[KatG]

Many thanks to all those who helped me out on the Seeds of Fantasy thread. At the risk of giving Fitz an embolism, I'd like to ask for some additional help, since you were all so great the last time.

The 1980's contained the second generation of genre fantasy and was the first decade where it was really an established and expanding genre. Epic fantasy was popular, but so very much were contemporary/urban fantasy and comic fantasy. Alternate realm fantasy, in which someone from the contemporary world went through a gate or something into a fantasy realm, was a definite trend at this time, and such works might be put in any of the three sub-genres above, depending on what sort of fantasy realm was used. Dark fantasy had a smaller but respected niche, fantasy publishers leaving most such stories to brother genre horror.

So what I'd like to do here is call on your vast stores of knowledge and ask you to list and describe fantasy novels published in the 1980's, with the following exceptions:

1) No epic fantasy titles or series. Alternate realm stories that use an epic fantasy realm, such as the Thomas Covenant series, etc., are okay to mention, however.

2) No science fantasy novels -- sf stories that use fantasy-like settings but contain no actual fantasy in them.

3) No graphic novels or illustrated fiction.

4) No books in fantasy series that were started in the 1970's or earlier.

As before, I don't care if the titles were big, important, bestselling works or obscure paperbacks. If you could list the full title, full author name and brief description of the title, that would be great. With thanks in advance.

[Duanawitch]

This may be an obvious one...

Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry was first published in the 1980s and has the alternate realm element (five young adults, recruited into the first of all worlds Fionavar in order to battle ancient evil in the form of the Fallen God Rakoth Maugrim :) ) I think the first volume The Summer Tree was 1984, The Wandering Fire was 1986, as was The Darkest Road

I'm also reading Ellen Kushner's excellent Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners at the moment and that was first published in 1987.

Both probably seem very obvious choices...but nevertheless :) :o

[Jay_T]

I always considered Kay epic fantasy, but Iguess it's a matter of opinion.

Here are some names that you may want to look at KatG (if you already haven't)

Tim Powers:

-The Anubis Gates
-Dinner at Deviants Place
-Forsake the Sky (which was pretty abd considering Powers is an awesome writer)
-On Stranger Tides
-The Stress of Her Regard

James Blaylock:

-Homunculus
-Lord Kelvin's Machine
-The Digging Leviathan
-Land of Dreams
-The Last Coin

(I don't include, Elfin may be epci fantasy to some extent, I'll let you decide)

Jonathan Carroll:

-Land of Laughs
-Voice of Our Shadow
-The Land of Laughs
-Bones of the Moon
-Sleeping in Flame
-A Child Across the Sky

Charles de Lint:

-Moonheart
-The Riddle of the Wren
-Mulengro
-The Harp of the Grey Rose
-Yarrow
-Jack, the Giant Killer
-Ascian in Rose
-Greenmantle
-Wolf Moon
-Svaha
-The Valley of Thunder

Michael Moorcock:

-Byzantium Endures
-The Laughter of Carthage


-The Brothel in Rosenstrasse
-The War Hound and the World's Pain
-The City in the Autumn Stars

-Glorianna

JG Ballard:

-The Day of Creation

John Crowley:

-Little, big
-Aegpt

Gene Wolfe:

-Soldier of the Mist
-Soldier of Arete

-Peace (also up for interpitation)

Tad Williams:

-Tailchaser's Song

George R.R. Martin:

-Windhavem
-Fevre Dream

Peter S. Beagle:

-The Folk of the Air

Terry Pratchett:

-Strata

Andre Norton:

-The Prince Commands

Ricahrd Adams:

-Girl in a Swing (again debateable)

more later...

[Duanawitch]

I always considered Kay epic fantasy, but Iguess it's a matter of opinion.

Interesting thought...have to admit that when I think epic I think Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, or ASoIaF, or Wheel of Time, and for some reason don't class GGK in the same category.

I think its probably got a lot to do with reading his later work - the stand-alone alternate historys - that led me to think of Fionavar in a more streamlined light. Themes and cultural echoes rather than epic, but when I think of it, perhaps you're right. :)

[Psylent]

The Fionavar trilogy is Kay trying to be Tolkien. I consider it to be an epic fantasy series, a pretty good one.

[ikonetic]

Spellsinger by Allen Dean Foster and the Gaurdians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg,both published in1983.

[Radone]

The Tales of Alvin Maker by Orson Scot Card.
Magic of Xanth by Piers Anthony (the first book was published in the late 70's I think).
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
Heartbeast by Tanith Lee

[Hereford Eye]

My vote for the best fantasy novel of the 1980s is R.A. MacAvoy's Tea With the Black Dragon. Other books I enjoyed:
Robert Lyn Asprin's Thieves World series
Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series
R.A. MacAvoy's Damiano's Trilogy
C.J. Cherryh's Merovingen Nights series
Sheri S. Tepper's The True Game

[KatG]

If Kay's Fionavar had young adults from the modern world going into Fionavar, then it counts for my purposes as an alt realm series, as does Rosenberg's Guardian of the Flame series. HE, you and I have similar tastes, I think. MacAvoy's Damiano trilogy is essentially epic fantasy, but her "Tea with the Black Dragon," a fave of mine, is contemp. fantasy. C.J. Cherryh's "Angel with a Sword" is one of my favorite books, but it was essentially a science fantasy title that she then let her friends play with as epic fantasy, so let's count it as a weird crossover. Brust's Vlad Taltos series I'd count as epic fantasy, though some would argue that it's comic fantasy for the dark humor. Asprin's Thieves World anthologies would be epic fantasy, but his Myth Inc. series is comic fantasy and would therefore be included in that category.

A lot of these titles I know, but these are excellent, guys, keep going. Here's a few others:

Steven R. Boyett -- "Ariel" -- one of the "cyberpunk" contemp. fantasy writers of the time -- post apocalypse future Earth, but the disaster is magical, not scientific

Christopher Stasheff -- "Her Majesty's Wizard" alt realm comic fantasy -- modern guy zapped into fantasy realm

Esther M. Friesner -- "New York by Knight" -- contemp. fantasy -- A dragon makes its way to New York City and a Knight must follow to defeat it

Jack L. Chalker -- "The River of Dancing God" -- One of the more famous of the alt. realm fantasy series -- two people in the modern world who are due to die are taken to a magical land to help a wizard


Of course, by including the alt. realm series, I'm laying myself wide open. I'm sure there were several hundred alt. realm fantasies in children's fantasy in the 1980's alone. But since not all the alt realms include pre-industrial fantasy realms and many of them are comic fantasies, I'm keeping them in the mix. If you want to have some fun, you can go ahead and list the major epic fantasy series of the 1980's here. I'm just not focusing on them right now. I'm more interested in the non-epic fantasies and the alt. realms that mixed modern with epic settings.

[ikonetic]

Also,Roger Zelazny did Changeling and Madwand in 1980 and 1981, respectivly.And Piers Anthony wrote the Phaze series.