Pixel Scroll 7/28 Pixels in My Pocket Like Scrolls of Sand

War, Famine, Conquest, Death, and a Puppy make up today’s Scroll.

(1) The headline reads “Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking Want to Save the World From Killer Robots” – more euphemistically called autonomous weapons.

Along with 1,000 other signatories, Musk and Hawking signed their names to an open letter that will be presented this week at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“Autonomous weapons are ideal for tasks such as assassinations, destabilizing nations, subduing populations and selectively killing a particular ethnic group,” the letter says. “We therefore believe that a military AI arms race would not be beneficial for humanity. There are many ways in which AI can make battlefields safer for humans, especially civilians, without creating new tools for killing people.”

(2) Margaret Atwood, in her article about climate change on Medium, senses perception of change is accelerating.

It’s interesting to look back on what I wrote about oil in 2009, and to reflect on how the conversation has changed in a mere six years. Much of what most people took for granted back then is no longer universally accepted, including the idea that we could just go on and on the way we were living then, with no consequences. There was already some alarm back then, but those voicing it were seen as extreme. Now their concerns have moved to the center of the conversation. Here are some of the main worries.

Planet Earth—the Goldilocks planet we’ve taken for granted, neither too hot or too cold, neither too wet or too dry, with fertile soils that accumulated for millennia before we started to farm them –- that planet is altering. The shift towards the warmer end of the thermometer that was once predicted to happen much later, when the generations now alive had had lots of fun and made lots of money and gobbled up lots of resources and burned lots of fossil fuels and then died, are happening much sooner than anticipated back then. In fact, they’re happening now.

One of the many topics she covers is the use of didactic fiction to awaken students to environmental problems.

Could cli-fi be a way of educating young people about the dangers that face them, and helping them to think through the problems and divine solutions? Or will it become just another part of the “entertainment business”? Time will tell. But if Barry Lord is right, the outbreak of such fictions is in part a response to the transition now taking place—from the consumer values of oil to the stewardship values of renewables. The material world should no longer be treated as a bottomless cornucopia of use-and-toss endlessly replaceable mounds of “stuff”: supplies are limited, and must be conserved and treasured.

(3) Of course, what people usually learn from entertainment is how to have a good time. Consider how that cautionary tale, The Blob,has inspired this party

Phoenixville, Pennsylvania — one of the filming locations for “The Blob” — hosts an annual Blobfest. One of the highlights for participants is reenacting the famous scene when moviegoers run screaming from the town’s Colonial Theatre.

(4) However, there are some fans who do conserve and treasure their stuff, like Allen Lewis, who recently donated his large sf collection:

The University of Iowa has struck gold. Not the kind that lies in the federal reserve, but one of paper in a Sioux Falls man’s basement. After 20 years of collecting, he is donating his one-of-a-kind collection of 17,500 books worth an estimated three quarters of a million dollars.

(5) And the University of Iowa makes good use of the material, for example, its project to digitize the Hevelin fanzine collection:

Hevelin-fanzines-e1437769140485Now, the pulps and passion projects alike will be getting properly preserved and digitized so they can be made accessible to readers and researchers the world over. The library’s digitization efforts are led by Digital Project Librarian Laura Hampton. She’s just a few weeks into the first leg of the project, digitizing some 10,000 titles from the collection of Rusty Hevelin, a collector and genre aficionado whose collection came to the library in 2012. You can follow along with Hampton’s work on the Hevelin Collection tumblr.

“These fanzines paint an almost outrageously clear picture of early fandom,” said Hampton. “If you read through every single fanzine in our collection, you would have a pretty solid idea of all the goings-on that shaped early fandom—the major players, the dramas, the developments and changes, and who instigated and opposed them. There is an incredible cultural history here that cannot be replicated.”

(6) The DC17 Worldcon bid has Storified a series of tweets highlighting reasons for vote for their bid.

https://twitter.com/DCin17/status/626081453638483968

It absolutely is an All-Star committee.

(7) JT in Germany has posted his picks in the Best Related Works category, and Antonelli’s Letters from Gardner ranked at the top of his personal scorecard.

Letters from Gardner by Lou Antonelli — 3 of 5 This is the one I was most interested in, as it’s about the actual mechanics of writing. It’s a series of short stories, starting as he’s trying to break into publishing short science fiction, and follows his career. Each of the stories is paired with an intro and follow-up about the changes the stories went through, including his interactions with famed editor Gardner Dozois. Unfortunately, the included sample was only just getting into the interesting part of his correspondence. It was good enough that I’ll be buying it soon enough.

(8) Another successful crowdfunding effort is bringing out Lovecraft: The Blasphemously Large First Issue, a new comic that portrays H.P. Lovecraft as “a modern-day, kick-ass action hero & alchemist.”

Writer Craig Engler is thrilled to report the copies have arrived from the printers and will be going out to donors. Lovecraft 48 pg COMP

(9) Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C.S. Lewis by Abigail Santamaria is due out August 4. The biography of Helen “Joy” Davidman. Katie Noah’s review appears in Shelf Awareness (scroll down).

Joy cover

While she clearly admires her subject, Santamaria acknowledges Joy’s failings: her tendency to exaggeration and even lying; the spending sprees she could rarely afford; her troubled relationship with her parents and brother. Joy’s marriage to Bill also receives an even-handed treatment. Bill was undoubtedly an alcoholic who struggled to maintain a stable family life, but Santamaria clearly outlines the part Joy played in the failure of their marriage.

Frustrated by professional and personal setbacks, Joy uprooted her life–and that of her two young sons–to travel to England in 1952. She had struck up a flourishing correspondence with Lewis, and she set out to woo her literary lion. Santamaria chronicles the difficulties of Joy’s life in England and Lewis’s reaction to her arrival, but admits that, in the end, they did fall deeply in love. As Joy’s health began to fail, her relationship with Lewis flourished, and their last few years together were blissful.

(10) When Syfy isn’t busy feeding celebrities to sharks, they produce episodic sci-fi shows like the new Wynonna Earp project.

This classic by Beau Smith which was brought to us by IDW Publishing is being given a 13 episode first season run and stars Melanie Scrofano (‘RoboCop‘,’Saw VI’) in the lead role! She’ll be playing the great granddaughter of Wyatt Earp and works for The Monster Squad. Following in his infamous footsteps, she works with the US Marshals, only in a secret department that tracks down fiends that are just a bit more sinister than your regular criminal.

(11) They’re also readying an adaptation of Clarke’s Childhood’s End — here’s the supertrailer shown at Comic-Con

[Thanks to Mark, Andrew Porter, Michael J. Walsh, Martin Morse Wooster, Linda Lewis, John King Tarpinian and David K.M. Klaus. Title credit to Brian Z.]

 

182 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 7/28 Pixels in My Pocket Like Scrolls of Sand

  1. 1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    Lord Foul’s Bane, Stephen R. Donaldson

    Donaldson, despite the nastiness(and sometimes because of it?), is an amazing writer.
    Did anyone read his Gap series?

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock
    Intellectually it should be 100 Years, but Elric was my first Eternal Champion.

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander

    Taran Wanderer and The High King are my favourite Prydain books.

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Witch World, Andre Norton – Isn’t Witch World SF sorta?
    Watership Down, Richard Adams – Gets The Win, despite owning all the Witch World books

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin

    I love Earthsea and Tenar is a great character.

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    To be especially anachronistic I am going to do a write in from above but in the wrong place so it won’t help

    John Brunner, The Compleat Traveller In Black.

  2. And here we see why a series Hugo would be A Good Thing; picking one novel out of a series to contrast with another book from a different series feels very, very strange.

    1. Riddling Most Foul: I dislike both series; there should be an option to sew the books into a bag together and drop it into the Bosphorus. Unfortunately we’d probably be arrested.

    2. Centurion battles with the Eternal Champion: I’m going to be a bit picky about genres, so Elric gets the nod.

    3. You are right about the improbability of this; it’s just as well we are past Grace Slick, or I would be wondering what you’ve taken. I suppose Tanith Lee works best for this.

    4. Strumming a lute whilst hoping for a Royal Flush; Amber, probably the greatest, and certainly the most unexpected, literary spinoff from studying Jacobean theatre, which, taken with Zelazny’s mastery of a blade, produced the most believable sword fights I have ever read. The whole thing is wonderful.

    5. Searching for crystalline clarity, it has to be Mary.

    6. I hate bunnies. Hares are fun, bunnies slaughtering each other not nearly so enticing, but on the other hand Andre Norton wrote better books than Witch World. I’d still rank her as winner, because bunnies..

    7. Has to be Ursula; I tried rereading some of the Deryni books last year and they have not worn well.

    8. Abstain. These are not my sort of books.

    9. Cherryh, by a mile. Or 1.4 kilometres, depending on where you are reading this.

  3. Tintinaus

    I actually enjoyed the Gap Series, which I hadn’t expected; also the two parter he wrote whose title eludes me. I just don’t like The Covenant books…

  4. Kyra, if Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber meets your short story collection criteria, could you please replace my ironic vote for Terry Brooks with a serious one for Carter? Cheers.

    Abigail Nussbaum’s review of Gloriana:

    While reading Gloriana, I often found myself thinking of Angela Carter’s hilarious, picaresque adventure, Nights at the Circus, and the interesting accompaniment that it makes to Moorcock’s novel. Like Gloriana, Carter’s novel deals with a woman in an unusual amount of power and autonomy, who is troubled by the notion of giving a part of herself up to love…

    From Carter’s 1988 review of Mother London, reprinted in Shaking a Leg:

    …across the ad hoc structure and the unapologetically visionary quality of it all necessarily falls the incandescent shadow of William Blake, for whom there was no distinction between the real and the imaginary and whose phantom rises again every time we see a way out of that particular trap.

    … Mother London is organised as an anthology of memories — recollections from the pasts of a group of men and women who meet regularly at an NHS clinic (under threat) to collect their tablets and enjoy group therapy… The grandly eccentric old man, Josef Kiss, can hear what people think… We can hear the voices, too. The narrative is seamed with them, voices in a multitude of tongues, speaking platitudes, mouthing sexual paranoia, prejudice, gossip, wild talk, abuse… the city talking to herself. She is not a loving mother. But we must take her as we find her; she is the only one we have…

    Posterity will certainly give him that due place in the English literature of the late twentieth century which his more anaemic contemporaries grudge…

  5. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
    Lord Foul’s Bane, Stephen R. Donaldson
    Difficult but I vote for
    The Riddle-Master of Hed

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock
    I never really got into Elric. One Hundred Years of Solitude

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander
    Night’s Master, Tanith Lee
    A tricky one because so dissimilar. Night’s Master just edges it.

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    The Old Gods Waken, Manly Wade Wellman
    Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
    A bit of a cheat since I haven’t read the Wellman but still voting for Nine Princes in Amber

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
    The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart
    Also tricky, which means Kyra is doing a great job on these! The Crystal Cave

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Witch World, Andre Norton
    Watership Down, Richard Adams
    Watership Down. How clever of you to squarely identify this as fantasy. I read this when I was eight and it’s the first book where I turned back immediately to the beginning to read it again. And of course I found more and more in it as I reread it over the succeeding years. It shaped so much about my preferences in books. I even forgive it for the drippy female characters.

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
    Deryni Rising, Katherine Kurtz
    I have a great fondness for the Deryni but this has to go to The Tombs of Atuan

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Face in the Frost, John Bellairs
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman
    Abstain, since I haven’t read The Face in the Frost.
    Actually, no, I’ll echo somebody from before (Nigel?) and write in The Third Policeman here, since it was published in the sixties. I think it’s fantasy, notwithstanding the remarkable science of DeSelby.

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
    Fortress in the Eye of Time, C. J. Cherryh
    Ouch ouch. I have to vote for The Dragon Waiting because of its genius, even though I find it a little cold and would probably sooner reread Fortress.

  6. I am still reeling from the elimination of God Stalk but Bridge of Birds is a wonderful novel so some bitterness is abated.

    1. The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
    2. Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock
    3. Night’s Master, Tanith Lee
    4. The Old Gods Waken, Manly Wade Wellman
    5. The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart
    6. Witch World, Andre Norton
    7. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
    8. The Face in the Frost, John Bellairs
    9. The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford

  7. > “To be especially anachronistic I am going to do a write in from above but in the wrong place so it won’t help”

    I’m not being especially picky about which specific bracket the votes are coming from for a write-in.

  8. 1. The Riddle-Master of Hed.

    2. Abstain, insufficiently well – read.

    3. Taran Wanderer.
    Tanith Lee was an author that I feel I ought to have loved; her fairy-tale and dark fantasy themes, use of language, and so on. But I never quite made an emotional connection with her work. I am sad about this.

    4. Nine Princes in Amber.

    5. The Last Unicorn.
    I think I fictionally imprinted on this book, as a very young duckling reader.

    6. Watership Down.
    Epic bunnies. Anthropological bunnies.

    7. The Tombs of Atuan.
    The Deryni books were fun, but nowhere near as deep as the Earthsea books.

    8. And 9. Abstain

  9. (Incidentally, Brian Z, Nights at the Circus was #17 on my list of 80’s fantasy to go on the bracket, and Carter was probably the single author I was least happy about leaving off the bracket this time around.)

  10. New collection of Meiville short stories reviewed by Ursula Le Guin

    YESPLEASE!

    I’m never going to get to Iain Banks, am I? Can you all please start dis-recommending some books, please?

  11. Bold font is my pick:

    1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
    Lord Foul’s Bane, Stephen R. Donaldson

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander
    Night’s Master, Tanith Lee

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    The Old Gods Waken, Manly Wade Wellman
    Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
    The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Witch World, Andre Norton
    Watership Down, Richard Adams

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
    Deryni Rising, Katherine Kurtz

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Face in the Frost, John Bellairs
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
    Fortress in the Eye of Time, C. J. Cherryh
    – I love Cherryh, especially her Fortress books, but The Dragon Waiting is a true classic.

  12. 1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip

    Pfff, I wouldn’t vote for Donaldson to be elected dogcatcher.

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

    Elric will probably win, but my voting against him would make him feel unappreciated and put upon and probably required to go kill his sister, which would make him happy.

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    Abstain, have read neither

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

    Crystal Cave might have held out against somebody else, but the Red Bull will drive it into the sea right here.

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Watership Down, Richard Adams

    I really liked the recent remake with Charlize Theron as Bigwig.

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin (WHICH WAS FAR SUPERIOR TO WIZARD OF EARTHSEA I DON’T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS)

    Sorry, Kurtz.

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    All jokes will have been made by the time this posts.

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
    Fortress in the Eye of Time, C. J. Cherryh

    …oh, hell. John Ford, because of How Much For Just The Planet narrowly beats Cherryh even though I would eat sand for another sequel to Rider at the Gate.

  13. I am not that big into the Cure, but I’m gonna spend some time with my Nick Cave albums and a glass of bourbon if this keeps up.

  14. 1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock

    Abstain. I haven’t read Moorcock, and I went to a Colombian high school and was MADE to read Marquez, and have had an irrational grudge ever since, as well as the more rational conviction that Cortazar and Borges are both better.

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Red as Blood, Tanith Lee (or Kill the Dead by Tanith Lee, if you object to story collections). I adore Tanith Lee, but Night’s Master was one of her few books I bounced off of.

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

    I loved Mommy Fortuna best of all.

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Face in the Frost, John Bellairs
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    Abstain. Have not read Bellairs, and The Princess Bride book was trying WAY too hard.

  15. I *should* abstain, because I’ve not read the Wellman (someone tell me about the Wellman?) but if Amber hadn’t been on the ballot I’d’ve written it in.

    Ah, the stories here are about a gentle man, a traveling singer, who roams the mountains of the South…and the strange things he encounters and the songs he collects and trades. I believe his first appearance was in a story called “Who Fears the Devil?”

    These stories are prized by many filkers who have tracked down the songs in the stories and learned them. (I have “Little Black Train” and “Vandy” in my repertoir.)

    My favorite is a vignette called “The Stars Down There.”

  16. 1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    Abstain

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    Abstain

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    The Old Gods Waken, Manly Wade Wellman

    I will never forgive Zelazny for ending one of the Amber books by someone walking into the Pattern…and resolving NOTHING in that book.

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK

    The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart

    (Beagle I love you, but I was a Mary Stewart fan first)

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Watership Down, Richard Adams

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS

    Deryni Rising, Katherine Kurtz

    (I’d have picked “Lammas Night” or “The Adept” series)

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY

    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford

  17. 1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
    I don’t normally start drinking at (check the local time) 6:14 A.M. but I need to get the awful taste out of my mouth. Donaldson was so much dreck.

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock
    An easy win for the albino

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander
    Night’s Master, Tanith Lee
    Tough call, I love some Tanith Lee but this wasn’t my favorite, so I have to support TARAN WANDERER for the win

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
    Wellman I like, but I’m reading Zelazny again right now, as soon as I get offline (actually I’m just at the end of book 10).

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart
    I read these and never looked back. There is no other Merlin for me. I was just reading them again a week ago.

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Witch World, Andre Norton
    Watership Down, Richard Adams
    Aaaargh. Two great choices, I’ll give it to WITCH WORLD only because I’ve never found enough Adams supporters to run a game of Bunnies and Burrows (the role playing game based on Watership Down).

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    Deryni Rising, Katherine Kurtz
    Le Guin gets the press, but I actually like Kurtz’s characters more, so DERYNI RISING wins.

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman
    Princess Bride ftw, I first read the fight on the cliffs in a collection of authors favorite readings. What a great story.

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
    I really like Cherryh’s science fiction but the fantasy not as much, and I really love Ford’s writing.

  18. 1. The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip – tough choice. McKillip probably helps herself by deciding one trilogy was enough and it was time to move on to unrelated projects.

    2. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez – I don’t feel great about it but this is mostly a vote against Elric. I’ve only read one anthologised Elric tale, probably novella length, and it didn’t do much for me.

    3. Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander – read it when I was more or less the right age. Probably best if I don’t revisit it with adult standards but I have very fond memories. Sorry, Tanith – I swear I’ll read the collection of yours waiting for me at home soon and find out what I’ve been missing.

    4. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny – haven’t read the other but can’t regard that as an impediment when Amber is involved. Though long descriptions of shadow shifting and pattern walking could both get somewhat tedious after the first couple of occurrences.

    5. The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart – have read neither unless one counts the graphic novel of The Last Unicorn. Consider this a vote on behalf of my sister, who read what looked like all the available Mary Stewart as a teen.

    6. Watership Down, Richard Adams – no contest. Neither the one Witchworld novel I tried, nor The Zero Stone nor the one or two Norton juveniles I recall did much for me. Except, now that i think harder and have verified authorship online, Dragon Magic was quite good thought my pre-teen self.

    7. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin – inconceivable that reading the Kurtz would change this vote. Not sure I feel strongly which of this or A Wizard of Earthsea would be best to carry on with.

    8. The Princess Bride, William Goldman – several people I trust say the book is superior to the movie. Good enough for me.

  19. I hate bunnies

    I love bunnies.
    In a pie, with carrots and cider and cream. With chips. And more cider.

  20. 1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
    No contest.

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    Abstain. Not thrilled by either of them.

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    The Old Gods Waken, Manly Wade Wellman

    This was very tough.

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
    Again, tough.

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Watership Down, Richard Adams

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford

    No contest, imho.

  21. 5. The Last Unicorn

    I like the way he spins a sentence. This is similar to why I like Catherynne Valente’s work (when I like it, which is not always).

    8. The Princess Bride

    I think the book and movie should be must-reading/watching for any screenwriter trying to adapt a book to a film. Especially their own. What is left in, what is left out, what works differently in the visual medium. This is the best comparative example that I have.

  22. Lori Coulson, Is the Wellman about a guy named… John?.. with a silver-stringed guitar? Because I think I *have* read them; I just forgot. Good stories. I’ll stick with Amber, though.

  23. I was actually thinking about how I could just write in Diana Wynne Jones books for all of these categories…but then again, the 80s might have been better for that.

    1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip

    Aside from the prose that’s just a shade away from poetry, McKillip somehow avoided including “Our Hero just raped his friend! Oh see how this act makes him suffer!”. For some reason this omission makes me place the McKillip even higher.

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    Dogsbody, Diana Wynne Jones. The first DWJ I read deserves to be in here.

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Night’s Master, Tanith Lee

    I loved Taren Wanderer as a teen, but Night’s Master is just so brilliant, subtle, poetic. It also doesn’t feel like it’s trying to teach us a lesson, even as our heroine grows.

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS

    Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny

    A fantasy epic looked at through a cynical modern lens, with dashes of the poetic for seasoning. This is what GRRM was aiming for, in a form where the entire series could fit in a corner of one of his volumes.

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    Charmed Life, by Diana Wynne Jones. Because GREAT ENCHANTER CHRESTOMANCI damn it#

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR

    Wasn’t Watership Down the alternative title to Startide Rising?

    Anyway, despite how personally influential Norton has been to me, I I’m going to vote for this:

    The Spellcoats, Diana Wynne Jones. Because of the characterization, the bad decisions made from good intentions, the chaotic flight leading to the characters gradually realizing how high the stakes are. The cubical look at kingship. The magic based on WEAVING. Brilliant.

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin

    But I would swap in A Wizard of Earthsea, as that one really stands alone.

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    I considered “The Ogre Downstairs” for this category, before reluctantly giving it to this surprisingly cynical satire of romantic literature. Before Pratchett, I guess humor was either bitterness or bad puns.

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    I’m going to toss in Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Lieber- Which I almost put in the humor bracket. Excellent prototypical urban fantasy/comedy/horror.

  24. “3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN”

    I also just want to say that I’m impressed that we made it so far into the brackets before you made this joke.

  25. Lori: I’d have picked “Lammas Night”

    Someone else loves Lammas Night!!! I love that book!

  26. Lori Coulson, Is the Wellman about a guy named… John?.. with a silver-stringed guitar? Because I think I *have* read them; I just forgot. Good stories. I’ll stick with Amber, though.

    Yes, Silver John or John the Balladeer. There were a couple of short story collections, then a series of novels that I really do plan to read one of these days.

  27. A bracket where I’ve read enough to vote. Yay me!

    Journey back with me to … THE SIXTIES AND THE SEVENTIES!

    1. Abstain
    I was very appreciative of Jack Harness’ masquerade appearance as “Lord Bane’s Fowl” but that isn’t the same as having read the book.

    2. Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock

    I enjoyed Moorcock’s iconoclastic fiction. His opinion of Tolkien, no.

    3. Abstain

    4. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny

    Really enjoy Wellman, but as a writer he’s not in a league with Zelazny.

    5. Abstain

    6. Watership Down, Richard Adams

    7. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin

    While I would be proud to write something as good as the Deryni series, it’s just not up there with Earthsea.

    8. The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    My name is blah blah blah. Who can beat that?

    9. Abstain

  28. 1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
    Lord Foul’s Bane, Stephen R. Donaldson

    Not read one, don’t care for Covenant enough. Abstain.

    The Gap series was actually quite interesting, but he felt the need to write an opening book of unpleasantness before getting to the story.

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock

    Elric.

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander
    Night’s Master, Tanith Lee

    Abstain/Amazon

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    The Old Gods Waken, Manly Wade Wellman
    Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny

    Sealant. Which is what Zelazny auto corrected to.

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
    The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart

    Abstain (and more Amazon)

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Witch World, Andre Norton
    Watership Down, Richard Adams

    Oooo, close, but Watership for childhood nostalgia.

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
    Deryni Rising, Katherine Kurtz

    Even if I didn’t like Le Guin, I’m not a major fan of Kurtz.

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Face in the Frost, John Bellairs
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    Princess Bride. It’s a great pity that Goldman found such gainful employment in script writing, because he must have had some more great books in him.

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
    Fortress in the Eye of Time, C. J. Cherryh

    Abstain.

  29. Tintinaus on July 29, 2015 at 8:05 am said:

    Donaldson, despite the nastiness(and sometimes because of it?), is an amazing writer.
    Did anyone read his Gap series?

    I’ve made several attempts to read the Thomas Covenant books but have given up every time after getting through a sizeable chunk. Like the world, dislike the protagonist.

    Similarly with the Gap series I didn’t get very far due to the characters being unpleasant. I did, however, enjoy his two Mordant’s Need books quite a lot.

  30. THE SIXTIES AND THE SEVENTIES!

    1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip

    One of my favorites ever though I did mistakenly “assign” to R. A. MacAvoy once during a senior moment.

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock

    Abstain: I haven’t read either one.

    I tried Moorcock once and put it down in disgust after the first page (don’t even remember what it was—but it was during the 70s).

    Years ago, well, decades ago, in um 1978 or 79, I was in my first year as a graduate student, and was sitting in my office reading some sff when my office mate came in, swept my pile of sff books OFF my desk and into the f*(&%#()WQ&%*( garbage can, and dumped Marquez and some of the other New Big Name MAGICAL REALISM authors on my desk, and declaimed “stop reading garbage and read these.”

    I put them on his desk, retrieved my sff books from the garbage can, and told him that I intended to keep reading MY stuff. Turned out that episode so prejudiced me against those authors (I later read some of the women magical realists) that I never read Marquez or the other one whose name I cannot remember.

    There are ways to encourage people to read what one loves. Telling them that what they love is garbage is not a very good way.

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Night’s Master, Tanith Lee

    Lee: one of the UNSUNG Geniuses, and Night’s Master—wow, that was AMAZING to find and read (it may have been my first Lee).

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
    The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart
    AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!11!!!!! *writhes in anguish* GGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGGGGGGG….sobs sobs sobs.
    This was a hard one, guys.

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Witch World, Andre Norton

    Not given the credit she deserves for all the stuff she did—this also may have been my first Norton.

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    Fortress in the Eye of Time, C. J. Cherryh

    What’s time travel for if not a bit of anachronism!

  31. I am alone in my love for The Face in the Frost 🙂 Curse you William Goldman — I loved the movie more than the book but the bracket looks dire.

    From no less than Ursula Le Guin, “The Face in the Frost takes us into pure nightmare before we know it—and out the other side.”

  32. I’m shocked and horrified by the number of people voting against Amber; this is no way to run a railway.

    Gaiman, Brust and Martin have all said that they’d love to write Amber but Roger Zelazny told all three of them that Amber was off limits, which makes it all the worse that the estate sanctioned the prequels.

    This is probably the point to insert a heartfelt plea to everyone to make sure you plan what you want done with your intellectual property before you meet the guy who always talks in CAPITAL LETTERS…

  33. I live in East Sussex, we had our yearly lammas festival last weekend.
    I go every year, it’s a fine mix of ale, local crafts, ale, music, and ale.

  34. I can only vote in two categories. What a pathetic embarrassment my reading record is.

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    The Old Gods Waken, Manly Wade Wellman
    Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny

  35. @Stevie. Word.

    I have a continually updating mental wish list of writers I’d love to do a Amber Anthology that will never happen. After reading an Arc of HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS, Aliette de Bodard is now on it–she certainly could do stuff with Houses of Chaos

  36. Rrede

    I was quite heartened by the amount of stuff I recalled. I still don’t know what I was doing in the 80s…

    Paul

    +1

  37. Hey, an era with a significant number of books I’ve actually read, cool!

    1. The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip

    A gimme, a book for which I have had an enduring love for the majority of my life put up against one of the worst books I’ve ever read.

    2. Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock

    4. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny

    5. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

    6. Watership Down, Richard Adams

    7. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin

    I was devoted to the Deryni series, even into the Camber of Culdi books, but this isn’t really close.

    8. The Princess Bride, William Goldman

  38. So the Lovecraft comic is about a guy who sounds like a mash up of Constantine and Ash and nothing like Lovecraft but he fight monsters Lovecraft wrote about. Regardless about how people feel about the writer, aside from the name and monster references it sounds like it has nothing in common with the style, writing or tone of his work. Which isn’t a bad thing to take a historical character and play around with them, I just don’t think it’s for me. Though I’m thinking of starting a KS for Bill Shakespeare: Elven Assassin or Burroughs: Martian Manhunter

  39. Rrede: Let me make a better argument for Garcia Marquez, then. 🙂 His work varies in quality, and some of his later novels have hangups that approach late Heinlein novels. But, particularly in his early novels and stories, he uses magical realist element to dramatize all the myriad ways we wall ourselves from each other, the world, and ultimately ourselves, and the ways the world and others (and our own suppressed desires for reunion) break them down.

    Also, he wrote good. This is the opening to One Hundred Years Of Solitude:

    Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point. Every year during the month of March a family of ragged gypsies would set up their tents near the village, and with a great uproar of pipes and kettledrums they would display new inventions. First they brought the magnet. A heavy gypsy with an untamed beard and sparrow hands, who introduced himself as Melquíades, put on a bold public demonstration of what he himself called the eighth wonder of the learned alchemists of Macedonia. He went from house to house dragging two metal ingots and everybody was amazed to see pots, pans, tongs, and braziers tumble down from their places and beams creak from the desperation of nails and screws trying to emerge, and even objects that had been lost for a long time appeared from where they had been searched for most and went dragging along in turbulent confusion behind Melquíades’ magical irons. “Things have a life of their own,” the gypsy proclaimed with a harsh accent. “It’s simply a matter of waking up their souls.”

    That vivid directness runs through his best work – he was a journalist as well as an author of fiction, and often brings a reporter’s eye that grounds moments of mundane discovery and high weirdness alike.

    Matt Y: Switch ’em up. Shakespeare fights sinister conspiracy on Mars; Edgar Rice Burroughs tries to keep Bacon happy and productive.

  40. @Kyra: In competitions which use a single-elimination system: when the number of competitors isn’t a power of 2, they’re distributed with an extra partial round to bring them down to the right number. 17 is an easy case: 16 & 17 go against each other and the winner slots in against #15. But practically, in voting like this one, I’m not sure it’s that different from just having 3 in one slot – although I bet someone at ML knows the math 🙂

  41. > “Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander / Night’s Master, Tanith Lee: Abstain/Amazon”

    (Just FYI if you are planning to Amazon, Taran Wanderer is the fourth book of a five book series.)

  42. 1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip
    Convenant is whiny. I couldn’t finish this stuff even when I was an angsty adolescent. Interesting point—Donaldson and his wife shared a house with my wife at one time (loong before I met her). If you see me at Worldcon I’ll tell you a story of Steve, Lynn and my wife, an editor and his wife, and five Siamese cats. Someday I want to hunt down Lynn and ask if her recollection matches my wife’s in any way. 😉

    Riddle-Master of Hed is wonderful. I can’t count the number of times I’ve re read it. Anyone who hasn’t read this ought to give it a try. What a wild ride!

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    Abstain, haven’t read either.

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Abstain, haven’t read either.

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart
    Oh my God, your dice are CRAP. What a choice! (Also, anyone who hasn’t read the Merlin books by Stewart has a lovely treat in store. IMO, you can’t have a full grasp of how The Matter of Britain has been treated over time without having read these books.)

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Watership Down, Richard Adams

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
    Your dice should be take out and shot. Another hard choice. But I’ve re-read Atuan more than Deryni.

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman
    And I’ll note the movie was as good as the book, so there.

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
    Ford and Cherryh! Argh!!
    Anyone who hasn’t read the Ford, go forth and haunt used book shops. Everything he wrote was good, but won’t be re-printed for a loooooong time if ever. Creators, MAKE A WILL!
    http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/important-and-pass-it-on.html

    If you’re going to do a Brackett bracket, I want it to be the Skaith books (Ellen Asher I owe you so much!)

    Susana S.P. on July 29, 2015 at 8:38 am said:

    I’m never going to get to Iain Banks, am I? Can you all please start dis-recommending some books, please?

    Publish your TBR list. I’m happy to rip it apart. }:->

  43. 1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    Elric of Melniboné, Michael Moorcock

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Night’s Master, Tanith Lee

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Witch World, Andre Norton

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    Deryni Rising, Katherine Kurtz

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    Fortress in the Eye of Time, C. J. Cherryh

  44. Not a fan of Donaldson, but I did stand in a bookstore once listening to a pair of black clad, pierced and tatooed late teens as one recommened Donaldson to the other, saying it saved his life in juvenile detention. There’s something for everyone I guess and fantasy reaches everywhere.

  45. @Kevin Hogan

    With regards to Goldman adapting The Princess Bride for the screen I highly recommend his book Which Lie Did I Tell: More Adventures in the Screen Trade, which has a section on that, including him buying back the rights to the book from the first studio with his own money because the book meant too much to him for him to allow anyone else to do the movie.

    Actually I just highly recommend both of his Adventures in the Screen Trade books to anyone with an interest in screenwriting, or movies in general.

  46. Report as we approach the end of the first half:

    Marquez and Moorcock are very nearly tied. After leading slightly for almost the entire half, Marquez is now behind, but by only two votes.

    Lee and Alexander are also nearly tied.

    Beagle and Stewart are close, but Beagle appears to have the advantage.

    McKillip and Donaldson were close for quite a while, but McKillip has now pulled ahead into a decent-sized lead.

    In the other contests, a clear leader has been evident throughout, but not always as far ahead as might be expected. Some contests the bookies in my head were expecting to be blowouts have turned out to be fairly tough fights.

  47. I really meant to vote in yesterday’s bracket, but time slipped away, alas.

    1. AUTHORS WHO DEDICATE BOOKS TO EACH OTHER
    The Riddle-Master of Hed, Patricia McKillip

    I confess that I will not necessarily abstain on the basis of only having read one of the works, if the failure to read the other was a conscious and deliberate decision.

    2. STEPPING OUTSIDE OF TRADITION
    Abstain.

    3. PROBABLY NOT COMPARED TO EACH OTHER VERY OFTEN
    Taran Wanderer, Lloyd Alexander

    I have always been grateful that I worked my way through Mabinogi-based fiction in the direction from most altered to most faithful (Alexander >> Walton >> original medieval Welsh). It would not have been possible for me to have enjoyed each on its merits in any other direction.

    4. STRUMMING A GUITAR AND PLAYING CARDS
    The Old Gods Waken, Manly Wade Wellman

    Can’t say I felt very strongly on this pairing, but I appreciate Wellman’s voice in a technical way.

    5. THE GREAT MAGICIANS MERLIN AND SCHMENDRICK
    The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart

    Tough decision! But the Stewart was such a masterpiece of blending fantasy and historical modes of story-telling.

    6. TRAVEL TO NEW LANDS AND THERE MAKE WAR
    Watership Down, Richard Adams

    Definitely not an obvious matched set! I love Norton, but often in an “I love predictable fast-food that pushes my buttons” way.

    7. THIS SOCIETY IS TOTALLY PREJUDICED AGAINST WIZARDS
    The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin

    As others have noted, an interesting pairing given LeGuin’s published opinion about Kurtz’s work.

    8. SERIOUS COMEDY
    The Princess Bride, William Goldman

    Not a strong opinion, and I confess my memory of the book has been entirely over-written by the movie.

    9. SPECIAL ANACHRONISTIC BONUS BRACKET, BY POPULAR ACCLAIM
    The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
    Fortress in the Eye of Time, C. J. Cherryh

    Huh. I’m going to declare a tie here, because while I recall both of these as being intense, chewy, thinky books, neither has stuck with me in substance.

  48. Fantasy Bracket, 60s/70s, my choices:

    Finally, a bracket where I’ve read every one! (chortlingicon)

    1)-The Riddle-Master of Hed. I’ve read and liked both books, met and liked both authors, but like the McKillip book more. That the Donaldson punched one of my hot buttons with great force is a factor, but not the deciding one. I recognize that the series is great even as I would cheerfully set Thomas Covenant on fire if he materialized in front of me. That doesn’t make it any less a great book.

    2)-100 Years of Solitude by a hair. Gloriana would have sent me to Moorcock because I like it more, but I can’t remember if it was published in 1979 or 1980.

    3)-Night’s Master, by a mile. A book I love beats a book I liked every time. I’ll have to type that a few times here (or say, “see #3).

    4)-(Whimpericon) This one hurts! I wish I could cheat a bit and vote Wellman, knowing Zelazny likely wins, BUT I CAN’T, DAMMIT! Amber (sorry MWW)!

    5)-The Last Unicorn. See #3.

    6)-Witch World, by the toss of a coin, literally.

    7)-The Wizard of Earthsea is better, but the first three books are all amazing. I first came to this when my younger brother asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I said “The trilogy” and he picked up Earthsea thinking that’s what I meant instead of JRRT. See #3.

    8)The Princess Bride. See #3.

    9)-The Dragon Waiting. Cherryh is a better SF writer than a Fantasy writer in my view. The Ford is a GREAT BOOK, while the Cherryh is merely very good.

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