Anyone reading any fantasy novels?

JamesEightBitStar · Post by **JamesEightBitStar** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:48 pm

So, I've heard so much about this book "The Broken Sword." Apparently there were two different editions with the older one apparently being "better."

So, how hard is it to find this edition?

And, does this book have any relationship to the computer game series?

Post by **Falconer** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:54 pm

The "old version" is available in the U.K. from Gollancz. I read it and loved it.

Re: Zothique-- I read the Ballantine version. The Necronomicon Press edition seems to be very rare and expensive. So congrats that you got your hands on it. Regards.

Casey777 · Post by **Casey777** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 7:03 pm

TheRedPriest wrote:Tales of Zothique, Clark Ashton Smith, Necronomicon Press.

Good & complete softcover edition and IIRC it has some of Smith's illustrations, a good touch to have the author's own art for his stories. Too bad Necronomicon Press seems to have had a severe run of family problems and isn't really around anymore.

Ghul wrote:The Green Pearl by Jack Vance. I read Lyonesse about a year ago and I enjoyed it so much, I decided not to read all three novels in a row. Like a fine wine to be sipped, not gulped. At once, 5 pages in, and I am again enamo(u)red of Vance. l

I happened to pick up the Fantasy Masterworks volume of Lyonesse: Suldrun's Garden for $5 at a area Half-Price Books recently and I plan on reading it ASAP. Not bad for a UK book that retailed for 7 pounds. At over 400 pages I thought it was all the books collected in one volume. Good thing I chanced upon the first volume. Been wanting to read the series for a while, as I like Vance and it's not science fiction/science fantasy.

I agree on pacing with Vance. I had to put my Dying Earth collection down after trying to read two of the books in a row. I'll get back to it when it's ready to appreciated.

TRP · Post by **TRP** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:25 pm

Falconer wrote:Re: Zothique-- I read the Ballantine version. The Necronomicon Press edition seems to be very rare and expensive. So congrats that you got your hands on it. Regards.

I had no idea, and you're correct. On Amazon, at least, it goes for $50 used. My wife picked up a CoC lot off Ebay last year, and gave it to me as a birthday present. It featured the original Beyond the Mountains of Madness, including the BtMoM Game Aid with expedition patch (woohoo, to me that was the real prize in the entire lot

) There were also about 15 books and a like number of magazines, tracts and other misc publications. I'll have to check out their availabilities, too.

Gee, I'm not feeling so badly anymore about what my birthday present cost me. Thanks, Falconer, you've made my day.

grodog · Post by **grodog** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:37 pm

Casey777 wrote:
TheRedPriest wrote:Tales of Zothique, Clark Ashton Smith, Necronomicon Press.
Good & complete softcover edition and IIRC it has some of Smith's illustrations, a good touch to have the author's own art for his stories. Too bad Necronomicon Press seems to have had a severe run of family problems and isn't really around anymore.

The last time I emailed with Marc (probably about 12-18 months ago), they were back from the brink and publishing stuff again---have they had setbacks again more recently?

Casey777 · Post by **Casey777** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 6:56 am

grodog wrote:The last time I emailed with Marc (probably about 12-18 months ago), they were back from the brink and publishing stuff again---have they had setbacks again more recently?

Last I'd checked they were still reeling from the latest death in August of 2006. However the Necronomicon Press website now has a positive note posted earlier this March. There's also a newer printing of S. T. Joshi's H. P. Lovecraft: A Life than I remember. Hopefully they can reprint works like their Clark Ashton Smith collections as they were cheap, nicely presented authoritative TPBs.

Sidenote: Necronomicon Press is a good example of my love/hate relationship with small press publishers. While they're often the only way a work is put or kept in print, they have a tendency to go into hiatus or not reprint works. They often have great service and produce neat if often quirky editions but by their very nature can keep works and authors obscure.

(shrugs) This is an old conflict from before I was born, going back to the likes of Arkham House and Gnome Press. There are direct correlations with RPGs esp. these days. The line between dedicated fan and publisher is very thin at times & both good and bad.

dcs · Post by **dcs** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:53 am

TheRedPriest wrote:A christian school that one of my wife's daughters attended (for a very brief time), banned C.S Lewis from their school library, because he wrote Narnia. The books contained witches and magic and all, dont'cha know.

And drug use . . . "Turkish delight."

I don't think the purpose of The Chronicles of Narnia is to convert non-believers to Christianity (Lewis wrote other books for that purpose). Yes, it is a Christian allegory but a non-Christian probably wouldn't "get it," especially if he didn't know anything about Christianity (not terribly unlikely in this day and age). I wasn't raised in a religious household at all and my childhood memories of Narnia are just as interesting fantasy stories, nothing more.

TRP · Post by **TRP** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 8:23 am

If you haven't read Narnia, and intend to do so, then stop reading here. <--

dcs wrote:
TheRedPriest wrote:A christian school that one of my wife's daughters attended (for a very brief time), banned C.S Lewis from their school library, because he wrote Narnia. The books contained witches and magic and all, dont'cha know.
And drug use . . . "Turkish delight."

I don't think the purpose of The Chronicles of Narnia is to convert non-believers to Christianity (Lewis wrote other books for that purpose). Yes, it is a Christian allegory but a non-Christian probably wouldn't "get it," especially if he didn't know anything about Christianity (not terribly unlikely in this day and age). I wasn't raised in a religious household at all and my childhood memories of Narnia are just as interesting fantasy stories, nothing more.

I agree, and I don't find Azlan's transformation any more overtly religious than Gandalf's. In both stories, we have a powerful mystical being that is slain, and then returns to kick some bad guy ass. Geez, how many times has this happened in comic books? I'd wager that the main reason Narnia is sometimes viewed as a religious tract is, because Lewis' beliefs are very well known. Had a Robert Jordan, or C.J. Cheryh used similar themes to write their own The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, it probably would be viewed as an interesting exercise (irrespective if anyone enjoyed the story).

Heh.. as for the drug use, if you've ever tried turkish delight, I'd say you engaged in something more like drug abuse. *blah* To me, the fact that the little boy sold out his family for such a treat made his betrayal all the more repugnant. If you've never tasted turkish delight, imagine selling out your family for pound cake. Tasty enough, sure, but turning your family over to a witch for it???

dcs · Post by **dcs** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:06 pm

TheRedPriest wrote:Heh.. as for the drug use, if you've ever tried turkish delight, I'd say you engaged in something more like drug abuse.

According to one anti-Narnia screed I read on the web, Turkish delight was a means of of eating hashish (it would have hashish in the center).

The heroes of the Narnia stories are moral -- they don't lie, cheat, steal, or fornicate (or if they do, they fess up and try to make up for it) -- but I don't know if I would say that they are explicitly Christian. One doesn't see them going to church, or really being explicitly encouraged to practice Christianity (unlike the characters in, say, the Space Trilogy). We just kind of assume that they are Christians either because we know Lewis' expressed intention in writing the stories, or because we are reading them from a Christian point-of-view. An atheist might see them differently; he might find them to be interesting fantasy yarns (like I did in my youth) or he might find them to be racist and misogynistic (like Pullman apparently does).

Casey777 · Post by **Casey777** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 2:06 pm

Turkish Delight? It's a very rich (as in taste) candy, nothing more.

Something a kid during WWII would love to have had, esp. if he's a greedy little selfish bugger like Edmund. It's not very well known in America but Applets and Cotlets are similar and available around Christmastime in some chain stores.

T. Foster · Post by **T. Foster** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 2:29 pm

It's also a Dutch movie from the 70s by Paul Verhoeven (in which you get to see much more of Rutger Hauer than you probably ever wanted to...).

grodog · Post by **grodog** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 10:34 pm

I'm wrapping up Gardner Fox's Thief of Llarn (after reading Warrior of Llarn), which are good Burroughs-esque Mars/etc. pastiches, with some post-apocalyptic inspiration useful for Gamma World (much like Margaret St. Clair's Sign of the Labyrs [sp?]). In terms of his writing style/maturity, they're clearly earlier works than Kothar or Kyrik, but still fun reads.

I'm running out of Fox, alas. I'll print the TD short stories soon, though, which will sate me for a little while:

Dragondex wrote: Fox, Gardner "Beyond the Wizard Fog" 5(18)
"Coming Of the Sword, The" 55(24)
"Cube From Beyond, The" 36(4)
"Cup of Golden Death, The" 38(6)
"Eyes of Mavis Deval, The" 33(6)
"Lure of the Golden Godling, The" 44(6)
"Shadow Of a Demon" 2(14)
"Stolen Sacrifice, The" 13(22)
"Thing From the Tomb, The" 23(8)

Inspired by Llarn, are Burroughs' other planetary books any good (Venus, Pellucidar)?

grodog · Post by **grodog** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:22 pm

grodog wrote:I'm wrapping up Gardner Fox's Thief of Llarn (after reading Warrior of Llarn), which are good Burroughs-esque Mars/etc. pastiches, with some post-apocalyptic inspiration useful for Gamma World (much like Margaret St. Clair's Sign of the Labyrs [sp?]). In terms of his writing style/maturity, they're clearly earlier works than Kothar or Kyrik, but still fun reads.

Finished LLarn last night or the night before, found the ending to Thief of LLarn a bit rushed, but still enjoyable. Finishing The Hour of the Dragon now, and enjoying this as much as I did the first time around.

grodog · Post by **grodog** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 1:29 pm

I just picked up M. A. R. Barker's Flamesong (and Escape from NY for $5 on DVD

): has anyone read his Tekumel novels?

T. Foster · Post by **T. Foster** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 1:47 pm

I've had both Man of Gold and Flamesong sitting on my shelf for ages, but haven't ever gotten around to actually reading either one. Someday...

I haven't read any fantasy books recently, because I've been busy muddling through Time Regained by Marcel Proust, the 7th and (thankfully!) final volume of In Search of Lost Time (aka Remebrance of Things Past). This was a reading project I started on several years ago, when I was much more intellectually ambitious than I am now (where I consider having made it through all 6 Harry Potter novels a pretty big accomplishment

).