Six that come to mind would be (with some likely to quibble about associations):
M. John Harrison, Viriconium (omnibus)
Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciónes (collection)
J.G. Ballard, The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (collection, plus it spans several genre modes)
John Gardner, Grendel (reimagining of an Anglo-Saxon poem)
Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun (omnibus, plus it shares many traits with SF)
Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast novels (unfinished series, with no overt magic)
And others would include Tolkien, Robert Holdstock (Mythago Wood), Hope Mirrlees (Lud-in-the-Mist), Poul Anderson (The Broken Sword), David Lindsay (A Voyage to Arcturus), Angela Carter (Nights at the Circus). Oh, and if I wanted to stretch it out more....
Gabo, Pavi?, Živkovi?, Kiš, Whittemore, Rickert, Clark Ashton Smith, Danielewski, Pynchon, VanderMeer, Miéville, Ford, Crowley...
That's easily 25 authors there from whose best works I could choose...and that's leaving aside the more "pure" SF works of Dick, Ken Grimwood, Dan Simmons, LeGuin, Bradbury and so forth...
M. John Harrison, Viriconium (omnibus)
Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciónes (collection)
J.G. Ballard, The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (collection, plus it spans several genre modes)
John Gardner, Grendel (reimagining of an Anglo-Saxon poem)
Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun (omnibus, plus it shares many traits with SF)
Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast novels (unfinished series, with no overt magic)
And others would include Tolkien, Robert Holdstock (Mythago Wood), Hope Mirrlees (Lud-in-the-Mist), Poul Anderson (The Broken Sword), David Lindsay (A Voyage to Arcturus), Angela Carter (Nights at the Circus). Oh, and if I wanted to stretch it out more....
Gabo, Pavi?, Živkovi?, Kiš, Whittemore, Rickert, Clark Ashton Smith, Danielewski, Pynchon, VanderMeer, Miéville, Ford, Crowley...
That's easily 25 authors there from whose best works I could choose...and that's leaving aside the more "pure" SF works of Dick, Ken Grimwood, Dan Simmons, LeGuin, Bradbury and so forth...
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie
Je suis méchant.
Je suis méchant.
Six best fantasy novels?
04/12/2009 05:54:54 AM
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Best fantasy authors
04/12/2009 07:01:48 AM
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Have you read Robin Hobb? *NM*
04/12/2009 04:01:23 PM
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I have, and wasn't really impressed
04/12/2009 10:08:25 PM
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Only read two. Book of the New Sun definitely deserves that spot. Mieville, not so much.
04/12/2009 08:06:45 AM
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Interesting.
04/12/2009 05:21:04 PM
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Why Mieville, if I may ask? *NM*
04/12/2009 08:33:43 PM
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I didn't mean that to be a reply to you, but still
05/12/2009 03:15:36 AM
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No worries.
05/12/2009 03:52:11 AM
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But the list was for favorite books, not favorite or most important authors
05/12/2009 10:25:13 AM
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It was for "best" books. I realize that has a lot of meanings, though. *NM*
05/12/2009 08:37:01 PM
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Glen Cook is radically overrated.
05/12/2009 04:09:07 PM
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Well, he's at least part of the wave that humanized fantasy.
05/12/2009 08:36:29 PM
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In the US, yes. Elsewhere, no, because they didn't know about him.
06/12/2009 04:36:31 PM
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You know I directly added almost all of those Wolfe quotes there, right?
06/12/2009 05:26:40 AM
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I just find Mieville's prose exceptionally standard.
06/12/2009 07:25:05 AM
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Isn't that almost a contradiction of terms there?
06/12/2009 07:45:47 AM
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It's remarkable for its normalcy because so many people praise it?
06/12/2009 09:11:18 AM
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Who the heck are these people? *NM*
04/12/2009 12:46:48 PM
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Literati
06/12/2009 05:27:28 AM
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Yeah you're so much better than us *NM*
06/12/2009 12:00:27 PM
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Well, you can hardly expect a group to go around calling themselves "elitist snobs." *NM*
07/12/2009 02:16:16 AM
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Is he trying to be cool by listing stuff that 90% of fantasy readers have never heard of?
04/12/2009 04:05:46 PM
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Actually, several of those books have been bestsellers and/or won several genre awards
06/12/2009 05:28:18 AM
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My Best Six best fantasy novels
04/12/2009 07:44:12 PM
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Re: Six best fantasy novels?
04/12/2009 09:06:18 PM
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I really need to get around to reading Mists of Avalon.
04/12/2009 09:50:54 PM
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Calenture
05/12/2009 12:44:14 AM
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That... sounds so cool. I'm going to check it out as soon as I get home.
05/12/2009 03:53:55 AM
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I'll eventually get to those in the near future
06/12/2009 05:31:29 AM
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Okay, I'll give it a shot
04/12/2009 10:12:47 PM
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You might more mythopoeic material in your fantasies, don't you? *NM*
04/12/2009 11:22:33 PM
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The Blogger Seems to Agree With You.
05/12/2009 10:10:07 PM
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Book of the New Sun is very early 80's and is almost inarguably a classic of the genre.
06/12/2009 12:26:55 AM
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Bending the terms a bit...
04/12/2009 11:21:33 PM
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Here are mine, but I probably haven't really read enough fantasy to have a top 5
05/12/2009 12:16:13 AM
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Have you tried any standalones recently?
06/12/2009 05:33:41 AM
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I always end up wanting more
06/12/2009 05:53:11 AM
- 1167 Views
What if there were 50 more standalones that you could read that likely would be quite good?
06/12/2009 06:12:53 AM
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The only one on his list I would think about agreeing with is Meiville.
05/12/2009 03:11:25 AM
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No list is complete without Goodkind *NM*
05/12/2009 07:59:22 AM
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Sorry, I can't help it- no *porn* list is complete without Goodkind... *NM*
06/12/2009 02:21:22 AM
- 516 Views