Part XVII: J. Walton/DiTerlizzi & Black/Miéville/Davidson/Bramah/Hughart/Gardner

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

Masters of Fantasy: Part XVII

A new year brings new changes, as well as new entries!

If you are late to the party, I'd like to point out that, as of this writing, I have changed some of the formatting of the series. To be specific, I have now added the authors' names to the headers to give you all a preview of what you are going to read. However, in doing so, I have found that the titles can only take so many characters before they give out. Although Raven has said he'll try to fix it, I'm going to assume that this can't be easily corrected, so, from now on, the number of authors in each entry will be determined by how many I can fit in the titles. Hopefully, that won't have too much of a negative impact, if at all.

Also, because of that setback, longtime readers may notice that the first three authors this time around have already been listed in previous entries. Well, I've been forced to move them here, but it wasn't really too much of a problem to do so. To veterans, I apologize for the subsequent lack of "new" authors this time around; I'll try to do better next time. For everyone else, here's the next batch.




JO WALTON (1964- )

Welsh-born Jo Walton has been writing since she was 13 years old, being involved with role-playing publications and the online science fiction fandom. Her first novels were a trilogy based on Arthurian Britain and the Ireland of the Táin Bó Cúailnge – The King's Peace, The King's Name, and The Prize in the Game. Her next novel was the World Fantasy Award-winning Tooth and Claw, a story written in the style of Anthony Trollope but populated by dragons. Next came the science fiction Small Change Trilogy (Farthing, Ha'penny, and Half a Crown), a mystery set against an alternate history in which Britain made peace with Nazi Germany during WWII. Among Others, a fantasy about a witch's daughter starting a sci-fi book club, won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards as well as a World Fantasy Award nomination. Other titles of note include Lifelode, My Real Children, and the Thessaly trilogy (The Just City, The Philosopher Kings, and Necessity).

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Walton)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/walton_jo)
Official website (http://www.jowaltonbooks.com/)
Jo Walton's Tor.com Page – Articles, Excerpts, etc. (https://www.tor.com/members/bluejo/)



TONY DITERLIZZI (1969- ) and HOLLY BLACK (1971- )

Tony DiTerlizzi is an artist with credits in role-playing games including Dungeons & Dragons and White Wolf Publishing's Changeling and Werewolf lines, as well as the Magic: The Gathering card game. Holly Black is the author of several young adult and middle grade fantasy novels, including Tithe and its sequels Valiant and Ironside. Together, they are best known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, which follows a trio of children who discover a world of faeries living around an old estate. Five books were published over the course of two years - The Field Guide, The Seeing Stone, Lucinda's Secret, The Ironwood Tree, and The Wrath of Mulgarath; a second series followed with three books - The Nixie's Song, A Giant Problem, and The Wyrm King.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia - DiTerlizzi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_DiTerlizzi)
Wikipedia - Black (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Black)
The Official Website of Tony DiTerlizzi (http://diterlizzi.com/)
The Official Website of Holly Black (http://blackholly.com/)



CHINA MIÉVILLE (1972- )

Another relatively new voice in fantasy, China Miéville, whose work has been self-described as weird fiction, part of the literary "New Weird" movement, has taken it upon himself to write a novel in every genre, all of them tinged with elements of the fantastic and supernatural mixed with a Marxist spirit, ranging from science fiction, Westerns, detective noir, and more. He has also made a conscious effort to veer fantasy away from Tolkienian imitation, instead preferring the ideas of Michael Moorcock. His works, which have earned some of speculative fiction's top honors, include King Rat, Bas-Lag (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council), Un Lun Dun, The City & the City, Kraken, Embassytown, Railsea, and The Census-Taker.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Mi%C3%A9ville)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/mieville_china)
"Rejectamentalist Manifesto" – China Miéville's Personal Blog (http://chinamieville.net/)
Clarkesworld – In a Carapace of Light: A Conversation with China Miéville (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/mieville_interview/)
The Guardian – A Life in Writing: China Miéville (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/14/china-mieville-life-writing-genre)
The Believer – Interview with China Miéville (https://www.believermag.com/issues/200504/?read=interview_mieville)
The New Yorker – China Miéville and the Politics of Surrealism (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/china-mieville-and-the-politics-of-surrealism)
TV Tropes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/ChinaMieville)



AVRAM DAVIDSON (1923-1993)

Avram Davidson is a difficult author to categorize. A Jewish convert to the Japanese new religion of Tenrikyo, he began his writing career as a Talmudic scholar and published his earliest stories in various Jewish intellectual magazines. Many of his stories cannot be placed in a specific genre and are noted for their baroque, detailed style, rich characterization, and a fascination with history. Involved in speculative fiction since his teens, his best-known works include a trilogy of novels centered around medieval alchemist/sorcerer Vergil Magus (The Phoenix and the Mirror, Vergil in Averno, and The Scarlet Fig); the Peregrine novels (Peregrine: Primus and Peregrine: Secundus), which follows a man transformed into a falcon across a world reminiscent of Classical Rome; a series of weird stories about a Canadian named Jack Limekiller in a fictional Central American country; and another story sequence about a Holmesian figure names Dr. Eszterhazy in a mythical European empire. Other novels of interest include Joyleg [w/Ward Moore], Mutiny in Space, Rork!, Masters of the Maze, the Kar-Chee sequence (Rogue Dragon and The Kar-Chee Reign), Clash of Star-Kings, The Enemy of My Enemy, The Island Under the Earth, Ursus of Ultima Thule, Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty [w/Grania Davis], and The Boss in the Wall [w/Grania Davis].

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avram_Davidson)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=davidson_avram)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/davidson_avram)
The Avram Davidson Website (http://www.avramdavidson.org/)
Great Science Fiction and Fantasy Works: Avram Davidson (http://greatsfandf.com/AUTHORS/AvramDavidson.php)
TV Tropes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/AvramDavidson)



ERNEST BRAMAH (1868-1942)

Not much is technically known of the reclusive British author Ernest Bramah, as he did not disclose information about his private life to the public. What little is available seems to indicate that he was a high school dropout who went into farming, later working his way to Grub Street and serving as an editor on a magazine owned by noted humorist Jerome K. Jerome. He wrote in several genres, drawing comparisons to some of the most celebrated writers of the day. He is best known in crime fiction as the creator of blind detective Max Carrados, and in fantasy for a carefully constructed series of stories set in a fabulist China, centered around the Scheherazade-like storyteller Kai Lung, who weaves tales of gods, demons, dragons, and other magical creatures, often in order to stave off some horrible punishment. The stories were collected in The Wallet of Kai Lung, Kai Lung's Golden Hours, Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat, The Moon of Much Gladness, Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry Tree, and Kai Lung Raises His Voice.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Bramah)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=bramah_ernest)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/bramah_ernest)
Great Science Fiction and Fantasy Works: Ernest Bramah (http://greatsfandf.com/AUTHORS/ErnestBramah.php)
The Unofficial Ernest Bramah Website (http://www.ernestbramah.com/)
Interesting Literature – Five Fascinating Facts About Ernest Bramah (https://interestingliterature.com/2016/06/06/five-fascinating-facts-about-ernest-bramah/)



BARRY HUGHART (1934- )

A native of Peoria, Illinois, Barry Hughart joined the U. S. Air Force after college, which shipped him out to the Far East to lay mined in the Korean Demilitarized Zone; during that time, he developed an interest in China and began formulating a story set in "an Ancient China that never was." The project came to fruition in 1984 with Bridge of Birds, a unique blend of fairytale, detective story, and satire which follows a venerable yet flawed scholar and his immensely strong assistant on a quest to find a magic root that will cure the children of a village of an deadly plague. Two more books would follow – The Story of the Stone and Eight Skilled Gentlemen – in what would be collected as The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox. Originally intended as a seven-book series, complications with his publishers and his own personal satisfaction dissuaded Hughart from pursuing it any further, and, as of the present, he appears to have stopped writing altogether.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Hughart)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=hughart_barry)



JOHN GARDNER (1933-1982)

John Champlin Gardner, Jr. was a well-respected yet controversial academic who made a lifelong habit out of teaching fiction, as evidenced in his nonfiction work The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist; in On Moral Fiction, he took a more traditionalist stance against what he saw as the nihilistic emptiness of postmodernism, arguing that fiction highest aim is morality and the differentiation between right and wrong. In addition to contemporary stories, some of his fiction contains outright fantastic elements, such as the verse retelling of Jason and Medeia, Freddy's Book, and Mickelsson's Ghosts. His most famous work is Grendel, a prose retelling of the myth of Beowulf told from the point of view of the infamous monster, as he seeks to unravel the enigma of his own existence juxtaposed with the nature of humans to seek meaning in life through fables and stories. It has been hailed by many prestigious publications as a modern classic of both fantasy and existential angst.

Offsite resources:

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gardner_(American_writer))
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=gardner_john)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/gardner_john_2)
The Paris Review – John Gardner, The Art of Fiction No. 73 (https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3394/john-gardner-the-art-of-fiction-no-73-john-gardner)
The Grinnell Beowulf – Monstrous Humor: A Review of John Gardner's Grendel (https://thegrinnellbeowulf.com/beowulf-adaptations/john-gardner-grendel-1971/)
Gargoyle Magazine – An Interview with John Gardner (http://www.gargoylemagazine.com/gargoyle/Issues/scanned/issue11/gardner.htm)
Slate.com – Mass-Market Marathon: Revisiting John Gardner's Grendel, the First Book That Blew My Mind (http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/features/2013/mass_market_marathon/john_gardner_s_grendel_norman_mailer_and_joseph_heller_didn_t_like_him_but.html)
The SF Site – Review of Grendel (https://www.sfsite.com/12b/gr190.htm)



I hope that this turned out well for you all and wasn't too disappointing for those who would want me to talk about more new stuff. Now that I have my system worked out, I can follow up steadfastly with ony new material. As usual, the forum topic can be found here: http://www.lostpathway.com/index.php/topic,16.0.html#forum

[Raven]

I've probably mentioned this elsewhere, but I'm a big fan of DiTerlizzi and Black's Spiderwick Chronicles. Love the stories, love of the artwork. I was introduced to their work through the movie and later read the books from a library. I know they've done more work so I'd like to get a hold of some more of it at some point.

I'll try to get some more work on the forum done when things settle down for me a little more (which I'm trusting will happen).

By the by, love your new avatar, Coir.