What Are Your Favorite Dark Fantasy Series , Individual Books and Short Stories ?

Hobbit said:
Never understood why, but I really really didn't like this book*. (LINK) I found it twee, cloying and very annoying. I realise I am an exception, and I really should try more Beagle (we're about to get a slew of reissues here in the UK, I understand) which may suit me better.

*Randy has never forgiven me for not liking it! :)
Click to expand...

You might like The Innkeeper's Song better, which takes place in the Last Unicorn universe. It's less twee.
 
The Death of Malaygris By Clark Ashton Smith
Double Shadow by Clark Ashton Smith

Both quite dark and nasty .:)
 
The Night Land : A Story Retold by James Stoddard and William Hope Hodgson. This is story set millions of year on the future , The Sun has gone dark and mankind had been reduced to remnant living in a Seven Mile High Pyramid City. The surface of the earth is the stuff of nightmares and is infested by monsters and powerful evil entities that defy description .
 
This looks like a sequel to Jack Vance's Dying Earth. Still, it seems very interesting.
 
Raya said:
This looks like a sequel to Jack Vance's Dying Earth. Still, it seems very interesting.
Click to expand...

Hi, Raya.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but Vance's Dying Earth was first published in 1950, and Hodgson's The Night Land was first published in 1912. The Stoddard/Hodgson edition is more recent, 2011. (All dates courtesy of ISFDB.) Vance was probably aware of the Hodgson if not influenced by it.
 
There may have been some inaccuracy in my wording of that joke. I was referring to the state of the Earth in the two books, not the actual sequels.
In Dying Earth, the sun is turning red, and people are afraid that it will soon go out. But there are still towns and villages, fields and forests, and people are living pretty much normal lives.
In The Night Land, the situation is much worse. You yourself wrote that mankind has been reduced to remnant living in a Seven Mile High Pyramid City. That's why I was joking about the sequel.
 
Raya said:
There may have been some inaccuracy in my wording of that joke. I was referring to the state of the Earth in the two books, not the actual sequels.
In Dying Earth, the sun is turning red, and people are afraid that it will soon go out. But there are still towns and villages, fields and forests, and people are living pretty much normal lives.
In The Night Land, the situation is much worse. You yourself wrote that mankind has been reduced to remnant living in a Seven Mile High Pyramid City. That's why I was joking about the sequel.
Click to expand...

On the Subject of the Night Land have you read The Night Land : A Story Retold by James Stoddard and William Hope Hodgson? :)
 
Raya said:
There may have been some inaccuracy in my wording of that joke. I was referring to the state of the Earth in the two books, not the actual sequels.
In Dying Earth, the sun is turning red, and people are afraid that it will soon go out. But there are still towns and villages, fields and forests, and people are living pretty much normal lives.
In The Night Land, the situation is much worse. You yourself wrote that mankind has been reduced to remnant living in a Seven Mile High Pyramid City. That's why I was joking about the sequel.
Click to expand...

Definitely my misreading.
 
Raya said:
Yes, this book.
Click to expand...

Ive read Hodgson's book and between the two, Stoddards version of the story is far superior and a great book in its own right. There also other writers who have written stories set in Hodgson's Night Land. ive not read them as of yet.
 
Last edited:
I only found out about the existence of these books relatively recently. On the other hand, I read "The Dying Earth" and many of the other Vance books a long time ago.
The problem is that I read a lot, very fast, and sometimes I get the names of books and authors mixed up. If I suddenly write something stupid, please don't be angry with me!
 
Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson This is probably one of the best werewolf novel ever written by one of the great writer of science fiction and fantasy . Williamson while premise and story with regard to Lycanthropy in all its forms is quite interesting .:cool:
 
Last edited:
Raya said:
I only found out about the existence of these books relatively recently. On the other hand, I read "The Dying Earth" and many of the other Vance books a long time ago.
The problem is that I read a lot, very fast, and sometimes I get the names of books and authors mixed up. If I suddenly write something stupid, please don't be angry with me!
Click to expand...

There is book you mintght want check out

Songs of the Dying Earth : Stories in Honor of Jack Vance edited by George R R Martin and Garrder Dozes .:cool:
 
Raya said:
I read this book a few years ago. But thanks anyway.
Click to expand...

Your welcome. :)

I make it point to recommend great anthologies too , What's sad is that many readers don't even give them a second look. They don't know what they miss out on.:confused:
 
In those books I found short stories by Patricia McKillip and Tanith Lee that I hadn't read before. So these great anthologies can be very useful.
 
There are three anthologies that might be of interest; maybe not every story, but many of them:

The Weird ed. by Jeff & Ann Vandermeer
Black Water ed. Alberto Manguel
Black Water 2 ed. Albert Manguel (alternate title, White Fire)

The fantastic in these stories is often dark, but especially in the Manguel volumes, usually contemporary to the time of writing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsors


We try to keep the forum as free of ads as possible, please consider supporting SFFWorld on Patreon


Your ad here.

Latest posts

Back
Top