What books are you reading right now?

One way to look at it is that it doesn't need to match up to Tolkien. The likes of Jordan, Goodkind, and Brooks are compared to him mainly because they are writing in the same tradition, using the same tropes and structures. The interesting stuff instead goes beyond it, builds on it, turns it on its head, or ignores it completely. Comparisons to Tolkien abounds, but a lot of writing isn't emulating him. Take Moorcock, who created his Elric character partly in response to the fantasy that was too clean-cut about good vs. evil. Elric is a questionable anti-hero, and the books are filled with violence. The market was ready for this, and it gained in popularity around the same time heavy metal music did. I've only just begun reading Moorcock, but he does a wide variety of things in both fantasy and science fiction.

Another couple of examples are Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe, whom I haven't read yet but are high up on my list (again, both in fantasy and science fiction). Glen Cook also comes to mind, but I don't know much about his stuff. More recently there's Steven Erikson, but I've heard there are problems with his writing style. I'm just starting to explore some of the avenues in the direction I think my interests lie.

There's also Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, who predates Bilbo Baggins by a few years. I've enjoyed a few of the Conan stories, but they really are sword & sorcery hack 'n' slash type stuff, much like Moorcock's Elric. Sometimes pulpy is what I'm looking for, though many of these works are short and to the point, rather than drawn out like a lot of epic stuff. This is stuff that Le Guin likely doesn't appreciate. As for myself, my tastes are pretty wide, but I enjoy certain things only in small doses.

Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane goes the route of antihero too. I thought it was good but not fantastic. I consider this an example of taking Tolkienesque tropes and playing with them a bit. It's a bit grittier. Guy Gavriel Kay does some mixing in the Fionavar Tapestry. He goes beyond Tolkienesque and adds many mythological bits into his mix. I enjoyed that trilogy and would recommend it.

And many recent publications have caught my eye. I think there's been much fantasy published in the past decade or two that I might enjoy, including offshoot genre fiction like the work of China Miéville. I think I'd like the work of Neil Gaiman as well. There are many standalone novels on my radar that I'm going to have a look at.

I guess what I mean to say is that "fantasy" means much more to me than "epic fantasy" or "heroic fantasy" a la Tolkien. I want to explore it widely and find out what I truly like.

I consider Earthsea a trilogy. I've heard about the later books from various sources. I've heard good things about The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness, so I think I might try them out. I know she's a feminist social anarchist, but I can relate much to that. It's part of the appeal. Actually several interesting-sounding sci-fi works from that period are feminist or gender-based explorations. They came at a time when women finally broke into the genre, which was depressingly male-oriented on both sides of the equation, reader and writer.

Yeah, that's what it comes down to. I'm wary of works that are greater than trilogies in any genre. If you can't get a good story out of three books, then you are taking a big risk. Some of the series I've seen are more episodic in nature, rather than one big story, so I can see how that works.

The Wheel of Time though? Maybe part of my problem is a fear of commitment.

 

Robert Silverberg's Downward to the Earth, a sci-fi homage to Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Added bonus: It's a new edition published this summer. Getting a brand new book from the library makes me so excited, it's unhealthy.

 

I've been given a huge stack of YA lit to read over the break: Tenderness by Robert Cormier, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and Boot Camp by Todd Strasser. I'm also reading 600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster for my book club.

 

I'm currently poring over Clute & Grant's Encyclopedia of Fantasy. I looked at this a while back, but it's interesting to return to it now. It's starting to show its age in some parts (it's been 15 years: George R. R. Martin's entry, for example, lacks any mention of A Song of Ice and Fire), but it's full of stuff that's ageless otherwise.

I'm half tempted to buy a copy as a reference book, but knowing my luck they'll update it not long afterwards, even though the editors have stated they're not going to in the foreseeable future. There are more recent books of the same kind. I looked at another one but can't remember which one. I'm going to be looking around for it because I recall it was pretty good too.

This book covers pretty much everything, including film and classic literature. You can actually get it online here: Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997) Introduction to the Online Text

Note also its companion text: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (which is in its third edition, 2011).

 

How to Read a Poem (and Fall in Love with Poetry) by Edward Hirsch

 

I was piqued by the name of this title, so I looked up the first book on my phone and bought it last night. I have about four other books I should be reading right now, but this one is really interesting.