(1) HUNDRED BEST. Unbound Worlds knows there’s nothing like a “best” list to get everyone riled up. To that end they present “The 100 Best Fantasy Novels of All Time”. I’ve read a solid 15 of these, which tells you I’m not a big fantasy fan, but even I know they should have picked a different Pratchett book.
It was daunting, but we did it: a list of the one hundred best fantasy books of all time. What was our criteria? Well, we loved these these books and thought they deserved to be on the list. That’s pretty much it. This list is totally subjective, and with a cut-off of one hundred books, we couldn’t include all of the amazing fantasy tales out there. We hope you look through this list and agree with a lot of our picks, and that you also find some new stories to pick up. If there’s anything we left out, please add it to the comments below — we’d love to see what books would be on your list!
So without further ado, here’s what makes our list of best fantasy books of all time (arranged alphabetically)! Fair warning: your TBR pile is about to get a lot bigger…
(2) NEW GROENING SERIES. The Verge’s Andrew Liptak reports “Matt Groening’s new animated fantasy show will premiere on Netflix in August”.
Matt Groening’s animated epic fantasy series has a release date: Netflix has revealed that Disenchantment will premiere on August 17th. The company also shared a handful of pictures that show off an art style that will be familiar to anyone who’s watched Futurama or The Simpsons.
Netflix officially announced the series last year. It’ll follow a “hard-drinking young princess” named Bean, an elf companion named Elfo, and her personal demon named Luci as they encounter all manner of fantasy creatures in a magical kingdom known as Dreamland. Netflix ordered 20 episodes of the show; the first 10 will premiere this year.
Drink it in, peasants! @Disenchantment, the latest series from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, premieres August 17 on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/INr3mDOzuB
— Netflix (@netflix) May 23, 2018
(3) HELP FRANKENSTEIN AUTHOR GET BUSTED. Sculptor Bryan Moore hopes to crowdfund the rest of the expenses of the Mary Shelley Bronze Bust Project. So far people have contributed $3,546 of the $16,000 goal.
To celebrate the 200th publication anniversary of the legendary novel “Frankenstein”, we’re donating a life size, bronze bust of Mary Shelley to the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, WA on August 30, 2018!!!!
While I’ve donated the last six months of my time sculpting Mary, I can’t get her across the finish line without your help to pay for the considerable costs at the bronze foundry to mold, cast, finish and fire the patina on the bust itself.
Mary Shelley is the second of three busts that MoPOP has graciously agreed to accept in my horror author bronze bust series; “Dracula” author Bram Stoker was unveiled in October, 2017, Mary Shelley will be installed on her birthday on August 30, 2018 and Rod Serling will be unveiled in 2019 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of “The Twilight Zone”. As you’ll see in the video, I’ve also sculpted and donated bronze busts of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe.
(4) SEEMS LIKE FOREVER. It was another busy day at the Romance Writers of America.
We are aware of and in communication with attorneys about the new trademark filing for the word "forever."
— RWA (@romancewriters) May 23, 2018
The author and agent have reported the trademark filing is being withdrawn. We’re glad to see the issue resolved so quickly and appreciate the romance community’s alertness. Members affected by issues like this can always contact RWA for author relations assistance. https://t.co/FMbZlQewxw
— RWA (@romancewriters) May 23, 2018
(5) TODAY IN HISTORY
- May 23, 1969 — Destroy All Monsters premiered.
(6) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
- Born May 23, 1933 — Joan Collins, who won genre fame as “City on the Edge of Forever’s” Edith Keeler.
- Born May 23, 1986 — Black Panther director Ryan Coogler
(7) COMICS SECTION.
- John King Tarpinian witnessed the first book tour at Non Sequitur.
- And Lio seems to have the wrong idea about The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
(8) PERSISTENT BELIEVERS. Did you think this was a settled question? Oh, such a silly person you are… “Loch Ness Monster’s Existence Could Be Proven With eDNA”.
Is the Loch Ness real? We may soon have an answer.
A team of scientists have proposed using actual science to figure out if the mythical creature allegedly lurking in Scotland’s River Ness is actually real.
Their proposal? Using environmental DNA, or eDNA, a sampling method already used to track movements in marine life. When an animal moves through an environment, it leaves behind residual crumbs of its genetics by shedding skin or scales, leaving behind feathers or tufts of fur, perhaps some feces and urine.
Scientists think those residual clues left behind by a monster like that of the Loch Ness could be collected by eDNA and subsequently used to prove its existence.
“This DNA can be captured, sequenced and then used to identify that creature by comparing the sequence obtained to large databases of known genetic sequences from hundreds of thousands of different organisms,” team spokesman Professor Neil Gemmell of the University of Otago in New Zealand told Reuters.
It’s certainly not the first time that people, scientifically minded or not, have attempted to track the legendary monster’s existence. A sixth century document chronicles the tale of an Irish monk named St. Columba, who banished a “water beast” to the bottom of the River Ness.
(9) JDA WILL PROVE LOVE. Since his lawsuit won’t even get its first hearing til October, Jon Del Arroz came up with a new plan to make people pay attention to him: “Announcement: Rally For Freedom And Anti-Discrimination Demonstration At Worldcon 76 San Jose” [Internet Archive].
Civil rights activist Erin Sith, trans for Trump, and I talked about this briefly on our livestream last Thursday. As we are both minorities on the right, we’ve both had a lot of shared similar experiences where those of privilege on the left have treated us inhumanly because we left the proverbial slave plantation they set up for us. 2018 is the year we will let our message be heard, in unity, in love, and for tolerance and diversity.
We are planning a gathering outside Worldcon 76 in San Jose, on Saturday, August 18th, 2018. I’ve talked with the city of San Jose and the convention center and we are cleared to go on their end. We cannot allow these institutions to willfully discriminate and spew hatred just because someone is an outspoken political personality. With Worldcon’s actions emboldening ConCarolinas and Origins to similarly attempt to harm and discredit other popular conservative authors because of politics, enough is enough….
(10) ANTIMATTER. Gizmodo swears it happened in 2015: “A Recent Hurricane Shot a Bolt of Antimatter Toward Earth”.
The detector onboard the plane measured a phenomenon that scientists have been interested in for decades: terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. It’s unclear exactly how it happens, but lightning in storms seems to accelerate electrons to nearly light speed. These electrons collide with the particles in the atmosphere, resulting in high-energy x-rays and gamma rays that scientists have measured in satellites and on the ground. The rays could also result from collisions between electrons and their antimatter partners, positrons.
The team behind the newest paper had a tool called the Airborne Detector for Energetic Lightning Emissions (ADELE) on board a hurricane-hunting WP-3D plane, according to the paper published recently in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
(11) UNDERGROUND. “New whisky distillery in Moray ‘like nothing else'”. It blends in with the landscape, but visits expected to double. Chip Hitchcock asks, “A side trip for next year’s Worldcon?”
The new distillery, on the Easter Elchies estate near Craigellachie in Moray, has been camouflaged under a vast turf roof, to blend in with the rolling hillside.
It is believed to be the most expensive in the country, going 40% over budget, with a total cost for the production facility and visitor centre of £140m.
The roof, with 10cm (4in) depth of turf and meadow flowers, covers 14,000 sq m.
Underneath are ventilation, vapour control, flexible waterproofing and irrigation systems.
Under those is a complex ceiling structure comprising 2,500 panels, few of them the same.
(12) HEAVY DEW. “GRACE mission launches to weigh Earth’s water” – BBC has the story. This is a replacement/upgrade for applauded 15-year-old satellites which will track icecaps, and sea/land exchanges.
A joint US-German mission has gone into orbit to weigh the water on Earth.
The Grace satellites are replacing a pair of highly successful spacecraft that stopped working last year.
Like their predecessors, the new duo will circle the globe and sense tiny variations in the pull of gravity that result from movements in mass.
These could be a signal of the land swelling after prolonged rains, or of ice draining from the poles as they melt in a warming climate.
The satellites were launched on Tuesday aboard a SpaceX rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California.
(13) SUMMA WHAT? Bakers are more activist in some parts of the country: “US student’s ‘Summa cum laude’ graduation cake censored”.
The South Carolina student’s mother had asked a local grocery store to print the term “Summa Cum Laude” (with the highest distinction) on her son’s cake.
The store censored the term “cum” deeming it offensive and put three hyphens in its place.
(14) TODAY’S CLICKBAIT. Frog in a Well asks “Was Hirata Atsutane Japan’s first Science Fiction writer?”
Maybe. Well, sort of. It kind of depends on how you define things.
Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843) was one of the key thinkers and popularizers of Japanese Nativism. He was a prolific writer, and most of what he wrote was aimed at proving that Japan was the center of the universe. In particular, he argued against Chinese learning, which was pointless, and to the extent it was any good, the Japanese had done it first. He argued against Indian (Buddhist) learning, which was pointless, and to the extent it was any good, the Japanese had done it first. He argued against European (Dutch) learning, which was pointless, and to the extent it was any good, the Japanese had done it first. As you may guess, he was a bit polemical. He was also pretty important in the creation and popularization of a specifically Japanese identity.
One of his important works is Senkyo Ibun (Strange tidings from the realm of the Immortals), 1822. This is an account of his interviews with the teenage tengu Kozo Torakichi. Tengu are the trickster/mountain goblin figures of Japanese folklore. Torakichi claimed to have been raised by them, and to have learned all the secrets of true Japanese-ness in the process.
(15) PERSONAL 451. Mr. Sci-Fi delivers “Ray Bradbury & Fahrenheit 451 – The Untold Story.”
Sci-fi whiz Marc Zicree shares stories his dear friend and mentor Ray Bradbury told him about the genesis of Fahrenheit 451 and gives a history of the work that includes first editions, plays, radio versions and movies.
[Thanks to Chip Hitchcock, JJ, Martin Morse Wooster, John King Tarpinian, Alan Baumler, Cat Eldridge, Mike Kennedy, Kendall, Andrew Porter, and Carl Slaughter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Rev. Bob.]
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1) Yes, Tim Powers is kind of a glaring omission from the list. If you want to go historical, Morris, Lord Dunsany, Clark Ashton Smith?
2) So that’s just Lisa, painted green, right?
9) What could /possibly/ explain the existence of a Trans for Trump org?
9) What could /possibly/ explain the existence of a Trans for Trump org?
Ugol’s Law.
One saving grace is his manifestation of Dunning-Krueger tends to be he declares a manufactured victory out of nothing. (Note, he posted the “my fan harassed Scalzi” video like it was some form of win-condition, rather than pathetic and sad.) So, hopefully, he’ll probably spin “they’re all ignoring me” as a victory in his mind and leave, and his followers will validate that read of the situation, and they’ll all give each other virtual high-fives.
Addendum: I’ve read 45 from the list.
Well let me tell you the story of a thing called WorldCon
Happening here in San Jose
They took action to protect their guests and members
and ejected one JDA
And now he whines and he sues
Oh, yes, protests and he sues,
and mockery is what he’s due,
He won’t get into the San Jose Worldcon,
no matter how hard he whines and sues
Now people are coming to this great convention
To have lots of SFnal fun,
While people who harass are stuck outside whining
in the San Jose August sun,
And now he whines and he sues
Oh, yes, protests and he sues,
and mockery is what he’s due,
He won’t get into the San Jose Worldcon,
no matter how hard he whines and sues
And all day long JDA stands outside
asking what will become of me?
No more will I get to enjoy panels and events
How dare they do this to me?
And now he whines and he sues
Oh, yes, protests and he sues,
and mockery is what he’s due,
He won’t get into the San Jose Worldcon,
no matter how hard he whines and sues
Now you patrons of Worldcon, rest free from scandal,
move on, and enjoy your day,
Remember — be polite in the real world and online,
and you won’t end up like JDA,
And now he whines and he sues
Oh, yes, protests and he sues,
and mockery is what he’s due,
He won’t get into the San Jose Worldcon,
no matter how hard he whines and sues!
1) I find myself wondering (having not looked) how many WFA-winning authors aren’t there? It makes me want to go back and check.
(1) 19/100, which is about usual for me with these lists. The list is fine for what it is – it doesn’t pretend to be more than the list-maker’s personal favorites, there are are some interesting entries (e.g. Watership Down and the Pern series) that make one think about the boundaries of fantasy, and it gives me a few new titles for my TBR pile.
OTOH, it doesn’t just include the wrong Pratchett, it also includes the wrong Guy Gavriel Kay.
9) What could /possibly/ explain the existence of a Trans for Trump org?
It only takes one person to create an ‘org’, so there you go. But I’m sure someone will jump up and list more people
And I see JDA is blurring lines again by calling her a ‘civil rights activist’ when she’s basically a gun rights person.
From what I can tell, she’s pretty much in the Milos-style of being ‘shocking’ and cashing in somewhat on right-wingers who can use her to point to.
She apparently lives here in San Francisco but I’ve never seen anything about her in the gay press here or heard anything.
I predict they’ll (1). Accost people going in and ask them “Do you know that WorldCon discriminates?” Thus setting up their narrative.
(2) Claim that anyone who waves them off is proof that they’re being discriminated against.
(3) Someone will get confrontational and they’ll use that to bolster their side.
Of course, this is the Bay Area and we’re used to crackpots being outside of large public events so most will just go around. Or snark comments loudly as they pass.
Holding a protest is something of an art. Protesting a multi-day convention is a really hard thing to do–particularly if you’re not used to being on your feet for hours at a time. If you get at least a dozen people to show up, it can be a kind of fun social event. If it’s just you and two or three other people, then it’s really miserable.
I agree that a viable strategy for him would be to set a goal of videoing people behaving badly–you don’t have to air the bit where you egged them on first. Get a couple of good clips and you can call the day a success and head home. Heck, call the whole thing a success and don’t go again. That’s what I’d bet on as the most likely outcome.
The counter strategy I’d suggest is either ignore him or smile and wave. Back when I used to march with Microsoft in the Seattle Gay Pride parades (say, mid 90s to 2005 or so) there was always a group of Fundamentalist Christian protesters with “Burn in Hell” signs. Every year they were on the same corner. Every year they had heavy police protection. And every year, we always smiled and waved at them.
One year it poured down rain. Heavy, cold rain that soaks you all the way to your underwear. Even in raincoats it was awful. Instead of 50-100 people, I think the Microsoft group had only 6 or 8 who actually marched. When we reached the Fundamentalist’s corner, there was just one guy there, holding his sign in the pouring rain, looking just as miserable as we were.
It was the weirdest thing. Just for a moment, I really loved that guy. Unlike our (and his) fair-weather friends, he upheld the tradition! I had the irrational urge to buy him a cup of hot coffee and tell him we were glad to see him. (Like the sheepdog and the wolf in the cartoon.) It wasn’t just me. We all tried extra hard to get a smile out of him. No luck, of course. Just because we saw him as a human being didn’t mean he felt that way about us.
But I’m still glad for that moment. Somehow it makes me feel better about myself. And if I see Mr. Del Arroz in San Jose, I plan to smile and wave.
@Lee
I always thought that line was “tools and cranks”; it never made sense any other way. (I’d have to rehear it and I don’t know where that 45 is. It was one my mother bought – not without some difficulty; they had to special-order it and it only showed up when they used the title on the other side (“The Golden Vanity”).)
(1) I didn’t count my reads. But I think it would easily be over 30. It would be closer to 40 if I could count works that come from the same world/author even if it was not the same title. e.g. Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar, Moorcock’s Elric, Howard’s Conan. etc.
FWIW, my reading of Hugo novels is almost done. It’s going to take a literary miracle to bump N.K. Jemisin out of the top spot on my ballot.
@imnotandrei
People define themselves using more than one dimension of their lives? They are not alone. I have a couple of trans folks that drift through my social media feeds that defy political/cultural stereotypes.
Regards,
Dann
Reality simply consists of different points of view. – Margaret Atwood
The Tullamore Dew distillery is just over an hour away from Dublin; I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dorsai contingent makes the pilgrimage.
Today is my annual eye exam, and for most of the afternoon I’ll be unable to read all but large large print, so the Hugo Packet would be a nice thing to have… but I see my tablet can be convinced to blow up the size of at least one of the stories that are available online.
@Dann I think you mis-cited me. 🙂 I *responded* to what you quoted, referencing Ugol’s Law — “If you ever ask ‘Am I the only one who…” the answer is “No”.
I’m not surprised there are “Trans for Trump” folks; it’s easy to believe someone lying to you when it suits your other goals.
1) I have only read 9 of these with a few more DNF. I swear I’ve read a lot of books, mostly SF not as much F. I have bought several of the listed books for my daughter though. Do I get half credit for that?
@imnotandrei
You are correct. That was rochrist’s post.
I apologize for creating any confusion.
VBR,
Dann
* <- After the Hair Club for Tribbles . <- Before hair club
Giving in to the confessional urge…
I’ve read 44, DNF’d a couple that I plan to get back to, and have about 10 to 15 more on my TBR list.
For the 100 Best, it appears (aside from a couple exceptions), if a book listed is part of a series, the book is the first in the series. So, the list should really be Top 100 Fantasy Books/Series.
I’m guessing it’s in the vein of the hypocritical attention-seeking that Milo Y does, such as marrying his boyfriend while vocally opposing marriage rights for LGBT people.
(9)
Indeed. It’s one of the qualities he has in common with his friend VD. Whether people ignore him, smile pleasantly at him, ridicule him, ask him to leave them alone, or have him removed for legal reasons (ex. if he violates appropriate conduct for a peaceful protest), he will declare it a victory, an event that validates him in every way, blah blah blah. That much is certain.
So how people react is irrelevant, since no matter how they react, JDA will claim that it totally proves whatever his demented assertion is.
With that spirit, you’ll do just fine in Dublin.
To be honest, I go to Dublin often enough to visit The Other Anna, and I have never been to visit Guinness, because that’s something that, like, tourists do. With Anna we went once, after a Belfast Con (Mecon X), to see Giant’s Causeway, and since it was a typical Irish August, it was cold, windy, and chucking down with freezing rain (for years I used the photos I took that day to illustrate January or February in my calendars). NorIron “summer” took even the Other Anna by surprise and so we ran inside the tiny gift shop to buy more appropriate clothing. The only thing they had was Guinness-branded padded jackets. Anna was aghast. “I can’t wear that!” she wailed. “I live in Dublin! they’ll think I’m a tourist!”
BTW, the Giant’s Causeway does absolutely deserves a side-trip from Dublin. It may be less impressive on a sunny warm day, but I don’t know anybody who happened to visit it during one.
@ P J Evans: You’re right – I was misremembering. So it’s just that the line has become more applicable, or applicable in a different way. Good enough.
Succumbing to Peer Pressure!111!!!!
From the list:
Read this author but not this book 7
Read the book (though some of those are bound volumes of two or more novels) 28
Read the series of which book is a part 23
Total: 58
Now on list to buy:
Devourers Indra Das
Library at Mount Char Scott Hawkins
Wildwood Dancing Juliet Marillier
9) after reading the suggestions and strategies, it occurred to me that I’ve seen a version of this elsewhere, and that elsewhere turns out to be two places: the instructions that Daughter Phelps has been videotaped giving to her psychofants and various bits and pieces I’ve seen and read on how scientologists are instructed to act when in confrontational situations; you’re always right, the other person is an idiot, provoke them so we can sue them, no need to get emotional about anything, your job is to make the other person emotional, etc., etc.
and, just to brush up:
ACLU Activist’s Guide
25/100, and that is not counting the DNF and, er, the ones where I saw the movie/TV series instead.
and San Jose code
As per @Anna. Yes, it always rains on the Giant’s Causeway. My cousin had her wedding reception at the hotel attached to the whiskey distillery there.
The lead Hugo Administrator continues to work on getting the Hugo Voter Packet to a point where he can release it. I do not think that it would productive to post the same message over and over each day. We haven’t forgotten it. We know that there are many people who want it. We aren’t going to keep it a secret when it’s up and running and when we’re confident that it works correctly.
hooboy, I’ve read a LOT of these. Including ones I started & DNF, it’s:
read: 62
read other book(s) in series: 7
read other book(s) by author: 18
really truly haven’t read: 13
Not having anything by Zelazny is *whack*, yo. Not having anything by BRADBURY, super-whack. Ditto Andre Norton imho.
I think the list creator is a good deal younger than I am.
robinareid: Library at Mount Char [by] Scott Hawkins
Major content warnings for just about everything, including sexual assault, torture, and graphic descriptions.
I’m not at all a fan of horror and I have no explanation for why I loved that book so hard, but I did. It’s mostly very grim, but has a soupçon of hope. The worldbuilding is a absolutely amazing.
Doctor Science, the point you made earlier about science fiction being a place for WWII folks to work through their war-related traumas is pretty much how I teach Jack Kirby’s Captain America in my comics course.
JohnFromGR: Now I want to see (national treasure) Chuck Tingle write a story about (regional gadfly) JDAs antics.
“Pounded in the Butt by the Non-sentient Manifestation of JDA’s Failure Mode of Clever.”
@Lee re Swatting. I hope they do get federal charges and I hope they get prison time. They got someone killed. Over a video game.
I was sent to what turned out to be a swatting call once, tho we didn’t know there was a term for it yet. Shitty (adult) kid living elsewhere decided to screw with her mom by calling the police and saying that her mom had called her from her apartment and her partner was currently in the process of trying to murder her. Oh and he was heavily armed and threatening murder/suicide, which is why we didn’t just kick the door in when we couldn’t get anyone to come to the door. If she had only said the first part we probably would have gone in and god knows what would have happened.
As it was we treated it as a barricaded suspect so we surrounded and watched the place with guns drawn for what felt like hours while our swat team was called in from their homes and assembled. This was all at an aprartment complex in the wee hours of the morning so eventually we had early rising neighbors coming out to see what the hell was going on. All of them said that both people in that apartment were nice as pie, they never heard anyone fighting and hadn’t heard anything like the screaming fight the daughter claimed.
Swat finally arrives and gets all duded up and rifles up and armoured up and ready to breach the door (with a battering ram that has a happy face painted on the end) and decide to knock one more time.
Mom answers and about pees herself when she sees the stack of burly body armoured guys at her door. I thought it must have been terrifying enough at the time but knowing more now than I did then about how often unarmed black people have been shot by police, and the crazily unnecessary circumstances in many of the shootings, I feel even worse for her in retrospect.
Boyfriend wasn’t even there, hadn’t been there that night at all. Thank god, because that defused everything immediately. If he had innocently been there or been the one to answer the door it could have been so much worse. Even if no one got hurt, given the info we had he would have been taken to the floor and cuffed and then started to sort things out. We would have been questioning them and searching the place for,the alleged weapons and getting her alone to make sure she wasn’t being scared or threatened into acting like nothing was wrong and it would have been really traumatic even if the worst case scenario didn’t happen.
Mom never heard the numerous knocks or attempts to contact her via phone because she has tinnitus and sleeps with a combination of a ceiling fan on high, a white noise machine, and earplugs to be able to sleep.
She filled us in on the daughters issues and wanted to press charges. It was all kicked up to detectives to follow up but because swatting wasn’t something on anyone’s radar at the time and stuff like this, or harassment in general, is really hard to prosecute across jurisdictions (daughter lived in another metro county) and even harder out of state because where does crime occur, where phone is dialled or where it’s picked up and police sent out? So it all got dropped and she got away with it.
I also feel terrible for the cop(s) who pulled the trigger(s) in that incident. One of my worst nightmares was always that I would shoot an unarmed person by mistake. To have done so because of someone making a fake phone call, OMG. I can’t even imagine. I hope they got the support and help they needed afterward, along with the victims. Because they were victimised too.
I remember that night as harrowing and stressful and infuriating and I was just part of the weapon used to lash out, not the victim. I also remember it as the night I discovered I was leaving peri- behind and heading into moenopause because my hot flashes manifest more as my body being unable to STOP sweating once it starts. It was a hot night to begin with and we were out there in polyestor and body armor pointing guns at a door for at least an hour and I was drenched by the end of it. You ever see little boys after they have been running around like crazy in the yard for a couple of hours? Hair soaked and and sweat pouring off them? Yeah, like that. It. Sucked.
So yeah, throw swatters in prison. Let out some of the yutzes who got caught selling weed if you need the space.
Posing after I went back and edited for language. Stuff like this makes my cop pottymouth pop right back out.
@Arifel: I was in Austin umpteen years ago for a SerCon and FACT organized a tour of the Celis brewery. There was a tap in the wall serving witbier. About as far away on the beer spectrum from Guinness as you can get, but good in its own way.
I’ve read 41 of the books on that list, and have a batch more in my TBR piles-or-files.
A fair number of the ones I’ve read wouldn’t make my list of 100 best fantasy novels, even though I liked a lot of them.
But then, if I made a list of 100 best fantasy novels, it’d tell you much more about me and my tastes than it would about the history (or hierarchies) of the fantasy novel…
I read 31 on the list. I’m missing many of the children’s and YA books due to growing up in another country. There are also a couple where I’m not sure if I read this particular book or another by the same author in the same series.
@Hampus Eckerman
Snarkery in defense of ignorance is not an attractive activity.
Neither Gene Wolfe nor his work would be described as “forgotten” by a reasonable person.
Neither Charles de Lint nor his work would be described as “forgotten” by a reasonable person.
Neither P.C. Hodgell nor her work would be described as “forgotten” by a reasonable person.
Jonathan Carroll. John Crowley. Lisa Goldstein. Jane Yolen.
L. Frank Baum, for God’s sake.
There are more than a few well-informed lists out there, from very well-read folks. Those are useful. But this list is little more than “100 Best Fantasy Novels on the shelves of a mid-sized Barnes & Noble in the ‘Sci-Fi’ section this month.
Kind of shocked that I’ve read nine of them, and pleased that Edward Eager’s Half Magic is included. Otherwise, I’d have squawked.
Judge Magney: There are more than a few well-informed lists out there, from very well-read folks. Those are useful.
Can you link to a couple of them? Because every list like this I’ve ever seen is half crap.
@Cat Rambo
You make a more telling point than you may realize when you mention Brittle Innings. There are probably more outstanding baseball fantasy novels out there than unicorn fantasies, but they’re mostly ignored in genre terms. Things Invisible To See. Shoeless Joe and The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. Summerland Roth’s The Great American Novel. The Natural embodies Arthurian elements far far more effectively than the average genre treatment.
Yet genre-focused commentators grow steadily more insular. Are there any prominent reviewers left who even approach Judith Merril’s willingness to address Miguel Angel Asturias and Mikhail Bulgakov alongside Simak, Budrys, and Lafferty?
@imnotandrei
Looking simply at whether authors made the list, 20-25% of WFA best novel or lifetime achievement winners (for writing). For best novels themselves, I think my count was three of nearly fifty, with one sequel also winning.
Another baseball fantasy from decades ago – “The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant” (the source material, of course, of the musical “Damn Yankees”).
@cmm
Thank you for sharing that. My dad was a cop and had the physical and mental scars to show for it. A hard job. Thank you for doing it!
@JJ
https://www.worldswithoutend.com/lists_pringle_fantasy.asp
is a very well-informed list. The best one I can recall was in Baird Searles et al’s Reader’s Guide to Fantasy, but my copy of that went astray a few years back, and it would be badly outdated anyway. I still miss Baird.
@JJ
*gulps nervously* Not a horror fan myself! I had to give on Martin’s Ice and Fire (although admittedly after the fifth one) because I could not stand the hell that the characters were going through. I may read a few more reviews of Hawkins’ book and see if I can figure out if I’m in a good enough place that I can read it.
Thank you!
So tell us again why anyone who is not American should care about baseball, fantastical or not.
So tell us again why anyone who is not American should care about baseball, fantastical or not.
Does your definition of “American” include Cubans, Mexicans, Venezuelans? Japanese, Koreans, Taiwanese?
Judge Magney: Pringle’s Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels (1946-1987)
Thank you for sharing that. It seems like a pretty decent list, although there are several entries on it which I think have been included because they are notable or well-known, but not necessarily that good.
It also consists entirely of works which are more than 30 years old, so it’s incomplete. It would be interesting to see what Pringle would include on a list which had been updated for 1946-2017.
Feline: So tell us again why anyone who is not American should care about baseball, fantastical or not.
Tell us why Americans should care, too, while you’re at it. Ugh, baseball. The only sport more excruciatingly boring is cricket.
(waits for the sports nuts to pile on)