Quote:
Originally Posted by dougbiss
I'm looking for a new list of authors to get acquainted with, so I'm starting three threads for each of the genres that interest me: fantasy, sci-fi and espionage. This, as is so obvious from the title, is the fantasy thread.
Starting with the idea that certain authors will be on almost everyone's list for this genre, I'm asking that we exclude them to get to the ones that may benefit readers, such as myself, who are trying to dig a little deeper.
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Stuff not on your list?
When I read Tolkien, one of the things that interested me was what influenced him, and the tradition in which he was working.
One series to read if you haven't is C. S. Lewis's seven book "Chronicles of Narnia" series. This is juvenile/YA work, but can be read with equal pleasure by both kids and adults. Lewis was a contemporary of Tolkien's, and both were members of a writer's group called the Inklings, passing manuscripts around for critique by their fellows. Narnia is a fantasy world visited by a group of kids from our world, who explore it's many wonders and become acquainted with Aslan, the great lion who is the ultimate ruler of Narnia. Lewis was Catholic, and there is an explicit religious underpinning to the story, but Lewis never makes it obvious or annoying. It's there is you look, but easily ignored if you don't.
A more contemporary writer working in juvenile/YA territory was the late Lloyd Alexander. Specifically, see his five book series "The Chronicles of Prydian". Alexander draws from the Welsh Mabinogion myth cycle. His protagonist is Taran, the Assistant Pig Keeper at a feudal manor. Taran is an orphan seeking to discover who his parents are, and bothering Coll, an armsman at the manner, for training in fighting. The evil Lord Arawn is using a magic cauldron to create an army of deathless soldiers to conquer all the lands, and Taran and his friends must somehow grow and change to counter Arawn.
Also in juvenile/YA, see Madeliene L'Engle's _A Wrinkle In Time_. Her protagonist, Meg, is a tween trying to navigate puberty. Her scientist father has gone missing, and her mother is doing her best to raise Meg, her two older brothers, and her odd younger brother. All things change when the vacant house next door is inhabited by Mrs. Who, Mrs. What, and Mrs. Which, who announce to Meg that "There
is such a thing as a tesseract!" Tesseracts had been the subject of her father's research when he disappeared.
Mrs. Who, What, and Which soon demonstrate that whatever they are, aren't normal older women, and Meg finds herself being whisked with them across half the galaxy with her younger brother to save her father and battle an all pervading darkness.
There are several other related books, including _A Swiftly Tilting Planet_ and _A Wind Through the Door_, but they aren't up to Wrinkle. Read it at least, and decide if you liked it enough to try the rest.
On more explicitly adult fantasy, one series I recommend is Michael Scott Rohan's "Spiral" series. In _Chase the Morning_, Steven Fisher, an executive at a British import/export firm, gets bored with the sterile routine of his life, decides to visit the docks he hasn't seen since childhood, and finds himself intervening in an attempted murder and saving the life of a an odd chap who calls himself Jyp the Pilot. The beings trying to kill Jyp weren't exactly human. Jyp tells Steven they are Wolves. The Wolves wind up striking into into our world, and kidnapping Claire, Steve's secretary. Steve must join with Jyp and Jyp's friend Mall, an extraordinary swords woman, buy gold to hire a privateer, and follow the Wolves to rescue Claire.
It seems that our world is the Core, where everything is even and regular, and there are 60 minutes to an hour. But beyond the Core is the Spiral, where anything that was or could be exists somewhere, if you can find it. The mists have parted and Steven has crossed over into the wider world. Jyp
is the Pilot, a navigator who can plot a course to anywhere in the shadows. Together with Jyp, Mall, and Captain Pierce and crew of the privateer brigantine Defiance, Steven will voyage out toward the Rim, battling Wolves and dealing with Voodoo Loas to rescue Claire and redeem himself.
The series continues with _The Gates of Noon_ and _Cloud Castles_, as Steven Fisher finds himself more deeply bound to the Spiral and approaching his strange destiny.
Among other things, I like the series because Rohan ventures farther afield than most fantasy. _Chase the Morning_ draws upon the mythology of the Caribbean, where the Yoruba religion of Africa met Christianity, and the result was essentially a merger, with Voodoo and Santeria being expressions in French and Spanish, respectively. (The Orishas of Santeria are exact counterparts of the voodoo Loas.) _The Gates of Noon_ explores the traditions of Asia, and Hanuman, the Monkey King. _Cloud Castles_ takes on the traditions of Eastern Europe.
There's a great deal out there that
isn't elves, dwarves, dragons, and watered down Celtic mythos, and I'd love to see more done with it.
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Dennis