ThReads Must Roll: the new, improved rolling fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction &c. thread

There was a mention of Robert Jordan in the "authors you will never read" thread. I remembered that I spent a great deal of time (in my teens) reading David Eddings (The Belgariad, The Mallorean, The Elenium, The Tamuli-- I remember the character names and who-ended-up-marrying-whom, but that's all I remember). Just googling now, didn't realize Eddings had died! nine years ago!

I'm curious. I found Shannara to be too fiddly, or something, and I stopped reading "The Sword Of" when I was about 2/3rds of the way through. I read the original McCaffrey Dragon trilogy but remember feeling embarrassed at how nerdy the sex scenes were and feel no desire to revisit. The Wheel Of Time? All I know is that it's long and the dude died before he finished it.

What long-ass fantasy cycles (with a YA edge) do we rate? Aside from Eddings, the series's that I have the most affection for are Piers Anthony's Incarnations series and the first Dragonlance Trilogy

I have very fond memories of Weis and Hickman's Death Gate heptalogy, but no idea whether they hold up.

i re-read the belgariad a couple years ago when i was ill; it's pretty dire, if probably par for the course -- all the people from *this* country are thieves, and all the people from *this* country are taciturn horseriders, and girls you have to let your guys *think* they're in charge after you lead them to the proper conclusion, etc.

iirc shanarra was one of several series that were utterly shameless lotr rips with the map directions changed, like okay let's put mordor in the northwest this time

recently remembered reading a margaret weis sf trilogy that was pretty much star wars with the names changed (or not). looked it up and the protagonist -- scion of a family of noble galactic monarchs cruelly overthrown by the evil republic -- is named dion starfire

it's not that long, but i will defend patricia mckillip's harpist trilogy against all haters

If I recall correctly, re: Eddings, I started to re-read the Belgariad a second time in my early 20s and was really, really impressed with how good the first novel "Pawn Of Prophecy" was, but then was reminded (when I began vol. 2) of the tone and repetitiousness of the subsequent instalments. I think often about Durnik's assertion (in book 1) that "it's important to be fastidious even when smithing a nail for the undercarriage of a wagon, otherwise you'll feel guilt when you see that wagon going by, guilt that you did a shoddy job on that nail." But then I remember that much of the levity of the later books was repetition of "inside jokes" that got tiresome, and predictable arcs of conflict and resolution.

I do think I'll re-read the first Dragonlance trilogy, I remember feeling very moved by Raistlin's arc

i think also with the first one it was human-sized -- they're just riding around in wagons or whatever, trying to escape detection -- whereas later on it's like hi this is our party of twelve and they are all princesses and kings and wizards out of legend who have no vulnerabilities to speak of

also there was an ongoing bit about how it's dangerous to bathe in winter which i never understood

I did like:

"Take a bath, Durnik. You stink. You smell."

"No, I stink. You smell."

fgti - the Robin Hobb series of trilogies all set in the same world. Farseer Trilogy comes first. We swear by these in this household.

i quite liked guy gavriel kay's fionavar trilogy; haven't read his others

bonus can-con too!

t's not that long, but i will defend patricia mckillip's harpist trilogy against all haters

― mookieproof, Tuesday, August Have only read some of McK.'s stories (all amazing) in anthologies, only full-length Winter Rose, also very satisfying,in terms of character development via plot and vice versa, also just in terms of taking my imagination around the block several times and ways without leaving home (very isolated settings, of story and me). I've avoided fantasy and most other trilogies since overloaded 80s, but will check hers, thanks for the mention.

it's not that long, but i will defend patricia mckillip's harpist trilogy against all haters

― mookieproof, Tuesday, August 11, 2020 3:25 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I will stand in this gap with you, mooks. She's all-time. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is another fave.

The Farseer books are good. Also have fond memories of the Dragonlance books but haven't reread them

I did reread The Belgariad and The Malloereon recently as I loved both as a kid. Enjoyed The Belgariad series (although probably most of that was nostalgia) but The Malloreon was incredibly dire. I then tried to read his Sparhawk books but gave up on the first one as it was even worse.

I remember The Sword of Shannara being very big and basically a LOTR clone (as mentioned above) - the Vale instead of The Shire, Brona - Sauron, Skull Bearers - Nazgul, Allanon - Gandalf, Gnomes - Orcs etc. Think Elfstones and Wishsong were a little better and fair play to the dude he's still knocking out Shannara novels now

<i>sword of shannara</i> completely blew my mind in 5th grade lolol... same with <i>on a pale horse</i>

of the two i think shannara is better, but tbh i haven't been able to fully reread either as an adult

Hate to suggest stuff I haven't read, but for acclaimed and longish YA series I have to mention Susan Cooper, Le Guin and Garth Nix.

CS Lewis and Alan Garner for something shorter.

https://csfquery.com/

Hate to suggest stuff I haven't read, but for acclaimed and longish YA series I have to mention Susan Cooper, Le Guin and Garth Nix.

i've read all three! good stuff. i've been meaning to revisit the earthsea series.

As I've said before, the heel turn in Earthsea book 4 from YA set in an unquestioned patriarchy to righteously furious adult feminist tract, and then the synthesis of both in books 5 and 6, is one of my favourite things in all literature.

DAW translations from 70s and 80s with Cherryh translating 4 books and John Brunner doing one.
https://www.sfintranslation.com/?page_id=7225

Cool. Wonder if you can get any of those Gérard Klein's easily, I've liked to one or two things I've read in anthologies.

There's a recent-ish Starmasters omnibus that features 3 of those novels and a bunch of stories.

I liked Klein's "The Monster" in The Big Book of Science Fiction, thanks for the reminder about him. And thanks so much for the link to reviews of SF in translation!

There's a lot of good stuff on that site, if I had known this page existed, I wouldn't have spent so much time searching countries on isfdb (which I admittedly enjoyed). This is single author collections, region anthologies and international anthologies.
https://www.sfintranslation.com/?page_id=6381

This post is about the debate of having a separate translation category for the Hugo awards. It makes a compelling counter-argument to the reasonable concern that a translated piece couldn't win best novel or best short story etc.
Some people take awards far too seriously but the main thing is to get people talking about and comparing more books. People always say that word of mouth is why books succeed. I only just noticed there is no collection or anthology category.
https://www.sfintranslation.com/?p=8662

Many were greatly amused that puppygaters lost their grip on the Dragon Awards to the type of Hugo contenders they were always complaining about. Some of them have just put more of their eggs in the comicsgate basket because they get more attention there.

Has Peter Beagle's Last Unicorn been out of print for a while? Because I had to search around amazon several minutes to find a cheap copy. I just imagined it was perpetually in print.

Dunno, but you've gotten me to dig up a thrift store find, The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle (Viking, 1978): "Lila and the Werewolf" (from the 60s, really liked it, only one of these I've read), with "The Last Unicorn," "Come, Lady Death," and "A Fine and Private Place." Have you read these?

Also, as mentioned upthread, in 2019: one of my faves from Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017, guest edited by Charles Yu, series Editor John Joseph Adams: "The Story of Kao Yu," by Peter S. Beagle, might or might not have come from an actual Chinese folk tale, but has no "translated" quaintness: it's about a circuit-riding judge and his staff, in some Empire, some century or other, but there's nothing vague about the characters or their situations--fantasy element is the entity that sometimes appears in the back of whatever courtroom, observing. I guess it *could* be considered topical, in the sense that gender roles, incl. suddenly hapless maleness, can still be news, somehow.

No, I haven't read any of his stuff.

This is an appealing overview, I think, although does have some spoilers, but for me it's all about the telling--goes toward 1997, when the Encyclopedia of Fantasy stopped updating:
http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=beagle_peter_s
He doesn't write SF, but here's a group of links to SFE references:
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/beagle_peter_s

That makes him sound interesting. I'd always for some reason mentally grouped him with Andre Norton and Piers Anthony as writers of crap I could safely ignore.

That category keeps getter smaller for me. Christopher Paolini and Terry Brooks are about the only writers left who I've never really heard much defense of.

Lol

There's been so so many writers I've written off but later on heard a compelling recommendation for them by someone who seems to know what they're talking about.

peter s beagle is very good indeed, i try to reread last unicorn every few years. i've tried recommending it in the past but haven't really found a good way to convince ppl to read a book about a unicorn.

i found an old paperback copy of a fine and private place in a used bookstore last year and decided to buy it because it matched my copy of last unicorn -- same publisher, same size, similar illustration. when i got home i realized that beagle himself had signed and personalized it to someone -- in 1969!

Worst Tolkien cover in existence? pic.twitter.com/kW2XlpKqKb

— Landry Lee (@_LandryJLee) August 22, 2020

Lol

https://notesfrompoland.com/2020/07/11/undula-a-newly-discovered-story-by-bruno-schulz/

xpost

lol that was the copy my middle-school library had. this one's even worse:

https://pictures.abebooks.com/SKLUBOOKS2014/22525284458.jpg

Love these
http://monsterbrains.blogspot.com/2014/07/jan-parker-paintings-of-witchcraft-and.html

Great interview, I like this idea of reading everything possible and "seeing the forest, not the trees" and whatever that reveals.
http://www.scottedelman.com/2020/08/28/farah-mendlesohn/

https://www.thelondonmagazine.org/interview-michael-cisco-on-weird-fiction-cheerful-nihilism-and-sex-in-literature/
Quite good interview. I still have 3 of his books waiting to be read.

Same! One day.

Charles Saunders, pioneer of African fantasy and black sword and sorcery
https://www.facebook.com/milton.davis.52/posts/10214005770897028

David Gullen - Third Instar

I bought this at the same time as the paperback of The Girl From A Thousand Fathoms and I was way more eager for that but this is so short and I seen a good review of it on The Bedlam Files, so I just started here.

It's about a city on the edge of (the/a) world and people like to fly around the sky by means of kites. There's some fantasy creatures but it's mostly about a city love story and a man repeatedly restarting his life.

I found it a little hard to visualize everything that happens with the cauldron, just how fast and rough the journey is that allows the main character to do everything he does in it.

It's quite good. Occasionally I felt like I needed more description of the gods, some of the settings and clothes but I'm looking forward to The Girl From A Thousand Fathoms.

as aldo nova once asked, can you live this fantasy life?

We're excited to launch the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic - the first research centre in the world to focus solely on #fantasy! 🌍

The centre will bring together the biggest group of academics working in this field

More 👉 https://t.co/NgNCv4JYFR @UofGFantasy pic.twitter.com/FGzh06ppCZ

— University of Glasgow (@UofGlasgow) September 14, 2020

Nice. I seen some of their blog a while ago.

Lesbian adventure fantasy (possibly similar to Ellen Kushner?), could be good.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cantina/silk-and-steel

Am reading (and enjoying) A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, a murder mystery very much in the Ancillary Justice mould - diplomatic, procedural, largely dialogue driven, set in a self-satisfied and borderline xenophobic empire with elaborate systems of language, manners, social mores.

Gave up on reading Velocity Weapon by Megan O'Keefe after 5 of about 800 chapters. Too long, too slow - three pages of airlock repair killed it for me.

Martine said that CJ Cherryh was a huge influence on it, some people said Foreigner in particular.

Yeah still haven't managed to find any cherryh ebooks, or not ones i want to read anyway. am strangely reluctant to get even second hand hard copies from an author i haven't read before.

i'm also unable in the uk to purchase an ebook (not kindle) of robert crowley's last novel, though they exist. wtf take my money! i will have to get a hard copy of that.

I've been reading the third Dying Earth book by Jack Vance and I'm getting a feeling that Vance (or at least this series) is all about the diversions and not the main quest. Tipping off waiter boys' hats, sneakily cutting off beards, Cugel generally trying to take advantage of or escape a situation.