree with (and quite a few I don't). I second Bujold and will put in a mention for Patricia A. McKillip ("Forgotten Beasts of Eld", "The Book of Atrix Wolfe").
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spinner of webs
Posts: 1093 | From: San Francisco Bay area | Registered: Dec 2010
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
While suggesting T H White and Mary Stewart, I kept having the feeling that somewhere in my memory was lurking something else really good.
I still can't find it.*
I have, however recalled Robin McKinley's YA reworking of old tales, and the first one of hers I read, "The Blue Sword".
*As it seems to be lurking in the same place that half forgotten dreams hang out, it may be one of those, and have no resolution.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
I know it's a degree level course, but Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, though ostensibly a chidren's book, is actually well worth examining. She manages to incorporate some tough concepts in physics e.g. what she describes as tessering in what scientists have called the best explanations ever of the process.
Nor would I exclude Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies. Not exactly mid 20thC, but Kipling's voice is individual. Definitely not mid 19thC!
Nicholas Stuart Grey wrote reworkings of fairy tales, notably The Seventh Swan,after the story by Hans Andersen, and The Stone Cage {Rapunzel. Grimm?} Both sadly out of print, but worth considering if you can find them.
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Vulpior
Foxier than Thou
# 12744
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Niminypiminy:
...The Owl Service which I remember being spooked by as a teenager. ...
Ditto. I've just about completed my Alan Garner collection in order to reread things from my youth, and I remember The Owl Service being strange and scary. Like Penny S I have Boneland waiting to be read, and I note Ariel's observations.
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I've started blogging. I don't promise you'll find anything to interest you at uncleconrad
Posts: 946 | From: Mount Fairy, NSW | Registered: Jun 2007
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by jacobsen:
I know it's a degree level course, but Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, though ostensibly a chidren's book, is actually well worth examining. She manages to incorporate some tough concepts in physics e.g. what she describes as tessering in what scientists have called the best explanations ever of the process.
Nor would I exclude Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies. Not exactly mid 20thC, but Kipling's voice is individual. Definitely not mid 19thC!
Nicholas Stuart Grey wrote reworkings of fairy tales, notably The Seventh Swan,after the story by Hans Andersen, and The Stone Cage {Rapunzel. Grimm?} Both sadly out of print, but worth considering if you can find them.
Three I had not mentioned but two I thought of. I have recently given the Seventh Swan away to Oxfam! I think it was once done as a radio play.
And it reminds of Naomi Mitchison, since some of hers occupy the same Scottish territory. There was also "To the Chapel Perilous" which plays with the Holy Grail myths. Which leads me to Priestley's "The 31st of June" which I want a copy of, which does a sort of Yankee at the court of King Arthur stuff.
Back to Mitchison, I think "The Corn King and the Spring Queen" might have been the one lurking in my mind.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
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And, his stand-alone fantasy MISTRESS MASHAM'S REPOSE is a gem that should be far better known.
I came upon Mistres Masham's Repose quite by accident -- it was in a box of books I bought at auction. I loved it at first reading, and I re-read it often. The characterizations are superb, and the tropes from all over the countryside of literature are quite amazing. (The illustrations help a lot, too!)
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
It is sad, if you are over at Goodreads, to read the evaluations of MISTRESS MASHAM'S REPOSE. People complain of the digressions. It is a style of fiction that alas is not very popular these days. OTOH it is surely just about ripe for rediscovery.
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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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Ann
Curious
# 94
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Posted
Not sure how easy it would be to find - The Golden Key by Jennifer Roberson, Melanie Rawn, and Kate Elliott involves a sweep of history in a sort of parallel Spain with Moorish influence and a heroine trapped in a painting.
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Ann
Posts: 3271 | From: IO 91 PI | Registered: May 2001
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
If you are willing to buy used it is possible to find almost any published book on the internet. After you work through Amazon and Ebay, go over to abebooks.com, the clearinghouse for used book stores. These resources have been my Apollyon for years. If these three avenues and a generalized google search fail you, then it is indeed unavailable. (And, of course, if money is no object. Shipping a book from over sea is spendy.)
The only irritation with this for the OP is that if you want a dozen or twenty identical books for a class to be available at the university bookstore. Do teachers send their students out these days into the web, with the instruction, "Go buy yourself a copy of WIVES AND DAUGHTERS by Elizabeth Gaskell!" (Which is available on Project Gutenberg, btw, another powerful resource for anything in public domain.)
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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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Matt Black
Shipmate
# 2210
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Posted
Stephen Donaldson, if nothing else because of the twist that the (anti-)hero is from our world.
If I'm allowed an entry from the science-fantasy genre, then Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels.
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"Protestant and Reformed, according to the Tradition of the ancient Catholic Church" - + John Cosin (1594-1672)
Posts: 14304 | From: Hampshire, UK | Registered: Jan 2002
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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Matt Black:
Stephen Donaldson, if nothing else because of the twist that the (anti-)hero is from our world.
Hardly a twist, since it's announced from the outset. I think it's more uncommon to have a protagonist from our world (especially in adult novels) than it used to be. But still one couldn't call it unexpected.
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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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Dafyd
Shipmate
# 5549
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Which is available on Project Gutenberg, btw, another powerful resource for anything in public domain.
Are texts on Project Gutenberg properly edited?
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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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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I now recall Alison Croggon and the Pellinor Quartet. She uses the concept of documents found in our world and time (in Morocco, I think), which have been translated and revealed an earlier time in which magic was used. Her map*, at least, shows similarities with another, and there are other resonances. Her writing style is good. Like the Blue Sword, it has a female central character finding out about her gifts, and like many others it has a nameless dark personage who has to be defeated.
* Maps of Pellinor I can't see where this is supposed to be in the history or geological history of our planet.
[ 26. June 2014, 17:17: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
Sorry about double posting, but I have just found that the map talks! And has a problem with east and west.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I don't know much about how Project Gutenberg selects its editions, but they are all public domain. In other words, if you want that enlightening 40-page foreword written by a prominent scholar, you have to go buy the Penguin Classics edition.
I'm afraid that a hero (or anti-hero) plucked from Earth is an extraordinarily common trope in the genre. OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET. THE WORM OUROBOUROS. JOHN CARTER OF MARS. Pellucidar. Narnia. RED MOON, BLACK MOUNTAIN. (There's one we haven't mentioned yet -- Joy Chant, an author who should have written many more books. Her GREY MANE OF MORNING is stupendous and 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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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I think I mentioned Joy Chant above somewhere.
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Because she had a busy personal and professional life Chant only wrote novels during vacations. Which means she only wrote 3 or 4 in her lifetime. Tragic.
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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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