Ten Greatest Books of Fantasy and Horror [Archive]

Ropespor

July 13, 2006 @, 10:01 AM

Gabe Dybing and I arecompiling a list of Essential Books of Fantasy and Horror. Such writers and editors in the field as John Gregory Betancourt, Frederic S. Durbin (Ace Fantasy author of Dragonfly), and R.E. Klein (author of Mythopoeic Fantasy Awardsnominee The History of Our World Beyond the Wave ) have already responded toour query and weighed in: nowwe want to hear from you. When finished,our list will have 100 books, butwe're only asking for each person's top ten.

So, think of a book that put an enchantment on you--its faerie glamour dimmed your eyes to the material world around you and transported you someplace else. While you were reading, the words on the pages seemed more real than the bills on the kitchen table, the talking heads spouting from the television, the world outside. Or, think of the book that made you wonder if that sudden noise in the basement was really just the sound of pipes. The book that made you believe, while it lasted, that there really might be unspeakable things in the shadows and dark places of the Earth. Think of the storyteller who weaved a tale so fine that no disruptive flickers of disbelief could slip through its net. Recall the secondary world so internally consistent you felt the author had visited the place and was chronicling what he/she saw there rather than just making it up.

Now list ten of them and post them here.

Series or collections by a single author may count as one choice; i.e. Tolkien?s The Lord of the Rings, Clive Barker?s Books of Blood. Don?t reach back too much further than the Victorian era, though. No Homer, no Dante, no Shakespeare. The reason is simple: we conceived of this list as a corrective to the essential reading lists (Clifton Fadiman?s is a good example) that completely overlook any fantasy or horror written after Mary Shelley. Such lists DO include Gilgamesh, Homer, Beowulf, et al, so we don?t need to repeat them. Our list is not a replacement for the essential reading lists. Consider it an addendum, an appendix.

We?re looking forward to hearing from you.

"Wirtzley's Warehouse: A Very Bad Day at Wirtzley's" in the July issue of Afterburn SF: The hottest Speculative Fiction siteon the web! http://www.afterburnsf.com
"Little Monsters" (poem) atEOTU http://www.clamcity.com/pg21monsters.html
"Them Eyes" (story)atSTRANGER BOX http://www.strangerbox.com (http://www.strangerbox.com/)
"'Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall' by Frank Belknap Long: An Appreciation" (essay) at The ED SF Project
http://edsfproject.blogspot.com/2006/04/humpty-dumpty-had-great-fall-by-frank.html
"Sarah's Spring: A Fable" December 2006 issue Raven's Electrick
"Gandalf's Staff, Prospero's Books: Magic in Tolkien and Shakespeare" in Tolkien and Shakespeare: Essays on Shared Themes andLanguage from McFarland & Co., spring 2007
Poems forthcoming in Surreal Magazine and Weird Tales

PaulMc

July 13, 2006 @, 10:50 AM

Nicholas said...
Gabe Dybing and I are compiling a list of Essential Books of Fantasy and Horror. Such writers and editors in the field as John Gregory Betancourt, Frederic S. Durbin (Ace Fantasy author of Dragonfly), and R.E. Klein (author of Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards nominee The History of Our World Beyond the Wave ) have already responded to our query and weighed in: now we want to hear from you. When finished, our list will have 100 books, but we're only asking for each person's top ten.

So, think of a book that put an enchantment on you--its faerie glamour dimmed your eyes to the material world around you and transported you someplace else. While you were reading, the words on the pages seemed more real than the bills on the kitchen table, the talking heads spouting from the television, the world outside. Or, think of the book that made you wonder if that sudden noise in the basement was really just the sound of pipes. The book that made you believe, while it lasted, that there really might be unspeakable things in the shadows and dark places of the Earth. Think of the storyteller who weaved a tale so fine that no disruptive flickers of disbelief could slip through its net. Recall the secondary world so internally consistent you felt the author had visited the place and was chronicling what he/she saw there rather than just making it up.

Now list ten of them and post them here.

Series or collections by a single author may count as one choice; i.e. Tolkien?s The Lord of the Rings, Clive Barker?s Books of Blood. Don?t reach back too much further than the Victorian era, though. No Homer, no Dante, no Shakespeare. The reason is simple: we conceived of this list as a corrective to the essential reading lists (Clifton Fadiman?s is a good example) that completely overlook any fantasy or horror written after Mary Shelley. Such lists DO include Gilgamesh, Homer, Beowulf, et al, so we don?t need to repeat them. Our list is not a replacement for the essential reading lists. Consider it an addendum, an appendix.

We?re looking forward to hearing from you.

Horror

Night Shift by Stephen King

IT by Stephen King

Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Books of Blood by Clive Barker

The Ceremonies by T.E.D. Klien

The Keep by F. Paul Wilson

The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll

Fantasy

Death Angel's Shadow by Karl Edward Wagner (in fact, all the published stories and novels of Kane are on my list)

Any collections of Robert E. Howard's original, untampered Conan tales. (The three recent Del Rey editions would be the most available - The Coming of Conan of Cimmeria, The Bloody Crown of Conan, and The Conquering Sword of Conan. Though, the 1970s collections edited by Karl Edward Wagner are useful, too)

The Robert E. Howard Library I - VII by Baen Books (collects Howard's non-Conan fantasy and some horror tales)

The Black Company Series by Glen Cook

Old Nathan by David Drake

-- Paul McNamee

My Writings (http://writer.paulmcnamee.net)
The Tales of Doran Coyle (http://www.dorancoyle.net)
Associate Editor, SwordAndSorcery.org (http://www.swordandsorcery.org)

erazmus

July 13, 2006 @, 2:56 PM

My list:
1.) The Coming of Conan of Cimmeria, The Bloody Crown of Conan, and The Conquering Sword of Conan. or similar collected Robert E. Howard only Conan works.
2.) The Lord of the Rings and Return of the King, by John Ronald Ruel Tolkien
3.) Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
4.) It, by Steven King
5.) Needful Things, by Steven King
6.) The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, by Steven R. Donaldson
7.) The OZ books, by Lyman Frank Baum
8.) Moonheart, by Charles DeLint
9.) The Deed of Paksinarion, by Elizabeth Moon
10.) The collected works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft
I'm cheating on Lovecraft a little. No one work on or about him stands out in my mind, or serves better than the whole. Which is really not that massive a collection. I considered _The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard_ which I decided was too massive a collection for its value, as the Conan stories as collected serve the same purpose mor succinctly. I include one childrens author, Baum, because I find his works to be a complete and radical departure from more traditional childrens fantasy and much more worthy of inclusion than such writers as Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling or Hugh Lofting. baum is fuller, richer and at the same time, darker than most credit it.
I even included Donaldson, because as much as I utterly despise his books, I couldn't put any of the six Covenant books down, and I tried. I really, really did. For shear strength of writing I had to include them.
It was hard to include two books by Steven King, but I found I simply couldn't cut any more out. I could easily have started this list with ten Steven King books. Most particularly hard to cut was _The Green Mile_. At the same time I felt almost cheated by including two Kings and not Katherine Kurtz's _The Cronicles of King Kelson_ or even the entire Deryni series, or Bujold's Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls. In the end I gave the nod to Moon over Kurtz and DeLint over Bujold, but it could easily have gone the other way.
Mike

Michael D. Turner
'Psyched Up' in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
'Two Ravens' in Amazing Journeys Magazine #9 Sept. 05
'An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern' in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises

Scott M. Sandridge

July 14, 2006 @, 5:53 AM

1. The Gunslinger - Stephen King

2. The Stand - Stephen King

3. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien

4. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

5. The Dragonlance Chronicles - Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman

6. the Lankhmar books (can't remember the author's name right now, either. God I wish I still had copies of them!)

7. The Prism Pentad - Troy Denning

8. Vampire the Masquerade: Clan Novel series - various authors. (This one showedhow a shared-world series should be made)

9. 1984 - George Orwell

10. Star Wars: Vector Prime - R.A. Salvatore

Distant Passages: The Best from Double-Edged Publishing 2005 (http://www.lulu.com/content/276255)

My Website (http://www.scottmsandridge.com)

SpecMusicMuse (http://specmusicmuse.blogspot.com/)

Which lich fell in the ditch?

ashmitsar

July 14, 2006 @, 10:15 AM

Certain that I'm forgetting something and feeling vastly under-read, I write:

IT - Stephen King
Any of the Del Rey Conan books, though I prefer THE BLOODY CROWN OF CONAN and THE CONQUERING SWORD OF CONAN - Robert E. Howard
LORD OF THE RINGS - J.R.R. Tolkien
THE NIGHT LAND or HOUSE ON THE BORDERLANDS- William Hope Hodgson
LUD-IN-THE-MIST - Hope Mirrlees
LILITH - George MacDonald
WAR OF THE GODS - Poul Anderson
THE HIGH HOUSE - James Stoddard
DECLARE - Tim Powers
BOOK OF THE NEW SUN - Gene Wolfe
Sorry that I couldn't work Lovecraft in here, but I'm certain that he greatly will be represented by others.

The bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

http://www.sfreader.com/authors/GabeDybing/

http://gabedybing.blogspot.com/

ScrewMoonshine

July 14, 2006 @, 1:04 PM

Well, Gabe, I'm certain that I'm more under-read than you. For one thing, my experience with horror fiction in novel-length form is practically non-existant. Oh well, I am still a very young sprout. It's probably ludicrous for me even to put in a vote here, but take this for what it's worth:

1.That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
Best handling of the good vs.evil theme that I've read. Very dark and creepy at moments. It's a bit disappointing that, after all their preparation, the forces of good never go into anything resembling battle, but on the non-physical level this is a masterpiece.
2.Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Doesn't take a genius to put this one on the list.
3.A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
Yeah, it's hardly a conventional fantasy and should probably be disqualified from the list, but one of my all-time favorites so I had to put it in. Adventure, comedy, romance, satire, tragedy - this one has it all.
4.The Dark is Rising Sequence in general, and in particular The Grey King, by Susan Cooper
Who said hard fantasy can't be set on Earth? Gripping, highly imaginitive, and at times quite eerie. The incorporation of ancient Welsh folklore, tradition, and feuds in book 4(The Grey King) win it bonus points.
5.Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
Strong twists, unique style, and the basis of wisdom all hit the spot, though Goodkind would eventually start abusing the latter element in this series.
6.Lord Toede by Jeff Grubb
It may be sacrilege to vote for a Dragonlance book, but in my opinion this is the best humor fantasy novel. The chapter titles are hilarious even before you start reading, and the sword-and-sorcery style action/adventure here is top-notch as well.
7.Nobody's Son by Sean Stewart
A fantastic 'after the happily ever after' story. Most of Stewart's fantasy books are senselessly depressing, but this one achieves some emotional and humorous moments with a touch of cynicism.
8.Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett
Deep. Thought-provoking. Witty. Philosophical. I frequently find myself picking this one off the shelf to re-read and re-ponder my favorite bits.
9.The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
What the hey.

Can't think of #10 right now...I'll post again later if and when it hits me. Hope I didn't bore anyone out of their minds with my added commentaries, but the bare bones list is still easily ledgible, I think. And I felt the need to defend what is my very likely pathetic list drawn from a shallow body of reading material...

Robert Orme

Out now: 'Such Dreams' in Amazing Journeys Magazine #12

von Darkmoor

July 16, 2006 @, 12:18 AM

Nicholas said...

So, think of a book that put an enchantment on you--its faerie glamour dimmed your eyes to the material world around you and transported you someplace else. While you were reading, the words on the pages seemed more real than the bills on the kitchen table, the talking heads spouting from the television, the world outside. . . .

Now list ten of them and post them here.Well, ScrewMoonshine, we're all young sprouts at heart! And, if weeach truly follow the above instructions, there should be many different books presented here. My choices for the Greatest Fantasy Books are those books that actually made me live them - the ones, like Nicholas said, that made me forget all else. The ones that finishing them felt like an ending to me.

In chronological order of my reading them:

The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
The Earthsea Trilogy - Ursula LeGuin
The Dragonlance Chronicles (original 3),Legends (3), & Raistlin Chronicles (2) - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman & Don Perrin
The 7th Man - Max Brand (Dan Barry is one of the most fantastical men ever created!)
Incarnations of Immortality, specifically Book One: On a Pale Horse - Piers Anthony
The Serpentwar Saga (4) - Raymond E. Feist
The Vampire Chronicles, first three books: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, & The Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice
A Song of Ice and Fire, books 1 - 3: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, & A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin
Legend - David Gemmell
Memories of Ice - Steven Erikson; all of The Malazan Book of the Fallen will do!

Lots of others I've loved, but these were the ones that moved me into their worlds the most completely. Thanks for making me think guys.

(And that's 26 of the 10 Greatest Books of Fantasy! [Horror doesn't do much for me])

I'd rather play tennis than go to the dentist.
I'd rather play soccer than go to the doctor.
I'd rather play Hurk than go to work.
Hurk? Hurk? What's Hurk?
I don't know, but it must be better than work.
--- "Hurk" by Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic

Frank

July 17, 2006 @, 5:16 PM

Best Fantasy and Horror Books

1. The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
2. The Hobbit by Tolkien
3. Watership Down by Richard Adams
4. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
5. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
6. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
7. The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
8. The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macamber (Del Rey paperback, 1987)
9. Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice
10. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O?Brien

I?ve stuck to titles that really left a mark on me personally in my childhood and teens and I?ve left out several older and more obscure fantasy novels which will surely be covered by other contributors to your list, such as works by A. Merritt, William Morris, Lord Dunsany, George MacDonald and others from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I was very tempted to include a few novels by Vonnegut but I wasn?t sure what category he falls under. If you ask him he?ll tell you he?s a science fiction writer. Ho Hum.

unclepete

July 18, 2006 @, 1:09 AM

Nicholas said...

So, think of a book that put an enchantment on you--its faerie glamour dimmed your eyes to the material world around you and transported you someplace else. While you were reading, the words on the pages seemed more real than the bills on the kitchen table, the talking heads spouting from the television, the world outside. Or, think of the book that made you wonder if that sudden noise in the basement was really just the sound of pipes. The book that made you believe, while it lasted, that there really might be unspeakable things in the shadows and dark places of the Earth. Think of the storyteller who weaved a tale so fine that no disruptive flickers of disbelief could slip through its net. Recall the secondary world so internally consistent you felt the author had visited the place and was chronicling what he/she saw there rather than just making it up.

Now list ten of them and post them here.

I like that criterion a lot, simply because it is so subjective, and because, after editing and reading for mistakes, I can get hung up on mistakes and lit crit, it's nice to just make a list of books that blew me, or better, carried me, away:

(and I like the idea of chronological reading list too, since I may not be able to say which of these blew me the most away).

(0. should mention the various books on greek, norse and egyptian mythology I started devoiuring in the 3rd grade, and which probably led to this obsession...and luckily this was the 70s so they didn't filter zeus' affairs or osiris' death out for kids)
1. Narnia, the lot
2. Earthsea, esp the first.
3. the Martian Chronicles, Bradbury.
4. Cyrano deBergerac, Edmond Rostand
5. the first Thomas Covenant series.
6. Jack of Shadows, Zelazny, which of course led to
7. Amber, the lot, but for many years, just the first series (waited anxiously and impatiently for the 2nd).
8. King, Different Seasons -- affected me most, though it's his non-horror, horrorone - horrific enough for me though
9. Malazan books, so far every one of them, Steven Ericksen (sp?)
10. Gaiman, Brust, Barker, and many others who occasionallythrow one out there that makes me forget I'm on the bus or plane.

I know I cheated with series - I probably have 40 books in the list, but...this was a tough one. I left out Lloyd Alexander and Tolkien both, oh and L'Engle, because though I loved them at the time, I really haven't gone back to them since childhood. Whereas Narnia and Earthsea, I have to visit every 5 or 6 years even now. And there's tons more that were great, just not AS great as these to me - Moon's Paks series, Solomon Kane, and even though we're not talking SF, Heinlein affected me a lot.

Hmm. good question, folks.

____________
"The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." --Thomas Jefferson
http://www.creativeguypublishing.com

Willowman

July 18, 2006 @, 2:09 PM

1) Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre- H.P. Lovecraft
2) The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane- Robert E. Howard
3)It- Stephen King
4) The Book of Wonder- Lord Dunsany
5) The Neverending Story- Michael Ende
6) The Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis
7) The Dark Tower- Stephen King
8) The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian- Robert E. Howard
9) Serenity Falls- James A. Moore
10) Darwinia- Robert Charles Wilson

I hesitated to put Darwinia as it is more Science Fiction than Fantasy or Horror, but I've seen some more hard-core Sci-Fi on other lists so I put it. These are in no particular order, either. Also, sorry, no Tolkein.

http://www.underthewillowpublications.com
Ethan Ranger and The Eater of Souls coming this fall!

jhmcmullen

July 19, 2006 @, 7:54 AM

I'd have to do 10 Horror and 10 Fantasy, but I'll try to do just 10. I'm talking essential in the sense of knowing where everything else came from; I think these are the most influential. (One of my criteria is whether I feel as though I'm deluged with imitations, which is why Interview With A Vampire makes it on the list.)

Without worrying about which is 1 and which is 10:

01) Dracula by Bram Stoker - the vampire for the 20th centure
02) Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice - the best and most influential of the reimaginings
03) Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre - H. P. Lovecraft
04) Books of Blood by Clive Barker
05) Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
06) An REH Conan collection (though the Solomon Kane collection would work as well)
07) The Earthsea Trilogy (or is it a tetralogy now?), by Ursula K. LeGuin
08) An early Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser collection by Fritz Leiber
09) Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury
10) Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe (though I do not feel deluged by imitations of this one!)

Ropespor

July 19, 2006 @, 2:29 PM

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your picks for great books. Many I see listed I find myself nodding my head in whole-hearted agreement. Others I am not familiar with intrigue me by their titles--I will have to do some hunting to fill in my own gaps.

Please keep them coming! I'd like to try to get at least one hundred respondents (I have ten over at the Wildside forum and ten here, so I've got a ways to go), so that I can make something like a definitive list. If you feel so inclined, pass along the word!

Nicholas

"Wirtzley's Warehouse: A Very Bad Day at Wirtzley's" in the July issue of Afterburn SF: The hottest Speculative Fiction siteon the web! http://www.afterburnsf.com
"Little Monsters" (poem) atEOTU http://www.clamcity.com/pg21monsters.html
"Them Eyes" (story)atSTRANGER BOX http://www.strangerbox.com (http://www.strangerbox.com/)
"'Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall' by Frank Belknap Long: An Appreciation" (essay) at The ED SF Project
http://edsfproject.blogspot.com/2006/04/humpty-dumpty-had-great-fall-by-frank.html
"Sarah's Spring: A Fable" December 2006 issue Raven's Electrick
"Gandalf's Staff, Prospero's Books: Magic in Tolkien and Shakespeare" in Tolkien and Shakespeare: Essays on Shared Themes andLanguage from McFarland & Co., spring 2007
Poems forthcoming in Surreal Magazine and Weird Tales

von Darkmoor

July 19, 2006 @, 5:52 PM

So is jolly St. Nicholas going to tell us his?

I'd rather play tennis than go to the dentist.
I'd rather play soccer than go to the doctor.
I'd rather play Hurk than go to work.
Hurk? Hurk? What's Hurk?
I don't know, but it must be better than work.
--- "Hurk" by Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic

Ropespor

July 21, 2006 @, 7:25 AM

Jolly St. Nicholas's list...(in no particular order)

1. The Lord of the Rings --J.R.R. Tolkien

2. Tales of Horror and the Macabre --H.P. Lovecraft

3. Collected Conan --Robert E. Howard

4. The Book of Wonder --Lord Dunsany

5. The House on the Borderland --William Hope Hodgson

6. Collected Fafrhd and Gray Mouser --Fritz Lieber

7. The Worm Orobouros --E.R. Eddison

8. Lilith --George MacDonald

9. Declare --Tim Powers

10. The Space Trilogy --C.S. Lewis (I consider these more space fantasy than sci-fi)

This list is off the cuff, and it is in flux. I am presently finishing or just starting several works that may be contenders for slots: Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy, Stephen King's It. There is also a very special place in my heart for two early influences: Lewis's Narnia Chronicles and Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter, Warlord of Mars books. I'm not sure if they still warrant inclusion on my top ten, but definitely my top twenty.

Nicholas

"Wirtzley's Warehouse: A Very Bad Day at Wirtzley's" in the July issue of Afterburn SF: The hottest Speculative Fiction siteon the web! http://www.afterburnsf.com
"Little Monsters" (poem) atEOTU http://www.clamcity.com/pg21monsters.html
"Them Eyes" (story)atSTRANGER BOX http://www.strangerbox.com (http://www.strangerbox.com/)
"'Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall' by Frank Belknap Long: An Appreciation" (essay) at The ED SF Project
http://edsfproject.blogspot.com/2006/04/humpty-dumpty-had-great-fall-by-frank.html
"Sarah's Spring: A Fable" December 2006 issue Raven's Electrick
"Gandalf's Staff, Prospero's Books: Magic in Tolkien and Shakespeare" in Tolkien and Shakespeare: Essays on Shared Themes andLanguage from McFarland & Co., spring 2007
Poems forthcoming in Surreal Magazine and Weird Tales

xiaotien

July 26, 2006 @, 4:45 PM

1. earthsea series by le guin
2. lord of the rings by tolkien
3. the hobbit by tolkien
4. dragonbone chair series (memory sorrow ..?) by tad williams
5. the shining by king
6. it by king
7. vampire chronicles by rice

i didn't read the earthsea series
until i saw the mini movie version
on the sci fi channel. that prompted me
to pick up the books.

i appreciate it for its dialogue and
characters. it doesn't have as much
of the WOW factor that is pushed
in most fantasy novels, but you come
to realize you don't need action action
magic magic when you have great characters
and an even better story.

it is inspirational and a bit daunting
at the same time, for a beginning writer
such as myself. 'i can never do that'
thought comes to mind often.

RonShiflet

August 5, 2006 @, 7:43 PM

I'll stick with horror on this list. There should definitely be collections of:

Poe's Work
Lovecraft's Work
The Best of Robert Howard's horror work
A Robert Bloch Collection
Dracula by Stoker
Ghost Story by Straub
It by King
All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By by John Farris
Phantoms by Koontz
The Elementals by Michael McDowell

Obviously the above is not definitive because there's just too much good stuff to list. I would also include stuff by Clark Ashton Smith, Joseph Payne Brennan, Richard Matheson, Frank Belknap Long, Robert McCammon, Ramsey Campbell, and Brian Lumley.

morsadean

August 30, 2006 @, 4:33 PM

Here's my top 10 (some are series):

1. Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
2. The Collected Elric books, Michael Moorcock
3. Imajica, Clive Barker
4. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
5. The Barsoom Books (Mars), Edgar Rice Burroughs
6. Conan the Barbarian, R.E. Howard
7. The Dark Tower, Stephen King
8. Collected Gray Mouser/Fafhrd stories, Fritz Leiber
9. The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson
10. The Amber Books, Roger Zelazny

carnifexpress

August 30, 2006 @, 7:09 PM

Rob Davies
10. The Amber Books, Roger Zelazny

All the books? I posted this elsewhere not too long ago, since I re-read the first five Amber books and loved them still, but had never read the next five books... someone told me to stay away from them but I found myself without a book in the car and these books there, so I read them... and had mixed emotions about them... are you referring to all 10 books or just the original first 5? curious more than anything.

Armand Rosamilia

Visit Carnifex Press for more information!

http://www.CarnifexPress.net

Freehold short stories:
"Like A Thief In The Night" http://gryphonwood.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_gryphonwood_archive.html
"Dew Scented" Stalking Shadows anthology

The Freehold site is now up!
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/freehold

morsadean

September 1, 2006 @, 12:05 PM

I would probably say the first five books are the essential ones. I really enjoyed the second series, but I can see where people may disagree. I have not read any of newer books by John Gregory Betancourt, though they are on my ever-increasing 'stack'.

carnifexpress

September 1, 2006 @, 2:39 PM

Yeah, I bought the Betancourt books myself but they are towards the bottom of the pile right now and don't know if I'll ever get to them.

Armand Rosamilia

Visit Carnifex Press for more information!

http://www.CarnifexPress.net

Freehold short stories:
"Like A Thief In The Night" http://gryphonwood.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_gryphonwood_archive.html
"Dew Scented" Stalking Shadows anthology

The Freehold site is now up!
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/freehold

Christopher_Heath

September 2, 2006 @, 3:49 AM

Here's my list, I cheated big time with the "series" of books. So much, in fact, I didn't name a single book. :)

1 Elric saga by Michael Moorcock
2 Collected worksof H.P. Lovecraft
3 Collected Conanby Robert E. Howard
4 Collected Kane by Karl E. Wagner
5 Fafhrd and Mouser Saga by Fritz Leiber
6 Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
7 Viriconium Cycle M. John Harrison
8 Drizzt saga R.A. Salvatore
9 Collected works by Arthur C. Clarke
10 Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

I don't think the top 6 will ever change for me, but the last 4, perhaps.

Christopher M. Heath

"Azieran: Beyond the Black Veil" in Stalking Shadows
"Azieran: In the Wake of Ain Koph's Fall" in Grendelsong #4
"Azieran: Kaiburr the Rotund"in Blood, Blade, and Thruster
"Azieran: Loxlimchk" in Turnpike Gates
"Azieran: The Crown of Roon" reprinted in SciFantastic #6
"Azieran: Creed of the Desert Kings" in Forgotten Worlds
"Azieran: Maixgloan" inGrendelSong #2
"Azieran: She of the White Lotus" in Sages and Swords
"Azieran: Blood and Kings" novella by Carnifex Press

+ others

carnifexpress

September 2, 2006 @, 10:35 AM

I agree with ya, Chris... I prefer a series of books to a single book, I am always wanting more of the same characters.

Armand Rosamilia

Visit Carnifex Press for more information!

http://www.CarnifexPress.net

Freehold short stories:
"Like A Thief In The Night" http://gryphonwood.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_gryphonwood_archive.html
"Dew Scented" Stalking Shadows anthology

The Freehold site is now up!
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/freehold

Raph

September 16, 2006 @, 1:07 AM

1) A Spell for Chameleon-- Piers Anthony
2) Glory Road-- Robert A. Heinlein
3) The Hobbit-- J.R.R. Tolkien
4) Dragonlance Chronicles-- Weis and Hickman
5) It--Stephen King
6) Jhereg-- Stephen Brust
7) Earthsea Trilogy-- Ursula K. LeGuin
8) The Warlock in Spite of Himself-- Christopher Stansheff
9) On a Pale Horse-- Piers Anthony
10) His Dark Materials trilogy-- Phillip Pullman

The three trilogies I put on the list were ones that are one long story; you can't just read one and not the others. There are others on the list that are the first book of a series, but they are stand-alone books that can be satisfying reads without reading the rest of the series (though I'd highly reccomend the others in those series also).

A Spell for Chameleon was the first fantasy that I read, and it made me a lifelong fan, and writer, of the genre. Four of the others on my list (Glory Road, Jhereg, The Warlock in Spite of Himself, and On a Pale Horse) all blend fantasy and science fiction (my other favorite genre). Go figure.

Mike O.

ASterling

October 19, 2006 @, 7:09 PM

This is fantasy *and* horror?

Hmn.

In David Letterman order (how hard!).

10. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
9. The Magus by John Fowles
8. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
7. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
6. Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirlees
5. Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
4. Alice in Wonderland (and sequel) by Lewis Carroll
3. The Narnia Books by C.S. Lewis
2. Dracula by Bram Stoker
1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

von Darkmoor

October 19, 2006 @, 10:15 PM

Welcome, oh chicken-headed ASterling! I like your Letterman list. I haven't read Susanna Clarke's book yet, but people keep talking about it so I'll add it to my to-read pile.

-------------------------------------------------------
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Frank

October 21, 2006 @, 10:37 AM

OK I realize that in the history of horror fiction Bram Stoker's Dracula is important for its ideas and the impact it had on popular culture but I don't understand how any reader today can enjoy it. The prose was so awful that it took a monumental effort on my part to finish it. His writing style made it so unreadable! I know we've already discussed this last year in another thread somewhere on this forum but I had to mention it again. And I don't think it was a matter of the era in which it was written because I've read many other books from the nineteenth century and no other novel I've encountered from that time period was so poorly written. I know it was a huge milestone in the literature of horror and of vampires specifically and the influence it has is massive but if you ask me the only truely horrifying aspect of Dracula is Stoker's syntax.

carnifexpress

October 21, 2006 @, 11:46 AM

Frank,

I think you could make a case for many other novels that are classics as well... I think if we look at the original story and honor it for the thoughts it provided and as the start of - or big impact - the specific genre, we are honoring it. To read it now is very rough, I did it about six years ago myself and it was not fun, lol.

Armand Rosamilia

Visit Carnifex Press for more information!

http://www.CarnifexPress.net

Freehold short stories:
"Like A Thief In The Night" http://gryphonwood.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_gryphonwood_archive.html
"Dew Scented" Stalking Shadows anthology

The Freehold site is now up!
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/freehold

ASterling

October 21, 2006 @, 1:33 PM

Howard von Darkmoor said...
Welcome, oh chicken-headed ASterling! I like your Letterman list. I haven't read Susanna Clarke's book yet, but people keep talking about it so I'll add it to my to-read pile.

Be prepared to set aside some time, Howard -- it's a very substantial book. But one of my favorites and a wonderful story. The chicken is perfect - it is Humphr?e.

ASterling

October 21, 2006 @, 1:50 PM

Frank said...
OK I realize that in the history of horror fiction Bram Stoker's Dracula is important for its ideas and the impact it had on popular culture but I don't understand how any reader today can enjoy it. The prose was so awful that it took a monumental effort on my part to finish it. His writing style made it so unreadable! I know we've already discussed this last year in another thread somewhere on this forum but I had to mention it again. And I don't think it was a matter of the era in which it was written because I've read many other books from the nineteenth century and no other novel I've encountered from that time period was so poorly written. I know it was a huge milestone in the literature of horror and of vampires specifically and the influence it has is massive but if you ask me the only truely horrifying aspect of Dracula is Stoker's syntax.There are all kinds of criticisms launched at Dracula, Frank.

But this is from chap. 1 (and the book is greatly epistolary -- a hard way to completely tell a story). This isn't fancy, but not bad prose:

"I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty."

That's right up front, prior to Jonathan's arrival at Castle Dracula. If you look at horror, and its place in literature, as crude asDracula might seem, it's still thestandard.

Dracula is more plainly-written than otherbelle-age writing, but not as plainas some -- for example, never mentioned as "literature" but still popular:

"Well, it is eighteen months or so ago since first I met Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good. It was in this way. I had been up elephant hunting beyond Bamangwato, and had met with bad luck. Everything went wrong that trip, and to top up with I got the fever badly. So soon as I was well enough I trekked down to the Diamond Fields, sold such ivory as I had, together with my wagon and oxen, discharged my hunters, and took the post-cart to the Cape." (King Solomon's Mines)

That's a more modern first person narrative -- in Allan Quatermain's voice. It's an example of how ideas of how to tell stories had begun to change. Stoker follows more of the older conventions, but the ideas in the book are disturbing, strange and resonant to this day.

Frank

October 22, 2006 @, 5:55 PM

I realize Stoker's ideas advanced the vampire model greatly and that, as far as the prose itself was concerned,he was following literary conventions that were already old-fashioned in his own time. My complaint was, did he have to write it so poorly? Perhaps that was the limit of his poetic talent and we should instead concentrate on his conceptual contributions to the genre, but when I was reading it I often wished that he'd given his notes to someone else to write out the novel. The same can be said of Shelley's Frankenstein, which I also finished reluctantly, only in her case the annoying tone of the prose was forced in an effort to comply with literary conventions of her era within the genre. You know she was capable of better writing, the middle section of the novel written from the point of view of the monster proves that. I wish she would've written the entire novel that way.

davidolson22

October 22, 2006 @, 6:32 PM

I think in a greatst books ever list, the content should be as important as the delivery. Saying literary conventions of the time forced something to suck, seems a bit wimpy. The Three Musketeers is really old, but it's a very enjoyable read. Frankenstein is highly skimmable, on the other hand.

read free fiction and poetry at http://www.geocities.com/davidolson22/index.html

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ScrewMoonshine

October 23, 2006 @, 1:00 PM

I think the perception that modern literary conventions today are more advanced than they were in previous centuries is an illusion. Literary conventions simply means what the general public likes; the fact that contemporary books are more enjoyable to us is simply because our culture has changed. If you brought a 19th-century person to our time, he could just as easily talk about how painful modern literature is to read as we can about 19th century works. The fact that Dumas's works are more enjoyable for us to read than Shelley's isn't because he was a stellar writer(though he was), but simply because his writing style more closely coincides with what we define today as 'good reading'.

Robert Orme

Out now:
'Such Dreams' in Amazing Journeys Magazine #12
'On the Tree Top' in Ultraverse vol.3 #5 (www.ultraverse.us)

Coming soon: 'The Scab, the Man, and the I.V.' in Mount Zion Speculative Fiction Review #3

PaulMc

October 23, 2006 @, 4:11 PM

ASterling

October 23, 2006 @, 10:20 PM

Frank said...
My complaint was, did he have to write it so poorly? Perhaps that was the limit of his poetic talent and we should instead concentrate on his conceptual contributions to the genre, but when I was reading it I often wished that he'd given his notes to someone else to write out the novel. The same can be said of Shelley's Frankenstein, which I also finished reluctantly, only in her case the annoying tone of the prose was forced in an effort to comply with literary conventions of her era within the genre. You know she was capable of better writing. . .Re: Stoker giving his notes to someone else to write the book -- you know that people have said this of him for years. Not about Dracula, but rather about his other books. I'm not sure I did a full intro. for Jewel of the Seven Stars, but it's difficult to believe that the same author wrote both that and Dracula. Jewel reminded me very much of the movie The Mummy.

Re: Mary Shelley -- the book was written in 1816. Compared to other work of its time (as you suggest), it's absolutely amazing. I don't have a problem reading it. But by the latter part of her career, she was writing books like Falkner. It's much more readable and a very interesting book.

But what I see of these two books is that the two great monsters of many generations were born in them, bookending the 19th century. Which seems more "modern" today and which more "old-fashioned?" Hard to say.

Frank

October 24, 2006 @, 10:57 AM

I think Stoker is bad reading, then or now. I've read other books written between 1800 and 1910, some of which were good reading, others were simply not, and I don't think it's a matter of the time period, I think it's a matter of the author's talent. In some cases, like Frankenstein and Dracula, books became famous for the novelty of the ideas contained within them, not for the quality of the writing itself. In other cases, like War of the Worlds and Heart of Darkness and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, books became famous for both conceptual and literary reasons.

I can sink my teeth into old language and enjoy it. I can (and have) been moved to tears while reading Shakespeare's words and his English is four centuries old. Poe began writing just a few years after Frankenstein, yet I find his prose eloquent and compelling while Shelley's is tortuous in many places. And Wells, who wrote and published in the same decade as Stoker, is immensely enjoyable to absorb, his prose so perfect as to make any subject more than readable, while Stoker's is plodding and unpleasantly superfluous, almost laughable if it wasn't so painful to finish.

ScrewMoonshine

October 24, 2006 @, 11:39 AM

Frank said...
I think Stoker is bad reading, then or now. I've read other books written between 1800 and 1910, some of which were good reading, others were simply not, and I don't think it's a matter of the time period, I think it's a matter of the author's talent. In some cases, like Frankenstein and Dracula, books became famous for the novelty of the ideas contained within them, not for the quality of the writing itself. In other cases, like War of the Worlds and Heart of Darkness and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, books became famous for both conceptual and literary reasons.

I haven't read Dracula, but I would actually lump Frankenstein into the latter category and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea into the former. I've rarely had such trouble getting through a book as I did with 20,000 Leagues, which reads more like an exposition on various sci fi concepts than a story. Frankenstein has some groaners in the plotline(mainly, everything to do with the framing job the monster executed) and the dialogue is sometimes melodramatic, but on the whole it's a very gripping work, and a beautifully crafted story. 20,000 Leagues was gripping for but fleeting moments, and was a story for an equal duration.

Robert Orme

Out now:
'Such Dreams' in Amazing Journeys Magazine #12
'On the Tree Top' in Ultraverse vol.3 #5 (www.ultraverse.us)

Coming soon: 'The Scab, the Man, and the I.V.' in Mount Zion Speculative Fiction Review #3

irwinjamescody

October 24, 2006 @, 6:20 PM

These are not in any particular order:

1. Shadowland by Peter Straub: This one is quite literally a magical slice of youth, both beautiful and terrifying. I know that many hail Ghost Story as Straub's apex, but I believe it's Shadowland. This was out decades before Potter and the magic-craze riding Potter's coattails, and it still delivers.

2. Batman: Year One by Frank Miller: I know many would balk at a graphic novel for being one of my favorite literary works (and derivative, as Miller obviously did not originally create most of its characters), but I would argue Miller's script alone is simply monumental. I think he cut his teeth on Batman with The Dark Knight Returns, but hit full stride by going back to the beginning with Year One. Future issues ofDC's Batman catalog still use some of the narrative conventions Miller invented in Year One (and somewhat in Drak Knight Returns), and that's a huge testament to how brilliant it was. And yes, it's comics, but it's beautiful fantasy through and through.

3. Robert E. Howard's Conan canon: Enough said... really.

4. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien: Enough said... really x 2.

5. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis: This book in the space trilogy sticks out to me because of how deeply it caught me off guard. I wasn't dealing with the innocence of Narnia anymore; here was a world living out the fall of man as only Lewis could tell it.

6. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks: I hesitated on this one because of its recent publication, but I believe it will pan out to be at the pinnacle of its sub-genre. The strength of this book is the varied but starkly vivid characterizations that Brooks (who also wrote the deadpan, clinical and great Zombie Survival Guide) is able to establish with very few pages for each. Both spooky and surprisingly uplifting, I'm already re-reading it so I can experience these wonderful characters all over again.

7. The Stand by Stephen King:Many can write a goodapocalypse, only King can write the one with characters you will never forget.

8. Animal Farm by George Orwell:Orwell's inner strugglewith socialism vs. capitalism (and yes, I believe he was never settled on the matter) is displayed wrapped up in heartbraking, wonderful fantasy.

two more later...--ijc

You're not the devil... you're practice.
--Bruce Wayne

As usual, the hero business is up to me.
--Calvin (to Hobbes)

ScrewMoonshine

October 25, 2006 @, 12:22 PM

Irwin Cody said...

2. Batman: Year One by Frank Miller: I know many would balk at a graphic novel for being one of my favorite literary works (and derivative, as Miller obviously did not originally create most of its characters), but I would argue Miller's script alone is simply monumental. I think he cut his teeth on Batman with The Dark Knight Returns, but hit full stride by going back to the beginning with Year One. Future issues of DC's Batman catalog still use some of the narrative conventions Miller invented in Year One (and somewhat in Drak Knight Returns), and that's a huge testament to how brilliant it was. And yes, it's comics, but it's beautiful fantasy through and through.

Well, not to be a negative Nancy, but it is the 10 Greatest Books of Fantasy and Horror. Comics are a whole other art form, and it's really not fair to compare the two because there are so many things a comic can do that a novel simply can't. Had I thought they qualified, Ann Nocenti, John Romita jr., and Al Williamson's 'Journey Into Hell'(Daredevil #262-7 & 270-282), Chris Claremont, Art Adams, and Terry Austin's 'Asgardian Wars'(New Mutants Special Edition #1 and Uncanny X-Men annual #9), and Ann Nocenti and John Bolton's 'Someplace Strange' would all be on my list, among others.

Interesting pick with Shadowland; that's one I've never heard of.

Robert Orme

Out now:
'Such Dreams' in Amazing Journeys Magazine #12
'On the Tree Top' in Ultraverse vol.3 #5 (www.ultraverse.us)

Coming soon: 'The Scab, the Man, and the I.V.' in Mount Zion Speculative Fiction Review #3

irwinjamescody

October 26, 2006 @, 7:59 AM

Well, not to be a negative Nancy, but it is the 10 Greatest Books of Fantasy and Horror. Comics are a whole other art form, and it's really not fair to compare the two because there are so many things a comic can do that a novel simply can't. Had I thought they qualified, Ann Nocenti, John Romita jr., and Al Williamson's "Journey Into Hell"(Daredevil #262-7 & 270-282), Chris Claremont, Art Adams, and Terry Austin's "Asgardian Wars"(New Mutants Special Edition #1 and Uncanny X-Men annual #9), and Ann Nocenti and John Bolton's "Someplace Strange" would all be on my list, among others.

Interesting pick with Shadowland; that's one I've never heard of.

Robert Orme

You have an absolutely legitimate argument, no Negative Nancies here. However, I would counter (and I'm sure you'll agree at least to some degree) that there are so many things a novel can do that a comic can't. Volume of story alone, for one thing. The reason I listed Batman: Year One was that the dialogue and storytelling alone (separate from the art) were outstanding.

And if you haven't read Shadowland, that puppy is worth the suggested retail price and much, much more.

Outstanding choices on the comics, by the way! For the sake of purity on this topic (top 10 novels/books), I'll reserve future comic book comments to another thread dealing with them specifically.

Take care,

--ijc

You're not the devil... you're practice.
--Bruce Wayne

As usual, the hero business is up to me.
--Calvin (to Hobbes)

Robert M. Blevins

October 27, 2006 @, 6:25 PM

Frank said this:

'In some cases, like Frankenstein and Dracula, books became famous for the novelty of the ideas contained within them, not for the quality of the writing itself.'

Good point there, Frank. True, as well. /emoticons/cool.gif

"Don't give up reaching for the stars...
just build yourself a bigger ladder."
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crystalwizard

November 2, 2006 @, 7:55 AM

I can't post any horror selections, I don't read it.

Fantasy is hard, it depends on my mood at the time however the ones I'd include are:

1. Tolkien's trilogy (includes Hobbit because it's a prequel and all the stuff that christopher has published after his death because those are his notes the trilogy was written from).

2. Zelazney's Amber series

3. Mine :)

Only have 3 in the list because everything else I can think of right now are pure sci-fi

Never meddle in the affairs of a wizard unless you are soggy and hard to light!

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