The White Council

Re: Good recent fantasy books

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

Snip:

: : : Alan Garner is another enjoyable writer. Amongst older writers of fantasy, I would recommend Mary Renault.

: : : One of the best books I have read about King Arthur is Rosemary Sutcliffe's "Sword at Sunset", admittedly written more as a historical novel, rather than fantasy.

: : : Sean

: : I agree with all of your suggestions, particularly Sutcliff and Alan Garner. Garner is, I think badly underrated, as his books are always placed in the children's section, though they have never struck me as particularly limited to children. A good book is a good book!

: Absolutely, I keep meaning to read wierdstone et al, but never seem to get round to it. Maybe soon. Enjoyed Sutcliffe's stuff but as fantasy I prefer TH White's arthurian stuff and MZB's original Avalon book (pace Olorin) is great storytelling.

Worth reading, in the Arthurian vein, are Stewart's Merlin books - The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment. Also Nikolai Tolstoy's The Coming of the King. Unfortunately an expensively lost libel case seems to have prematurely put an end to Count Tolstoy's foray into Arthurian Fantasy - none of the promised sequels have appeared to date.

: : Other suggestions:

: : Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood books. Mythology comes to life!

: Superb.

: : Jack Vance. Anything by him is good (if quirky) though his fantasy books (as opposed to SF) are the Lyonesse Trilogy and the Dying Earth books.

: Always worth reading.

: : Poul Anderson. Another mainly SF writer but his Three Hearts and Three Lions stands with LOTR and The Dying Earth as the seminal influences in the origins of Dungeons and Dragons and role-playing in general.

: Haven't read it but it comes highly recommended by many.

An excellent book, dating back to 1953 - so he was a real pioneer of the genre. Only the cod-Scots-Mediaeval language of some of the characters lets the book down a little.

: My suggestions:

: John Crowley - Little, Big (if you can get a hold of it as it's out of print)is a wonderful, if unorthodox fantasy novel. Beautifully written and profoundly moving it's the only novel (bar non fantasy such as Joyce or Proust) that I would put up there with LoTR.

Haven't come across this author at all.

: Fritz Lieber - the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser books. Intelligent and amusing, consistently well written.

Yes, I've read some of his books.

: Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan/Gormanghast - the third in the series (Titus Alone) is a confused and sad book written while the author was in the last stages of a terminal illness though it still has many memorable passages.

I've always fought shy of Gormanghast for some reason. The forthcoming TV adaptation of the books may spur me into finally reading them.