[Ancalagon the Black]

My two favorite fantasy authors are Joel Rosenberg and Robert Lynn Aspirin. Now, this is a bit of a problem, as it seems that almost no one has heard of either of these two authors ever.
Rosenberg writes the Guardians of the Flame series, quite possibly some of the smartest fantasy ever written. So far there are eight books in the series, and apparently there is a ninth on the way (yay!). The series revolves around Karl Cullinane and some of his friends, who are taken from our world and transported into a D & D style fantasy realm... I know it sounds a bit hokey, but it is handled with such stlye and realism that the reader is soon able to move on with the incredible story.
The other author, Robert Aspirin, writes the Myth series of books... these are nothing short of hilarious. They are spoofs of old school fantasy, with the narrative of a junior magian, Skeeve, who is tutored by his demon mentor, Aahz. The books are short (150 pages or so), but still manage to tell a complete tale, which is a refreshing change from the 1000-page stone-serious fantasy books that are becoming increasingly more common.
The Myth series seems to have ended (last book published was in 1991), but did so at a really strange point: the characters are halfway through some sort of conspiracy, a main character has just been shot, and at the back of the final book there is a preview of the next book in the series (Entitled "Something MYTH Inc.") ... 10 years in the writing and counting!
So the questions are:
Has anybody heard of either of these authors? What are your opinions?
Does anybody know what happened to R.L.A? Is there a new book I don't know about?
And finally, does anybody else have an author, or authors, who have written a good book but have been lost over the years? Sometimes we have to move away from Feist, Jordan, Martin, Goodkind and Tolkien (not mention Salvatore, Brooks, and Eddings), and look at the guys who aren't on the bestseller list.

[Rob B]

I have heard great things about Rosenberg's writing, especially his Guardian's of the Flame series. The problem is that not all the books are availble, let alone in print.

I check the Ace books Web site the other day and it mentioned Asprin has another Myth book coming out.

Ancalagon, if you like the "transport to another world" thing about Rosenberg, I've got two authors for you.

Stephen R. Donaldson, there are other topics about him, in particular his Covenant series of books. He may qualify as disappeared only because he hasn't written much lately other than a short story collection

The other author is relatively new, but makes up with phenominal story telling, knuckle-breaking action and superb characterization. Matthew Stover. His two "transport" books are Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle. On Overworld, a fantasy type world, Actors from our world live out "Adventures" for citizens of Earth to view, sort of like VR. The main character of these books is Caine (aka actor Hari Michaelson), Caine has some of the best fight scenes, internal and external moral dialogue as well as great supporting characters.

Stover is an author to watch and I can't recommend these two books enough. Just finished Blade of Tyshalle, it is now in my top 5-10 books I've ever read.

[Zsinj16]

Oh, I haven't read this series of books but they look excellent, but they are out of print too, they're called "Ravenloft".

[DarthV]

FitzFlagg:

Have you read Stover's earlier books? I saw Jericho Moon at a bookstore tonight and wondered if it would be worth adding it to the 'pile.

[Cadfael]

To the Dragon of Angband (I just love typing that http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif), FitzFlagg's recommendtion of Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are the most realistic crossover, or 'transport to another world' if you like, that I have ever read. Imagine if you woke up in a strange world, with magic and such... and somebody was out to get you. You just may think you have gone bonkers, which is exactly what Covenant thinks.

I really hate crossover books, where the main character is transported, told he is there to banish evil and save the whole of mankind, and he/she just gets on with it as though it is the most natural thing in the world... "Okay... pass me a magic sword then" http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

As regard authors who seem to have been forgotten, I like Richard Ford... he wrote a trilogy in the 80's called The Faradawn Trilogy, I have never seen it mentioned on any fantasy site, I woud be very surprised if they are still in print... but they where brilliant. The books were The Quest for the Faradawn, Melvaig's Vision and The Children of Ashgoroth. The first book was quite light, but the story got darker with each book.

[This message has been edited by dennizm (edited June 22, 2001).]

[tamlyn]

I love Joel Rosernberg. I've read the first four of his Guardians of the Flame. In fact we own them, they're rather fally aparty and my sister couldn't find any when she looked about to see if they could be replaced. I've not read the next four because they went back to the library before i had a chance. I've also read the, I've forgotten the name but the one with Ian Silverstein(stone)in them, well i've read some of them and they were good. It sounds like there was more to the series than the ones i read but i've been told there's not.

[Rob B]

DarthV, haven't read Jericho Moon yet,it is a sequel of sorts to Iron Dawn which I picked up the other day at B&N.

[Cannon Fodder]

I'm not sure but I may have read one of those Rosenburg books a while ago. Was one of the characters in it a dwarf who had been a crippled guy in the 'real' world? That's all I can really remember about it, that and they made gunpowder.

[Barbarossa]

Cannonfodder that's the one yes http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif .

As to Rosenberg: I liked the first four installments, but the series while not bad didn't grip me after that. It's possible though that the reason was that i could get the later volumes in translation only *sigh*.

I like Asprin too. He's nice easy reading.
I think one of the reasons his books are hard to get is that he seems to have a really bad case of writers block. at the beginning of the ninties he once stated that he had just signed contracts for 6 more myth and 4 more Phule books. Since then only one of each came out, one a colloboration as that.
I guess that kind of breach of contract doesn't endear one with his publishers and does nothing to keep old books in print.

[Nani-Re]

Zsinj16 - all of the Ravenloft books are not out of print. This is a series published by TSR, the same company that does the Dragonlance novels. The books are dark tales from the realm of Dragonlance, with the same species and writing styles, but in a different "dimension" so to speak. The books are written by different authors, and there are about 13 of them, or so. I have them all, but haven't been able to read many as they are low on my TBR pile. The books themselves deal with all types of horror characters like werewolves, vampires, ghosts, etc.