The Chronicles of Amber are really fun, and highly recommended.
I just finished The Pnume, 4th and final volume of Jack Vance's "Planet of Adventure" series. Minor spoiler: I was pleasantly surprised that a significant portion of the book takes place in a "dungeon-like" underworld setting, making it another entry on the (very long) list to throw in the faces of those who insist there are no "dungeons" in fantasy literature. On the whole, the Planet of Adventure series is very highly recommended, especially volume 3 (The Dirdir) which contains a location with so much adventure-gaming potential (the Carabas) that it's no wonder Gary Gygax couldn't resist locating a gate to it within the depths of Greyhawk Castle
Other recent fantasy/sf genre reading includes Sourcery by Terry Pratchett which came off as a total retread of The Light Fantastic (which was already my least favorite Discworld book so far ).
The Mystical Trash Heap - blog about D&D and other 80s pop-culture The Heroic Legendarium - my book of 1E-compatible rules expansions and modifications, now available for sale at DriveThruRPG
I'm polishing up the Inspirational Reading List at the moment. The aim is to have links, synopsis and author bios for everything found on the lists in the DMG & Moldvay basic.
Here a few of the notable gaps...if you could do a short 3-5 sentence synopsis of any of these it would be a big help. Any other notes on D&D connections would be cool too.
Lin Carter
Zarkon, Lord of the Unknown Series
1: The Nemesis of Evil
2: Invisible Death
3: The Volcano Ogre
4: The Earth-Shaker
5: Horror Wears Blue
Gondwane Series
1: The Warrior of World’s End
2: The Enchantress of World’s End
3: The Immortal of World’s End
4: The Barbarian of World’s End
5: The Pirate of World’s End
6: Giant of World’s End
Zanthodon Series
•Journey to the Underground World
•Zanthodon
•Hurok of the Stone Age
•Darya of the Bronze Age
•Eric of Zanthodon
De Camp, L. Sprague with Fletcher Pratt
The Carnelian Cube
Eisenstein, Phyllis
Tales of Alaric the Minstrel Series
Lin Carter: Giant of World's End -- the last chronologically of the series, but the first written. Concerns the attempts of various heroes (including the Lin Carter-staple "guy who's so tough he can kill off huge groups of red-shirts without even breaking a sweat") to prevent the moon from falling into the earth with the aid of an eons-old former monarch who's managed to keep himself preserved (in a manner of speaking). Includes some adventure in a vaguely dungeon-like ancient ruined city. Actually not as terrible as every other Lin Carter book I've read (which isn't saying much...). I have, but haven't yet (and may never) bothered to read the rest of the Gondwane series. Per Peter Aronson, original creator of the D&D illusionist class, the class was based on a villain from one of these books (not sure which one) -- except for the phantasmal killer spell, which came from one of E.E. 'Doc' Smith's "Lensman" novels.
Fred Saberhagen, Empire of the East Trilogy -- I've only read the third part of this trilogy (The Changeling Earth) because neither Gary Gygax's Inspirational Reading list nor the book itself told me it was the 3rd part of a trilogy. Action-heavy swords & sorcery set in a distant (but not as distant as the Dying Earth, Zothique, or Gondwane) future, in the final stages of a war between the demon-worshipping Empire of the East and, err, the island-dwelling good guys. Drifts away from fantasy into more sf-flavored territrory in the final chapters as the heroes discover the super-computer that set "magic" free on the world in attempt to avoid nuclear apocalypse (but first there's lots of exciting chases and rescues and some adventure in the dungeon-like underground bunker where the aforementioned computer is housed). Reads better than it probably sounds from this description, plus it's quite short and fast-moving. I've since picked up the first 2 books but haven't yet gotten around to reading them.
Jack Williamson, The Reign of Wizardry -- the myth of Theseus and the minotaur re-envisaged as swords & sorcery, including swashbuckling pirates, living statues, arena-combat, and mind-control/illusion magic (which Theseus is able to overcome by being so damn tough), plus the inevitable interlude in the dungeon-like underworld of the Labyrinth. This feels a lot like a book that A. Merritt never got around to writing. All kinds of fun and very fast-moving. Makes me want to read more by Jack Williamson. Highly recommended!
The Mystical Trash Heap - blog about D&D and other 80s pop-culture The Heroic Legendarium - my book of 1E-compatible rules expansions and modifications, now available for sale at DriveThruRPG
Kellri wrote:
Gondwane Series
1: The Warrior of World’s End
2: The Enchantress of World’s End
3: The Immortal of World’s End
4: The Barbarian of World’s End
5: The Pirate of World’s End
6: Giant of World’s End
I read the first four some years ago and remember quite enjoying them. I never could find the last two to finish the series.
Geoffrey wrote:I recently finished re-reading A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay. Published in 1920, it has never been popular with the masses, though it never ceases to be read by a few.
In terms of its imagery and concepts, it reminds me of Clark Ashton Smith's stories. Lindsay, however, is not a poet (being more of a philosopher) and thus does not have the exquisite prose of Smith.
The story of the protagonist's adventures on the alien world of Tormance circling the twin stars of Arcturus is compelling reading. It is the polar opposite of the tripe junking-up the sci-fi shelves of bookstores. If you want serious, pitiless reading, or something very out of the ordinary, pick this up. It's hard to describe, else I'd describe it better.
In terms of theme, it is most similar to George MacDonald's Phantastes and Lilith. While MacDonald's books embody Christianity, Lindsay's volume embodies Gnosticism.
Following Lindsay's book, I've recently re-read two books that owe their existence to it: C. S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. Excellent stuff. I'd say Perelandra is the best of all of Lewis's books. (I have no intention of re-reading Lewis's That Hideous Strength, which I disliked.)
A Voyage to Arcturus, Out of the Silent Planet, and Perelandra each exemplifies that weird fiction is best served by the characters having spiritual/imaginative adventures rather than simply getting in fights and blowing stuff up. I'm trying, for example, to imagine Maskull on Tormance shooting everything that moved with a laser pistol: very lame.
A weird setting isn't enough. The adventures therein need to be themselves weird. It's a waste of a good setting otherwise.
hmmm... i'm re-reading the ad&d 2e of fantasy novels - the first shannara trilogy.
i've read them when i was 13, i started learning english when i was 12 - so you can imagine that they are like "new" books to me now. hmmm... i'm in the middle of umber 3 (wishsong" now and i'm still undecided whether i like them or if they are simply lord of the rings clones written without tolkien's huge background.
what's even worse it seems that they are not only lotr clones, but they clone their own predecessors. "elfsong" clones "sword" and "wishsong" clones "sword" AND "elfsong".
btw: the cover pic of my "sword" is the worst fantasy pic i've ever seen!!!!
Aw man, I could never stand the Shannara books, though some of my friends thought they were great. Damn you for associating them with AD&D 2e, Glgnfz!
[i]It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after one’s own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.[/i]
– Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), [i]Tsurezure-Gusa[/i] (1340)
DungeonDork wrote:I liked them when I was younger. Been reading The Hobbit with my 4 year old but its been a bit too scary for her.
The world is a scary place. Life is pain. At 4, it's high time she learned that.
For me, I've been reading the Chronicles of the Black Company, and now I'm sharing that time with The Collected Fantasies Of Clark Ashton Smith Volume 1: The End Of The Story. Thanks for pointing out the later, north.
"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." - Joseph Campbell
rogatny wrote:I'm also reading my daughter The Hobbit. She's 5 1/2 and loving every minute of it.
I'm finishing up the recent Moorcock "Elric" anthology. Great stuff. Other than "the Dreaming City," I'd not read any of these Elric stories before.
The goblins were a bit much, they gave my kiddo nightmares.
By the time we got to gollum she was completely terrified.
I've put it on hold for a bit until she says she's ready to hear more.
She really wants to know about Smaug and look at the maps in the book more than anythying.
I was working on a dungeon map and she kept asking which room was bilbo's and which room belonged to the goblins.
She also made me roll her a character which she insisted was a "bad wizard" and that she wanted to turn Bilbo into a bunny rabbit.
I'm also commanded to roll dice and report to her how many points she gets which is always responded to with "Aw, Man!" no matter how good she rolls.
DungeonDork wrote:I'm also commanded to roll dice and report to her how many points she gets which is always responded to with "Aw, Man!" no matter how good she rolls.
I have similar experiences with my now-5 year old son. But it's the two-and-a-half year old who runs around the house saying, "Oh no!"
Went to the Used Books Store again today. This time I picked up:
The Dragonbone Chair in Trade Paperback. This, like Wheel of Time, was another I wanted to give a second go to and it happened that she had JUST gotten a TPB of it in that day.
Also she had four Amber novels in hardcover which weren't covered by my omnibus set. I bought them. Now, the only Amber novel I don't have is the last one (which I don't know the name of--something of Chaos?)
I haven't read any fiction in a while. I've been on a economics and politics kick. I think I'm coming to the end of that, for now, though. I'm going to dive back into fiction with the Solomon Kane stories (I've only a couple of those), leavened with some Clark Ashton Smith. I've discovered that my wife enjoys hearing CAS read aloud (much like poetry) -- which is sometimes surprisingly difficult. I'm running into situations where I know what a given word means when I read it, but have never tried to actually speak it, before...
).
"elfsong" clones "sword" and "wishsong" clones "sword" AND "elfsong".
