Intriguing New Yorker blog post
by morgan on Aug.12, 2009, under Karen Miller
The New Yorker posted “Seven Essential Fantasy Reads” on their blog. If anyone gets a chance to take a look at the link, tell us what you think. Is it a good list, or is something critical missing?
What about Stephen King’s Dark Tower? That has to make the list, right?
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August 12th, 2009 on 9:03 pm
Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan isn’t even on it…
Blasphemy
August 13th, 2009 on 12:25 am
Well, it’s always a subjective thing, isn’t it? Personally, I wouldn’t rate Martin as an honourable, I’d be making him part of the primary list.
August 13th, 2009 on 3:41 am
What about Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust? This is a series worth reading. It starts with Jhereg and is told by the main character, an assassin who works for a crime organization. The voice is humorous, which make reading enjoyable. There are mystery elements, at least in the early books. The world is very detailed and coherent. Another series has been written in the same world: the Khaavren Romances, a pastiche of Alexandre Dumas’s works.
August 13th, 2009 on 10:05 am
I do sort of sniff at the fact that they are all high fantasy epics. I do quite enjoy that form, but there was more diversity in his list of “fourth-grade” fantasy best-sellers.
I think everyone should read the Bordertown series edited by Terri Windling. It’s a Beat fantasy about a town that ends up on the border when all of Fairy comes crashing back from where ever it went while we were off building space ships. Like every border town, it’s full of people running, and the world is large enough to host several short story collections and novels. Totally awesome, except that most of the collections are out of print. Ebay helps, there.
August 14th, 2009 on 6:45 am
Epic fantasy is great - I don’t know if I agree with the opinion on Goodkind (the Confessor trilogy in the end was definitely worth the wait) - but there are also subgenres of fantasy that weren’t even mentioned but definitely belong on the list. King’s Dark Tower series is a bit darker than most epic fantasies, but a great fantasy none the less. I do like the pick of Tad Williams - his Otherland series was phenomenal - but I wish there was something in the ‘historical fiction’ genre, Jacqueline Carey or Juliette Marillier come to mind. And where are Weis and Hickman? The Death Gate Cycle was a great series, and they have left their mark on fantasy in a number of other stories as well.
August 14th, 2009 on 12:12 pm
What about Katharine Kerr? Her Deverry series is epic in every sense of the word.
August 16th, 2009 on 5:45 pm
Yipe! No Pratchett?! …the Discworld series is proof that fantasy doesn’t have to be “epic tragedy”!
August 16th, 2009 on 8:40 pm
I think he’s put together a decent set of books there. I read them all years ago. I would add in the Belgariad series or maybe the Redemption of Althus from David Eddings. I agree Katherine Kerr is a great author, Deb, but maybe for someone who has had a bit more of an introduction into fantasy. All the jumping around in the Deverry books can be confusing.
That list was definetly made by a man. Jacqueline Carey is one of my all time favourite authors, as is Anne Bishop. Where is comedic fantasy represented? Terry Pratchett or Douglass Adams? It’s not all doom and gloom.
I think if you’re trying to get people to cross the floor, you should start them out with already completed series, for two reasons. One, so the reader can carry through all that enthusasim for that series in one short hit, rather than have to string it out potentially over a decade, to kind of have the story in one go; and two, well, we all know series that have left us somewhat dissapointed with the ending. Don’t let someone walk out on fantasy just because it wasn’t all roses at the end of their first series. Take a sure bet over one that’s not quite there yet, is what I guess I’m trying to say.
Kelly
August 18th, 2009 on 8:51 am
I’m am astounded that no one has brought China Mieville into these comments. I read Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council in one fell swoop and, for me, that remains the yardstick for how a fantasy (however based in technology it is) should roll. Every chapter held something new and relentlessly mind-altering, At my age, It is fun to be surprised with plot points and at the very least, Mieville does this in spades.
August 18th, 2009 on 9:51 pm
Tolkien writes on a fourth grade level? The author of the article is an idiot and should be loudly ignored if not blatantly mocked. How about a little Monty Python: “I crush your head. Crush, crush!”