What other fantasy books do YOU read?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by davem

Gaiman does not write epic fantasy in the Tolkienian sense, but explores ideas & themes from myth, folklore, contemporary fiction, modern culture. His stories take place on the borderland between, if you like the personal & the Collective unconscious.

I suppose it all depends on how one interprets 'epic.' This might be true for most of Gaiman's work, but I wonder if Stardust isn't more traditionally fantasy a la Tolkien.

Originally Posted by davem

Its the 'Green Sun' thing, I suppose....

So then both Fantasy and Science Fiction partake of this same incantatory Green Sun. Do the two part in the "satisfaction of primordal human desires"?

[davem]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

I suppose it all depends on how one interprets 'epic.' This might be true for most of Gaiman's work, but I wonder if Stardust isn't more traditionally fantasy a la Tolkien.

Hmm, too long since I read Stardust. Struck me as closer to Dunsany than Tolkien. In fact, now I think about it, in his use of Faery as the Land of the Dead it is very close to Mirlees' Lud in the Mist. I see where you're coming from, but I think as a novel about Faery it shares little with Tolkien's approach.

So then both Fantasy and Science Fiction partake of this same incantatory Green Sun. Do the two part in the "satisfaction of primordal human desires"?

No, I think they can both do that. Much Sci-fi is traditional faery story translated to the 'future' - Star Trek (the original series) is an Immrama.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by davem

Hmm, too long since I read Stardust. Struck me as closer to Dunsany than Tolkien. In fact, now I think about it, in his use of Faery as the Land of the Dead it is very close to Mirlees' Lud in the Mist. I see where you're coming from, but I think as a novel about Faery it shares little with Tolkien's approach.

No, I think they can both do that. Much Sci-fi is traditional faery story translated to the 'future' - Star Trek (the original series) is an Immrama.

Well, I must withdraw, having not yet read Dunsany. Frightful confession, I know, but what can I say?

Serendipity is a strange thing, as is synchronicity. At the time davem first posted this comment about Immrama (sing, immram) I had been reading about the first book of fanciful travel writing in the English tradition: The Voyage of St Brendan. (Well, okay, yes, it was written in Latin, but it was adopted and incorporated as part of the English imagination.) That coracle of St. Brendan's had once inspired in me a particular action in a very long ago RPG, but that imaginative thrust of journey to the unknown with arresting mix of known, unknown, and spiritual discovery (using this phrase losely) I find particularly interesting in terms of the development of fantasy.

[ArathorofBarahir]

I have read all of the Harry Potter series so far and although I enjoy reading them very much, I would have to say that nothing can compare to the experience of reading the Lord of the Rings the first time. I doubt that another book will come along, in my lifetime, that affected me in so many ways.

[Lalwendë]

If you fancy any fairy stories I can recommend Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales which includes some really disturbing tales from around the world and has a strong focus on stories featuring women. Some of the shortest tales in the book are the most haunting, and these are not tales for kids!