Quote:
Originally Posted by carandol
The *shortest* epic fantasy I know of is M. John Harrison's "The Pastel City", which manages to hit all the themes of epic fantasy (major war, small band of heroes, echoes of past grandeur, long treks through evocative landscapes, sinister bad guys, bittersweet triumph) in about 140 pages! It's available as an ebook in the volume called "Viriconium", which includes two more novels and a bunch of short stories set in versions of the same world. Strangely, richly written, in a Mervyn Peake sort of way.
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_The Pastel City_ is a minor classic, and the Viriconium stories are wonderful.
Avram Davidson reviewed _The Pastel City_ for F&SF years back, and essentially said "Jeez, this #$%&@ can
write! Why is he doing this fantasy crap?" I had a higher opinion of the work than that, but I understood Avram's feelings. Harrison
can write, and Davidson thought he should be doing more ambitious work than Yet Another Fantasy Novel in a genre grown popular in the wake of Tolkien.
Well, we all have to start
somewhere. Harrison has gone on to more ambitious things, witness his recent _Light_.
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Dennis