Worse than that, even his original stories have often been altered by less competent writers and pulp magazine editors, so that you cannot be sure-even if Howard's name is on the cover-whether they are really his words you are reading, or some later editor's interpretation. Unfortunately, many later writers have interfered with Howard's reputation: most collections of Conan stories contain not only his originals, but the inferior work of other authors. Sometimes the classics don't live up to their reputation-many books do not age well, and many influential works are influential because they are so raw-which is why I was surprised when I first read the Conan stories as an adult and found that they were as good as or better than most fantasy.
Tad williams otherland goodreads series#
His SF series The Dancers at the End of Time is also quite unusual, and more character-driven than his other work, if not as complex as Gloriana.
Otherwise it is a very unusual book, and better to read than to describe. However, the sexuality is psychological, not pornographic. While Gormenghast is the story of a man from growth to adulthood, Gloriana is about the sensual coming-of-age of a great queen. It takes much of its theme and tone from Peake's Gormenghast, but Moorcock filters this through his own style and purview. While the Elric books are competent and interesting fantasies, Gloriana is his real masterpiece. "I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I'd rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas." Moorcock is very creative, but sometimes his pen moves faster than his mind. However, I found the magic in the Elric books somewhat more interesting than the plot or characters. His Elric saga has been very influential, combining a mythic fantasy based upon quantum mechanics with an antiheroic protagonist. Moorcock is an inventive and ever-changing fantasy author who was contemporary with Tolkien, and who is still writing today. Any author of fantasy should read him so they can learn that a book can only be as magical as it is strange, only as fantastical as it is unpredictable. The Sword of Welleran and Others is a collection of some of his best short stories. The plot of The King of Elfland's Daughter is fairly straightforward, a recognizable British fairy tale, but dreamlike and hallucinogenic, the very inspiration for Lovecraft's brand of alienated horror. His magic is a living thing, possessing its own will and unfathomable laws, twisting pervasively through the warp the story, leaving nothing untouched. Dunsany is one of the masters of the British fairy tale, able to use tone to create a pervasive world of strange enchantment that grasps at the reader's soul. These were the magnificent dream visions that Lewis and Tolkien tried to recapture in their more stolid works. It is this gestational period from which all modern fantasy, consciously or unconsciously, draws. The authors of the late Victorian period in England marked a high point for sophistication and inventiveness in fantasy.
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