ddern@bbncch (06/06/85)
From: Daniel Dern <ddern@BBNCCH.ARPA>
As long as we're posting our favorite good fantasy recommendations:
RIDDLE OF STARS TRILOGY, by Patricia McKillip
(The Riddle Master of Hed, Heir of Sea and Fire, Harpist in the Wind)
My personal opinion is this is one of the best works around, period; in any case,
it is good stuff. Several notable aspects distinguish it from most of the
other fantasy around (i.e., the Tolkein clones and other lesser questies):
o Conflict NOT between good and evil. Rare in a fantasy with industrial-
strength conflict. It's us vs them, but not a moral (or religious) issue.
o Strong female characters. The middle volume in particular.
o Characters in a fantasy cosmos who are neither cute nor cardboard.
Even in Lord of the Rings you get the feeling that everything is a setpiece;
that the nature of the characters, the mythic structure, etc., forces
every word and act to be exactly what you get. (It's well done. This is
not a criticism.) In RoSt I have much more sense of real people, who
periodically surprised their author by doing something completely
different from what she had intended. They also exhibit much more
adult emotions and passions and subtleties.
o Novel and constrained magics. Lots of neat things that I haven't seen
elsewhere (no spoilers here!), without the excess of the sort that has
killed off Larry Niven's Known Space series, as well as much of Marvel
and DC comics (absolute power corrupts the plot regularly).
o The author clearly knew where the plot was going from Word 1. This becomes
clearer the second or third time one reads the books.
I have minor criticisms (choppier writing in Vol I, imbalanced time spent on
specific getting from here to there, ...). But no complaints.
THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS, Poul Anderson
This is borderline -- it's fantasy that almost is science fiction. What's
in a name?
A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE, Peter S Beagle
One of my favorite opening lines: "The baloney weighed the raven down."
THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH, Norman Juster, Ills. Jules Feiffer
and also some science fiction which looks a lot like, or masquerades as,
fantasy:
Gene Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN n-ology
THE HIGH CRUSADE, Poul Anderson (alien invaders in [medieval?] England)
Neveryonia books, by Samuel Delaney (in moderate doses)
A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS, David Lindsay
and a very strange book whose name escapes me, heavily laced with
erotic/pornographic interactions among strange creatures, in a fantasy
landscape, with lots of magnetism and silly science -- a purely flakey
book. Not Phil J Farmer or anybody else well known. I mean, this was
really off the wall!
Daniel Dern
ddern@bbn.arpakay@warwick.UUCP (Kay Dekker) (06/08/85)
In article <2223@topaz.ARPA> ddern@bbncch writes: >and a very strange book whose name escapes me, heavily laced with >erotic/pornographic interactions among strange creatures, in a fantasy >landscape, with lots of magnetism and silly science -- a purely flakey >book. Not Phil J Farmer or anybody else well known. I mean, this was >really off the wall! > >Daniel Dern I reckon you must be talking about "Astra and Flondrix", by Seamus Cullen. Well, what can I say about it? except that I recommend it HEARTILY to anyone who can cope with non-prissy fantasy (and anyone who loathes Tolkien ;-)). Most (if not all) of the people round here that I've lent my precious copy to have considered it one of the funniest books they ever read. Has anyone else out there read it? Has Cullen written anything else? Kay. -- "In a world without rational structure, even the most bizarre events must eventually take place." -- Philip Avalon, "On the Resurrection of Reagan" ... mcvax!ukc!warwick!flame!kay