John Stracke’s Book Reviews: Fantasy

Retellings

Storytellers have always retold old stories, as each generation finds new meaning in old tales. Nowadays it’s perhaps more deliberate than once it was, as cultural change is faster than once it was. To retell a myth that Everyone Knows, in a new way that sheds light equally on today’s culture and on the culture that told it originally, is a great challenge. Many of today’s best writers take up this challenge repeatedly.

Retold Myths

• Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis. Just bought it, haven’t read it yet. It’s a retelling of Amor and Psyche, a Roman tale from the first century C.E., on which Beauty and the Beast is based.

Retold Fairy Tales

A lot of these come from a series called The Fairy Tale Series, edited by Terri Windling at Ace back in the 1980s and early 1990s. Unfortunately, the series wasn’t very well marketed; especially for the early books, the only way to tell if a book was part of the series was to open it up and look for editor’s notes or something. (Later on, the books’ covers were given a common style, which at least made it easier to spot them on the shelf.) However, they were still successful enough to boost some of the authors to greater success, and to establish the subgenre as respectable.

• Charles de Lint
  • Jack, the Giant-Killer, ISBN 0-441-37970-2. Out of print; also published in Jack of Kinrowan.
  • Drink Down The Moon, ISBN 0-441-16861-2. Out of print; also published in Jack of Kinrowan.
  • Jack Of Kinrowan, ISBN 0-812-53898-6. Combines Jack, the Giant-Killer and Drink Down the Moon into one volume.

Urban Fantasy

Along with retellings, which are old tales told in new ways, we have urban fantasies, which are tales set in modern cities. Some of them are retellings (e.g., Jack the Giant-Killer), while others are new (e.g., Dreams Underfoot).

• Charles de Lint is the best urban fantasist I know of. He’s also extremely prolific, and he’s been writing for a long time. For the first several years after I found out about him (by reading Jack the Giant-Killer), I kept finding old books of his, published before he became well-know, in used bookstores. I haven’t come across anything new/old in a while, but I keep looking, because he’s so good. This is the list of his urban fantasy; I also have a more complete bibliography available.
  • Stories set in Newford:
    • Dreams Underfoot, ISBN 0-812-51621-4
    • The Wishing Well, no ISBN. Published by Axolotl Press, Pulphouse Publishing, Inc., Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440.
    • Memory And Dream, ISBN 0-812-53407-7
    • The Ivory And The Horn, ISBN 0-312-85573-7
    • Trader, ISBN 0-312-85847-7
    • Someplace To Be Flying, ISBN 0-312-85849-3
  • Stories about Jacky Rowan:
    • Jack, the Giant-Killer, ISBN 0-441-37970-2. Out of print; also published in Jack of Kinrowan.
    • Drink Down The Moon, ISBN 0-441-16861-2. Out of print; also published in Jack of Kinrowan.
    • Jack Of Kinrowan, ISBN 0-812-53898-6. Combines Jack, the Giant-Killer and Drink Down the Moon into one volume.
  • Moonheart, ISBN 0-312-89004-4
  • Yarrow, ISBN 0-312-86393-4
  • Mulengro, ISBN 0-441-54484-3
  • Greenmantle, ISBN 0-441-30295-5
  • Svaha, ISBN 0-812-53409-3
  • The Dreaming Place, ISBN 0-446-36287-5
  • The Little Country, ISBN 0-812-52248-6
  • Spiritwalk, ISBN 0-812-51620-6

Heroic Fantasy

• Guy Gavriel Kay
  • Tigana, ISBN 0-451-45115-5. Probably the best fantasy novel I have ever read.
  • The Fionavar Tapestry, a trilogy:
    • The Summer Tree, ISBN 0-451-45138-4
    • The Wandering Fire, ISBN 0-451-45156-2
    • The Darkest Road, ISBN 0-451-45180-5
  • A Song for Arbonne, ISBN 0-451-45332-8
  • The Lions of Al-Rassan, ISBN 0-06-105621-9
  • Sailing to Sarantium, ISBN 0-061-05117-9. Not yet published; due out in March 1999.
• Steven Brust
• Tolkien, of course.
• C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series:
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  • Prince Caspian
  • The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
  • The Silver Chair
  • The Horse and His Boy
  • The Magician’s Nephew
  • The Last Battle

Humorous Fantasy

• Terry Pratchett is the best writer of humorous fantasy today. His Discworld series is fantastic, with lots of great commentary on The Human Condition (ooh, ahh). His earlier stuff is not as good, but the Truckers/Diggers/Wings trilogy is still pretty fun.
  • Discworld novels:

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