Overlooked authors or books
 

There are many people who come here on a regular basis. We all see the same type posts about the same 10-12 authors: some hated, some loved. I know that I have my a list of authors that probably don't get as much attention as they should. I want to hear yours.

I start by giving one of mine:

Barry Hughart: The three books that comprise his Master Li and Number Ten Ox Chronicles are simply amazing, especially Bridge of Birds. That won the World Fantasy Award. I think he should be on the shelves of all of the fans of the genre. Sadly, you won't see his books at Borders.

DrB

You took my author! He was the first one that came to mind when I saw "overlooked."

Okay then, another one to check out is Leo Perutz. He can be a bit surreal, but he's really interesting, and he's definitely overlooked.

Ernest Bramah was suggested to me by someone who also liked Hughart's books. I have one by him "Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat", but haven't gotten to it yet.

Another good writer whose books have a touch of fantasy is Davis Grubb. Night of the Hunter and Ancient Lights are excellent, as is his short story collection The Siege of 318.

How about Lud in the Mist by Hope Mirrlees? Originally published in 1970, and supposedly a little-known classic. Haven't gotten to that one yet either.

Here's the blurb: "The town of Lud was a prosperous community situated at the confluence of two rivers . . . one having its source in the Land of Faerie. But being a stuffy, rational and no-nonsense province -- ruled by stuffy, rational and no-nonsense burghers -- the people of Lud refused to believe in fairies, elves or the like, and they meted out severe punishments to those who did. But when the Mayor's son confesssed to eating fairyfruit and the proper young ladies of Miss Crabapple's school dashed off to the Debatable Hills, even the stuffiest burgher had to acknowledge that a perfect plague of Faerie influence had hit town . . . and now steps would have to be taken!"

Lud in the Mist is one of several that I keep an eye out for when I haunt my used-book stores. It is only published here in the states by a small-press: Wildside Press. The lucky Brits have the Fantasy Masterworks series (which I dearly wish someone would begin publishing over here) and it is a part of this series (along with a number of other books which reside on my to-be-acquired list).

Where's jfclark? I expect this would be a thread he'd like a shot at.

DrB

I am SO wrong. Lud in the Mist was originally published in 1926.

My edition was published in 1970.

Sorry about that.

I found my copy at the Amazon marketplace. It's an inexpensive paperback but I like the cover. Must be the mayor of Lud, and he looks like a pudgy Michael Caine.

Juliet Marilliar's the Sevenwaters Trilogy - 1st:Daughter of the Forest.
Eric van Lustbader's the Pearl Saga 1st:The Ring of Five Dragons.
Ricardo Pinto's Stone Dance of the Cameleon 1st: The Chosen.
Ursala de Guin's the Earthsea Quadret
and finally The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien (far superior to LOTR)

Laura Resnick - In Legend Born and In Fire Forged - really good reads and the trilogy will wound up in Decmenber with the release of In Fire Forged part II.

Initially picked up In Legend Born as i just liked the title - had to wait about 5 years for the sequel but never stopped requesting it - which i guess is as good a compliment as I can give for a book /Author

overlooked
 

The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson.

This book is both brilliant and terrible. I mean, there are some serious issues with this book; it's horribly written, but at the same time it's one of the most imaginative dark fantasies I've ever read. Definitely far, far beyond Lovecraft.

Moonwise by Greer Gilman. More Angela Carter than Mercedees Lackey, which is quite alright by me. Also find a copy of Gilman's story "Jack Daws Paws".

Lord Dunsany, anyone?

The Gift by Patrick O'Leary. Way too often overlooked, this is a gorgeous story-within-story-within-story... story I've ever read. Fabulous, lushly written... very Gene Wolfe-ish.

Waking Beauty by Paul Witcover. If you can find it, get it. Even if it means selling your soul or your sex organs. Paul's first novel is a truly unique piece of writing. Man.... I wish I had that much talent.

--gabe chouinard
hypermode
s1ngularity - online again!

Re: Overlooked authors or books
 

Yes, Hughart's books are awesome.

Lud-in-the-Mist should be read by everyone, both because it's a well-written fable and because it is an influential work that's too often overlooked. It was written in the 1920's, I believe, and thus is contemporary with Dunsany's masterpieces (I'll second neologik's recommendation there!). Not surprisingly, then, it addresses some of the same concepts, such as the power of Faerie and the corruptibility of men and their dreams. Mirrlees didn't write much fantasy, and her style is not quite as shimmery and magical as Dunsany's, but this is a novel not to go unread. I have the Fantasy Masterworks edition; Wildside Press is reputable and worth resorting to unless you're on a tight budget.

Lord Dunsany is overlooked, but mostly by younger readers. Two absolutely foundational novels by him are The King of Elfland's Daughter and The Charwoman's Shadow. His prose style and vision of fantasy are wholly unique, but served to set the stage for practically all 20th-century fantasy. I've seen several people even on this forum note their distaste for his style, or state that they couldn't quite "get into it," but it's my earnest hope that this is a minority viewpoint. It would be all too depressing to think of a generation of fantasy readers that couldn't "get into" Lord Dunsany.

Other authors, not necessarily overlooked, that younger readers may not be familiar with, or whose books aren't readily available in bookstores (in which case even older readers don't have access), but who are absolute musts include Jack Vance, E.R. Eddison, James Branch Cabell and Ernest Bramah. Edward Whittemore is another author whose books have only lately been reissued. Do also look up Charles G. Finney and David Lindsay, two whose respective masterpieces, The Circus of Dr. Lao and A Voyage to Arcturus, have recently been reissued under the Bison Frontiers of the Imagination imprint.

Ernest Bramah wrote six novels and short story collections featuring the inimitable Kai Lung, storyteller. Bramah was fashionable among the literati of the 1920's and 1930's, but his kind are gone from the earth today (they included folks like Mencken and the aforementioned Cabell). The Kai Lung books are told in an unmistakable, fluid and eloquent voice in which Bramah affects a knowledge of literary Mandarin stylisms. It is a rich style that is one of the joys of early-modern fantasy literature. These stories of a China-that-never-was are endearing, humorous and invigorating.

It was probably inevitable that my reply would make this thread look like the Forgotten Classic Fantasy Authors thread of beloved memory. But you asked for it. :)

Seems to me that Melanie Rawn doesn't get mentioned much on this board. I love her stuff and am agonizingly awaiting the third book in the Exiles trilogy. *sigh*

Whenever this topic comes up, I always mention James Stoddard. His first novel, The High House is amazing, it is both an ode to fantasy that preceded it as well as a uniquely engaging fantasy novel in its own right. While the sequel/follow-up The False House was very good, it was a bit short of the first. I would really love to see more books from this guy.

I'd add Jeffrey Ford to the list as well. I know his name has popped up here and there, but he deserves a much wider audience than he has right now. The Physiognomy won the World Fantasy Award in 1997, but he gets little mention in the forums here. However, The Physiognomy is soon to be (or is now) published in the UK under the TOR UK imprint. You lucky Brits are in for a fantastical treat!


Rawn gets a mention now and again, actually.

Just to back Fitz up here, I also enjoyed Stoddard's books. He has visited here a bit, too. Rather Gormenghastian but more contemporary. Has been quiet for a while though.

Hobbit

One of my absolute, favorite authors is Michelle West. So far she has written 7 books, all of which I really like. Her setting is unique, and her characters are very strong and interesting. I think everyone should check her out and I'm saddened by the fact she isn't more well known.

Diana Wynne Jones: The Dalemark Quartet

READ IT and you won't regret.

Hope

*******************************

Wonderful suggestions everyone. So far there have been at least a few that I haven't heard about in passing.

I just picked up the collection Tales Before Tolkien. It would appeal to many people here I imagine. Austin Tappan Wright, E. Nesbit, George MacDonald, Housmann, Dunsany, Hodgson, and some others I can't think of now. I'm looking forward to getting into it.


DrB

I've seen Tales Before Tolkien also. It looks like a great compendium of stories by a great number of bright lights from the last century. But . . .

I may or may not buy it--I have other anthologies and collections by most of the selected authors. But at first glance the book was a disappointment to me, in that it is basically unannotated. What then can we hope to learn about pre-Tolkien fantasists? Why should we be reading them in the first place? Those are questions that need forecful answers in the current dumbed-down fantasy market context.

Worse, the book is misleadingly marketed as a collection of works by authors influential to Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, when it's clear that Tolkien hadn't read most of those authors.

In other words, Tales Before Tolkien is a giant missed opportunity, because a scholarly examination of trends and influences in early modern fantasy would have been valuable and highly desirable.

There isn't anything like this available now?

I wonder if that encyclopedia that S. T. Joshi is working on will do this. Anyone know?

I'm just scratching the surface in fantasy, and I'm surprised that someone hasn't done a thorough study.

Numerous books have been written about the evolution of the fantasy genre. Many of them are bad, of course, but ther has been scholastic interest in the subject. And in fact, there are lots of monograph-length literary analyses of Tolkien's work. But to my knowledge none of them evaluates Tolkien in the context of his contemporary fantasists (other than C.S. Lewis).

Tales Before Tolkien could have done that. Instead, it's a bare-bones anthology with no useful annotation and, as such, is blindingly unilluminating.

Can you recommend some good anthologies. I'm planning on making some large Dunsany purchases later this year, but I'd like to get familiar with some of the more obscure authors. I fear that most will be out of print, and very difficult to find (but let's hope not).

DrB

The Inheirtince series by Paolini.
I read it and was impressed, Paolini is great!

I'll second Ford and Hughart. Both are excellent. Also, not enough people read Jonathan Caroll, Graham Joyce, and Tim Powers. All of them write some excellent stories.

Green Rider by Kristen Britain, and Illumination by Terry McGarry:)

Bear, speaking of Tim Powers....

Since I read the review of Pirates of the Caribbean on SfSite, I've been looking for TP's On Stranger Tides and can't find it at any of my usual used book stores. Looks like a used copy on Amazon is about $30 (ouch). Are pretty much all of his books of high quality, or are there those that I should stay away from? I'd like to read some of his work, but not sure if any of it should be on my stay away from list.

Michelle West. She's a great author and deserves more credit.
As far as I know she makes her living as a seller of fantasy books in Canada and writes in her spare time.
So there we have a lover of fantasy and a brilliant author as well.
I wonder why she's still a secret tip?

Another contemporary author who I feel is very under-rated is Sean McMullen. One of my favorite reads last year, and certainly a book that was beneath the radar for most everyone else was The Voyage of the Shadowmoon. It was a lovely little stand-alone that I would implore anyone to pick up. He has said that he will be adding additional novels to the world he created here, which I am all for since it was an interesting and compelling world.

His other series was recently reprinted by Tor in mmpb and starts out with Souls in the Great Machine. It is also great.

DrB

******************************

That is wonderful news about Glass Dragons. I am going to spend a lot of money on books in early 2004. I had better start saving now (and hiding the money from my wife). I read somewhere that McMullen was writing a possible novel for this world with his daughter. Maybe from his website. That would be interesting.

DrB

Hope I'm not too late to be helpful.

Powers is great, if taken in moderation. He is obviously intelligent and literate, combining say, Arthurian legend (a recurring thread) with the Tarot, and wrapping it all up in, for example, surreal urban fantasy which could as easily be decribed as a gangster tale, a love story, or a modern morality tale dealing with loss and redemption.

All of the above actually apply to Powers's novel "Last Call", which is probably his best. I'd suggest you start out with that one. Altenatively, try "The Drawing Of The Dark" or the more recent (but, in my opinion, slightly less sucessful, "Declare").

Stay away (for now) from "Earthquake Weather" and "Expiration Date", since these are effectively sequels to "Last Call" and aren't easy going for the novice.

If the above seems a little daunting (it shouldn't - Powers is exciting) you might want to start with "The Anubis Gates".

To get back to the original thread, here's a little list of authors I feel are overlooked:

Alan Garner (I don't think there's a word he's ever written which is not worthwhile);

Particia McKillip (okay, she's not "overlooked" as such, but she should certainly be looked at more often);

Peter S. Beagle (remember him?);

Nancy Springer (remember her?);

M. John Harrison (I've mentioned him repeatedly before in different threads, so I won't go on about him here);

Jack Vance (again, perhaps hardly "overlooked", but his Lyonesse and Dying Earth books get way too little exposure on this forum);

John Crowley (after "Little, Big", everyone seems to have forgotten about him. "Aegypt" is , however, a singular, poetic and utterly unique masterpiece; "Love And Sleep" is less awesome only by comparison);

Katherine Kurtz (you could get into arguments here, but her first two Deryni trilogies are landmarks in modern fantasy fiction);

Michael Scott Rohan (the first "Winter Of The World" trilogy);

Thomas Burnett Swann (very much forgotten, don't believe I ever saw him mentioned before - but try to check out, say, "Wolfwinter" or "Cry Silver Bells"; he used to be something of a recognised master);

Charles Williams (same sort of thing - one of the Inklings, now disregarded, unfortunately. Try to get "War in Heaven" or "Descent Into Hell").

And, yes, I could go on for a while.... For example by mentioning that everything Neologik, Jfclark (especially Messr. Clark!!), Fitz and JohnH has profferred is worthwhile, with the possible exception of Elizabeth Lynn (whom I don't consider to be special) and Deborah Christian and Paul Witcover (both of whom I don't know).

I know I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. A fantasy/mystery series that gets better and better with every book, instead of going down hill like most series. The first book is called Storm Front for all you people who would be interested.

Another book that I'm reading right now and is really good is Musashi. It's not a fantasy book but about a samurai who's looking to perfect himself, a love story, revenge, and some other things too. It's really good and based on a true story. Check out amazon if you want more info on any of the above.