| Author | Message | ||
     Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
I copied this off Kim Newman's Facebook page to paste here. http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/top-100-fantasy-books/91-100.php | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Rather an obvious promotion for a wheelbarrow of current titles. Did I miss something or is there nothing by Leiber or Vance? And no mention of John Gardner's Grendel? This is the kind of thing that gives list-making a bad name. Stevie, you could do better without even consulting your elves. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Sorry, I mean your shelves. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Then again... | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.131.51.242 |
This list is bloody awful. I'm with Joel all the way. No Moorcock? Peake at 77? Steven Erickson's remarkably tedious Malazan series in the top 10? No Jack Vance? Or Leiber? Or John Gardner? Where's Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles? Ruuuuuuuuuubbish! | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 92.4.188.181 |
Time for a proper list then, so to get things started... Michael Moorcock Stormbringer (absolutely the best fantasy novel ever written by anyone anywhere) Phoenix in Obsidian and The Eternal Champion The Dorian Hawkmoon trilogy The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake Remember My Name in Atlantis by John Jakes (very funny if I remember rightly) Slaves of Mars (or somesuch title)by Leigh Brackett, read it endless times when I was 14 or 15, got it out of the Woolworth's Ace books pile. The Chronicles and Further Chronicles of Thomas Covenent (haven't read the last ones yet)by Stephen Donaldson (yes, I liked those) Reave the Just and Other Stories by Stephen Donaldson Sorrow, Memory and Thorn by Tad Williams The Hobbit by J R R Tolkein (sorry, not the LoR, they bored me to tears) Sorcery by Terry Pratchett. The House on the Borderland I confess that I did enjoy some of those old game-spinoff books by Magaret someone and Tracey someone else. Weiss was it? Very American but great, unpretentious fun. Oh and nothing by David Eddings, couldn't stand his stuff. I read a lot fo Zelazney's sf and loved Damnation Alley but not his fantasy, same with Leiber. So, it looks as if I really should to see what I'e been missing all these years. Cheers Terry | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.145.132.240 |
Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickmann (a bloke btw) wrote the game spinoff wotsits. No sign of Guy kay's Fionavar tapestry in there either, although he does seem to get three mentions for other books... I finished the Summer Tree last night and launched straight into The Wandering Fire - book 2 of the trilogy. My next book will rather predictably be The darkest road. It'll be the first time I've ever read a full trilogy back to back... | ||
| Pete_a (Pete_a) Username: Pete_a Registered: 07-2011 Posted From: 75.85.10.161 |
"Very American, but..." Huh? When did 'very American' become shorthand for 'probably bad in and of itself'? It's an alarmingly short step from there to 'very black', 'very jewish', 'very gay', etc. How very English of you. | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 92.4.188.181 |
I'm just a rabid racist...  My apologies Pete. I didn't mean that American = bad. Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, Henry, Chandler, Asimov, etc are among my favourites. The Weiss and Hickman books were examples of the cowboys with swords type of story that some American writers produced at that time. I did say that I enjoyed them and found them fun. My particualr favourite was set in a world where magic was acceptable but science punishable by death. I seem to remembr that the King was always sad and it was only after being introduced to the monarch and his queen that the hero realised that the queen was, in fact, dead. Can't remember the name fo the trilogy though. Cheers, Terry | ||
| Pete_a (Pete_a) Username: Pete_a Registered: 07-2011 Posted From: 75.85.10.161 |
My apologies too, Terry. Didn't mean to come off like the PC police. I see now that my post reads a little more po-faced than I intended. I'd've put a 'wry grin' emoticon at the end if I'd thought of it. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
The single greatest fantasy novel ever written, geez, it would have to be... GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, by Jonathan Swift, I'm thinking, at this moment. Even episodic as it is. Sorry, Terry. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
I thought the list was also 'scandalous' in those it excluded. The two I was shocked to see excluded were The Dark Tower series, and American Gods. Also, without going back and looking, wasn't Pullman's 'Dark Materials' trilogy left out, too? | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
Though nice to see Newman up there. Though I think 'The Night Mayor' is more a contender for that list than 'Anno Dracula.' | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 212.219.63.204 |
No problem Pete. There is a certain English cultural laziness in saying "typical American" and it wasn't a bad idea just to bring it up short for a moment. Craig - Gulliver's Travels, yes, I'd forgotten, too bound up in swords and sorceries. I also remembered Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series. I read it forty years ago and only remember the title of the first one; "To Your Scattered Bodies Go", also his World of Tiers trilogy was amazing. I was a big Farmer fan in my yoof. Cheers Terry | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
Now, as for the French . . . | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
>>>I was a big Farmer fan in my yoof. Me, too. I always admired anyone out standing in his field. | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 212.219.63.204 |
Dear God... | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
Your letter starts well. Suitably submission. Now let's see if you can take it further with appropriate cowering and cringing . . . | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
Philip Framer's riverworld series - IIRC To your scattered bodies fo, the fabulous riverboat, the dark design, I can't rememeber number 4 and Gods of Riverworld | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
I know, that list is a complete crock of shit. Why isn't Call of Kerberos by me on it? Honestly, some people. No taste. *Flounces away* | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
The Magic labyrinth! that's number 4... i knew I knew it | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 212.219.63.204 |
Thanks Weber. I'm going to buy them again and re-read them. "The Fairest" and "The Last Knight of Llanth" by me aren't on there either Jonathon - okay, they weren't books but a short story and a serial in "Legend" magazine but come on...oh and sulking and making everybody's life a misery is better than flouncing by the way. And Gary, i sent a text in the end. Cheers Terry | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 129.11.76.229 |
He never replies. Did you activate the receipt function? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Thanks, Joel. A very weird list indeed! I'm rather a classicist when it comes to the Fantasy genre and would list these authors as the definitive practitioners that spring first to mind: Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton, Hoffmann, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, James Hogg, George MacDonald, Lewis Carroll, James Stephens, Lord Dunsany, E.R. Eddison, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, T.H. White, Mervyn Peake, Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury, Alan Garner, Ursula K. LeGuin, Karl Edward Wagner, Stephen Donaldson, Robert Holdstock, Clive Barker, George R.R. Martin & Philip Pullman... and loads more I've either forgotten or have yet to read. Many of whom don't get as much as a nod of acknowledgement on that ridiculous list! | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.54.69 |
I was a big Farmer fan in my yoof. Does anyone remember The Image of the Beast? I don't know if I'd read that kind of thing now, but it sure was mighty popular with us teenagers. I recall passing it on to my friends. Someone lost it somewhere along the line.  | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
And there was a sequel to Image of the beast as well... I think it was called Blown. I used to have a copy but sold it a few years back. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.44.202 |
Good list, Stevie - nice to see Hoffmann mentioned. I'd also nominate Tieck, Gogol (for 'Viy'), Wells, Stevenson, Erckmann-Chatrian, Richard Garnett, Fiona Mcleod, John Buchan, Isak Dinesen, Manly Wade Wellman, Theodore Sturgeon, Avram Davidson, Peter Beagle, Tim Powers, John Gordon, Angela Carter and Lucius Shepard. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
No one's nominated Nicky Paccionneee for his House of spiders series... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
And Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, Michael Shea, Tanith Lee, John Brunner (The Traveller in Black, a phenomenal work), Keith Roberts, Poul Anderson, David Drake.... |