At last, back to business. It’s not that I don’t like children’s literature, but it feels so refreshing to get back to adult-oriented fantasy and the great names behind it.
Today’s list has a related theme, though it may be unintentional on my part. Fantasy, so it would seem, has always grown up alongside its sister genre, science fiction; despite its prolific popularity and critical reception, sci-fi has never managed to completely stamp out fantasy or diminish it but rather inspire it to grow and adapt. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the symbiotic nature of the two has resulted in some of the greatest fantasy coming from practitioners of both genres, and the majority of today’s entries are some of the most well-known in both.
RAY BRADBURY (1920-2012)
A name that transcends the limitations of genre, Ray Bradbury remains one of the most respected, beloved and critically acclaimed writers in the English language. Raised on public libraries, his evocative prose mixes sentimental nostalgia with symbolism and oftentimes horrific elements; his works are more of an emotional experience rather than an intellectual exercise, although he was not beyond provocative social commentary, as evidenced by the renown dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. A lifelong lover of reading and writing, Bradbury published 27 novels and over 600 short stories in his lifetime, nearly all of which is unforgettable – from speculative fix-up collections (The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, The October Country), semi-autobiographical works both magically realistic (Dandelion Wine) and darkly fantastic (Something Wicked This Way Comes), to detective novels (Death Is a Lonely Business, A Graveyard for Lunatics, Let’s All Kill Constance).
Offsite resources:
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
The Official Ray Bradbury Website
The Paris Review – Ray Bradbury, The Art of Fiction No. 203
The New Yorker – Take Me Home by Ray Bradbury
NPR – Ray Bradbury: “It’s Lack That Gives Us Inspiration”
Brain Pickings – Ray Bradbury on Storytelling, Friendship, and Why He Never Learned How to Drive
Brain Pickings – Ray Bradbury on How List-Making Can Boost Your Creativity
Brain Pickings – Ray Bradbury on Writing, Emotion vs. Intelligence, and the Core of Creativity
Brain Pickings – Ray Bradbury on the Secret of Life, Work, and Love
Brain Pickings – Ray Bradbury on Doing What You Love and Reading as a Prerequisite for Democracy
FRITZ LEIBER (1910-1992)
Writer, actor, poet, playwright and chess expert, Fritz Leiber is the man credited with coining the term “sword and sorcery”, as well as both contributing to it significantly as a co-founder and deconstructing it by playing with the template. His most notable works are a series of story cycles starring an adventurous duo – a large barbarian swordsman named Fafhrd and a wily magician thief known as the Gray Mouser – based in the metropolis of Lankhmar, in the imaginary world of Nehwon. He was equally adept at sci-fi and horror, penning such remarkable short stories such as “Smoke Ghost” and “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes”, and novels such as Conjure Wife, Gather, Darkness!, The Sinful Ones, The Green Millennium, The Night of the Long Knives, Our Lady of Darkness, The Big Time, and The Wanderer. One of his most lasting contributions was to transplant the ancient horrors and legends of the past into a more contemporary setting, thus paving the way for the development of urban fantasy.
Offsite resources:
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Lankhmar – The Fritz Leiber Home Page
Conceptual Fiction – Fritz Leiber at One Hundred
ROGER ZELAZNY (1937-1995)
Roger Zelazny appeared around the same time as Ursula K. Le Guin, writing science fiction while working for the U.S. Social Security Administration in both Cleveland and Baltimore, and quickly becoming one of the most prominent voices of the American “New Wave.” Drawing influence from Elizabethan and Jacobean drama mixed with mythic archetypes, Zelazny created a dense experimental style with works such as This Immortal, Lord of Light, Jack of Shadows, Eye of Cat, Creatures of Light and Darkness, Damnation Alley, Isle of the Dead, and others, mixing fantasy and science fiction in unique combinations. The Chronicles of Amber is one of his best known works, a 10-volume series (technically incomplete due to his premature death) which follows a superhuman royal family in “the one true world” of Amber as they fight each other for the throne amidst the multiverse.
Offsite resources:
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Tor.com – A Few Words from Roger Zelazny
Tor.com – A Few More Words from Roger Zelazny
JACK VANCE (1916-2013)
John Holbrook “Jack” Vance worked through multiple jobs, including a notable stint in the merchant marine service, before cementing himself as a fully established writer in the 1970s. His most notable works blur the line between science fiction and fantasy, usually being adventures of planetary romance in exotic locations reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Vance actually created an entire subgenre of speculative fiction with his collection of novellas and stories called The Dying Earth (The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel’s Saga, and Rhialto the Marvellous), set during the far future when the sun is fading away and magic, becoming indistinguishable from science, has come back into the world. His other fantasy work of note is the Lyonesse Trilogy – Suldrun’s Garden, The Green Pearl, and Madouc – an Arthurian/Celtic/Irish mixture which takes place on an Atlantis-like series of islands of the coast of France. His science fiction works include single novels like To Live Forever, Big Planet, The Languages of Pao, The Blue World, and Emphyrio, as well as series like The Demon Princes (The Star King, The Killing Machine, The Palace of Love, The Face, and The Book of Dreams), The Cadwal Chronicles (Araminta Station, Ecce and Old Earth, and Throy), Alastor (Trullion: Alastor 2262, Marune: Alastor 933, and Wyst: Alastor 1716), Durdane (The Anome, The Brave Free Men, and The Asutra) and Tschai/Planet of Adventure (City of the Chasch, Servants of the Wankh, The Dirdir, and The Pnume).
Offsite resources:
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
The Jack Vance Official Website
Great Science-Fiction and Fantasy Works: Jack Vance
Infinity Plus – Jack Vance: Lord of Language, Emperor of Dreams
KATHERINE KURTZ (1944- )
Katherine Kurtz came onto the scene in 1970 and has been writing ever since. Her work hews closer to historical fiction than the mythological modes of her contemporaries, thus possibly paving the way for writers such as Guy Gavriel Kay and George R. R. Martin. While she has written a few other novels, the bulk of her oeuvre is dominated by the Deryni sequence, set in a pseudo-medieval land populated by both regular humans and the titular psychic Deryni. The series is currently divided into five trilogies – The Chronicles of the Deryni (Deryni Rising, Deryni Checkmate, and High Checkmate), The Legends of Camber of Culdi (Camber of Culdi, Saint Camber, and Camber the Heretic), The Histories of King Kelson (The Bishop’s Heir, The King’s Justice, and The Quest for Saint Camber), The Heirs of Saint Camber (The Harrowing of Gwynedd, King Javan’s Year, and The Bastard Prince) and The Childe Morgan Trilogy (In the King’s Service, Childe Morgan, and The King’s Deryni).
Offsite resources:
Rhemuth Castle – The Official Site of Katherine Kurtz
Strange Horizons – Matrilines: The Woman Who Made Fantasy
M. JOHN HARRISON (1945- )
Another luminary of the New Wave, Michael John Harrison wrote against what he saw as genre complacency to become one of the major stylists of speculative fiction, coming from the influential British magazine New Worlds. His science fiction tackles familiar subjects such as the post-apocalypse (The Committed Men) and space opera (The Centauri Device) with a new flair, and his fantasy touches upon themes of perception and Jungian concepts (The Course of the Heart). One of his most famous works is a sequence set in a Dying Earth-like setting of the far future, in the decadent city of Viriconium, infested with technology and magic, beset by automated and insectile invaders, and crumbling ever deeper into despair; three novels (The Pastel City, A Storm of Wings, and In Viriconium) and one collection (Viriconium Nights) make up the sequence.
Offsite resources:
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Infinity Plus – M. John Harrison Interviewed by David Mathew
The Guardian – M. John Harrison: A Life in Writing
JOHN M. FORD (1957-2006)
John Milo “Mike” Ford was one of the most unique voices in English speculative fiction, having secured a reputation for actively avoiding reputation of both his own work and that of other authors, thus creating a continuously shifting style for each book. His work is primarily science fiction with various settings such as cyberpunk (Web of Angels), space opera (The Princes of the Air), psychology (Fugue State) and Bildungsroman (Growing Up Weightless). However, he did manage to write two fantasies. One of them, being one of his last published works in his lifetime, was an urban fantasy, The Last Hot Time, set in a magical Chicago. The other, perhaps his most lasting fantasy, was the award-winning The Dragon Waiting, a sprawling alternate history of vampires, wizards, and other magic in which the throne of Edward IV of England is under threat from the ever-expanding Byzantine Empire.
Offsite resources:
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Strange Horizons – 2002 Interview with John M. Ford
ROBERT SILVERBERG (1935- )
Robert Silverberg is one of the most prolific modern science fiction writers, having written over 100 books in his lifetime – in the 50s, he was averaging novels and stories for different publishers on a near monthly basis, and during the 60s, when sci-fi became literary, he entered a new creative phase with more attention to characters and background, mixed with modernist influences. Of interest to fantasy readers is the sequence set on the alien world of Majipoor, populated by both humans and other aliens in an unsteady truce with an aboriginal race of shapeshifters; eight novels and a collection have been published in book form – Lord Valentine’s Castle, Majipoor Chronicles, Valentine Pontifex, The Mountains of Majipoor, Sorcerers of Majipoor, Lord Prestimion, King of Dreams, and Tales of Majipoor.
Offsite resources:
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Robert Silverberg’s Official Website
Majipoor.com – The Quasi-Official Robert Silverberg Web Site
GENE WOLFE (1931- )
Lauded by both critics and admirers as one of the most talented voices in science fiction and fantasy, Gene Wolfe mixes a richly dense prose with the conviction of his Catholic faith in a singularly unique style, filled with unreliable narrators and hidden secrets. First coming to attention with The Fifth Head of Cerberus, a collection of novellas examining colonialism and identity, he followed it with Peace, the story of a man recounting the memories of his life – or so it seems. His most famous work is the acclaimed science fantasy series The Book of the New Sun, one of the most well-regarded entries in the Dying Earth subgenre; over the course of four books (The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The Citadel of the Autarch), the reader follows Severian, an exiled member of a Torturer’s Guild with a reputedly perfect memory, as he journeys across the landscape of the new world. The series was followed by a coda (The Urth of the New Sun) and two more sequences – The Book of the Long Sun (Nightside the Long Sun, Lake of the Long Sun, Caldé of the Long Sun, and Exodus from the Long Sun) and The Book of the Short Sun (On Blue’s Waters, In Green’s Jungles, and Return to the Whorl). Other series of fantasy interest include the Soldier quartet set in ancient Rome (Soldier of the Mist, Soldier of Arete, and Soldier of Sidon) and the two-volume Wizard Knight (The Knight and The Wizard). Other single novels include Free Live Free; There Are Doors; Castleview; Pandora, by Holly Hollander; Pirate Freedom; An Evil Guest; The Sorcerer’s House; Home Fires; The Land Across; and A Borrowed Man.
Offsite resources:
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
The New Yorker – Sci-Fi’s Difficult Genius
MIT Technology Review – A Q&A with Gene Wolfe
Fantasy and Science Fiction – How to Read Gene Wolfe by Neil Gaiman
Lit Reactor – Primer: Gene Wolfe – The Subtle Master
That’s all for now. I have my next set lined up already, so you’ll see them in time as well. For the original forum topic, go here: http://www.lostpathway.com/tavern/index.php/topic,16.0.html
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