Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Fiction – Fantasy Interlude Part 2

When I wrote that the David Lindsay Violet Apple was a rarity, I didn’t realise that my edition which I paid $6.20 for in 1976, is now worth something like $150.00.  Something to remember when I’m down and out.

Anyway, that’s beside the point…

To continue and conclude, for now, the stray Fantasy books, among which there are Science Fiction titles, I present first up Sylvia Engdahl’s Enchantress From The Stars and its sequel The Far Side of Evil, highly regarded young adult fantasy/SF novels, published in the early 1970s.

engdahl_enchantress engdahl_farsideofevil

Also in the juvenile fantasy category is Ursula Le Guin’s  Earthsea Trilogy. I have the three books in hard cover editions, published by Gollancz and acquired by me in 1974. Only The Farthest Shore is a first edition, the other two are second impressions, but as a set they look very handsome.

leguin_wizardofearthseahc

leguin_tombsofatuanhc leguin_farthestshorehc

A couple of oddities to follow this well known series are John Fuller’s Flying To Nowhere, which won the Whitbread Best First Novel Award in 1983, and A Dark Horn Blowing by Dahlov Ipcar.

fuller_flyingto nowhere ipcar_darkhorn

Sheri S Tepper’s Beauty won the Locus Award in1992.

tepper_beauty

In the above Sheri S Tepper link, which is an interview with the author, she mentions that one of her favourite books was Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright. Naturally I have a copy…though it is years since I last opened its covers.

wright_islandia

The next two novels are once again oddities, and deal interestingly with gender. Childe Rolande, is a most unusual fantasy by Samantha Lee wherein the hero/heroine is a hermaphrodite, and Donald Kingsbury’s Courtship Rite set on a planet where polyandry is a way of life.

lee_childeroland kingsbury_courtshiprite

And finally for this post another Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy, The Fates of the Princes of Dyfed by Kenneth Morris, a Welsh fantasy based on the Mabinogion.

morris_fatesof the princes

I’ll get back to general fiction in the next entry.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Fiction – A Fantasy Interlude

Long time, no post, but I have been thinking about it, but failing to summon up the energy to do anything about it.

To make up, here are some stray Fantasy & Science Fiction books, which were hiding in the general books collection.

For a start, this Dover edition of Jurgen by James Branch Cabell with fantastical illustrations and decorations by Frank C Papé.

cabell_jurgen

Joy Chant was the author of the highly regarded young adult fantasy Red Moon and Black Mountain which was included in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. The Grey Mane of Morning is a sequel to the aforementioned book.

chant_greymane

Another author who was featured in the Ballantine series was Lord Dunsany. He also made it to the spin off fantasy series, The Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library of which series I have a few, including The Food of Death.

dunsany_foodof death

A couple more in the Newcastle series… The Haunted Woman by David Lindsay of Voyage to Arcturus fame, Aladore by Henry Newbolt, The Glittering Plain and Golden Wings by William Morris.

lindsay_hauntedwoman newbolt_aladore
morrisw_glitteringplain morrisw_goldenwings

And to finish this post a rare David Lindsay, The Violet Apple & The Witch, published by Chicago Review Press in 1976.

lindsay_violetapple

A few more Fantasy novels will follow shortly.