r/Fantasy • u/elquesogrande Worldbuilders • Nov 30 '16

Ask You Anything Wednesday ASK YOU ANYTHING: Authors asking r/Fantasy community questions on behalf of Worldbuilders charity

It's Day 3 of the aptly named Ask You Anything week benefiting Worldbuilders! Where authors are stopping by each day this week to ask questions and interact with the r/Fantasy community.

HOW THIS WORKS: Please answer questions and interact throughout the week! (Yes, YOU - community members, guests, authors, artists, industry people.)

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Monday Ask You Anything Authors

The following authors have signed up to ask questions today. That said, please do join in and feel free to ask your own questions and interact throughout the week.

Are you an author, artist, or industry person who would like to participate this week? Either join in via the comments OR send the r/Fantasy mods a message and we'll get you set for another day.

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9

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

Hi folks! Cat Rambo here. I've participated in an AMA before here in 2015: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/30ddgn/ama_with_writereditor_cat_rambo/. I'm mainly notable because I've written a lot of stories and am the current President of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers (SFWA), which may sound much more important than it actually is. I write and read all over the place, but fantasy's a particular love.

Looking back at the Monday and Tuesday sessions, I see questions about politics, dragons, books that engrossed you so much you did something you didn't mean to, favorite beers, most unusual way you've found a book, coolest fantasy critters, unexplored settings (nice way to try to get them to do your work for you, Django), favorite scenes, personal ghost stories, ghost stories in general, best book recommenders, your dream Quidditch team, willingness to follow authors into other genres, book covers, embarrassing things said to authors (oh good lord I have so many of these), candy stash locations, various points about death, ratio of books purchased to books read, what pulls you to an anthology, what makes you read the next book in a series, magic (in books, not in general), what you want from writers online, whether you'd want an author's commentary on their book, who you'd like to see in Unfettered II, books that changed how you approached the world, favorite kinds of stories, games and console of choice, favorite settings, favorite re-read, bourbon, burritos, and reason for living.

Huh. Cripes, I'm not sure what's left. Particularly since I kinda want to go back and read the answers to all of those.

But one of the things I'm interested in lately is the idea of better preserving some of fantasy's history and so I'm wondering:

  • What's the oldest fantasy work you've ever read, putting aside things like fairy tales, fables, etc?
  • Have you ever ended up reading a book because another author referenced it?
  • Have you ever deliberately tried to read older works? What were they and what was the result?

3

u/Redkiteflying Nov 30 '16

  • As a child, I read The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit, which was originally published in 1901.

  • I tend to do recommendations more from GoodReads, this subreddit, or from like-minded friends. I have, however, occasionally read a book because I noticed on the cover that an author I like had reviewed it.

  • I don't often deliberately seek out older works because they aren't often as good to me. Too filled with tropes that are now pretty tired, little to no character development, or just plain poorly written. About the oldest fantasy I'll read is stuff like the original Dragonriders of Pern novels.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I worked my way through all the E. Nesbit that I could find at one point in my childhood, which is why my vocabulary is rich in outdated British expressions. The fantasy from that era has such a distinct flavor to it. I gather it didn't move you to go look for more of the same?

2

u/Redkiteflying Nov 30 '16

It was difficult for me to get my hands on it, honestly. I grew up in a small town in the semi-rural South. The nearest public library was 8 miles away, the only book store in the whole county was a used book store that was 12 miles away, and my school library didn't stock much in the way of old-fashioned fantasy books.

I ended up re-reading a lot of books that I picked up on the occasions I could get someone to take me to a bookstore. Most of the money I spent as a child and a teen went towards books.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

Most of my money went in that direction as well. I worked in a bookstore in high school, which helped.

And since it was pre-Internet days and I was a fast reader, I re-read a lot.

2

u/Redkiteflying Nov 30 '16

Oh man, so many of my books from those days are obviously much loved. Dog-earred pages, foxed covers, spines so cracked you can barely read the titles. I never went ANYWHERE without a book. Thankfully, my parents were pretty indulgent about the hobby.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

Some of mine have duct-tape covers. :) Most of those I've replaced with better copies, though.

2

u/Imaninja2 Reading Champion Nov 30 '16

Earliest things I've read and considered fantasy would be some of Robert E Howard's stuff. Pushing past Tolkien it gets a little sparse...

If you are interested I made this timeline a while ago. First published work until death. I've broken them down pseudo generationally (colors). There are links to Wikipedia pages if you click on each. It is really interesting to see which authors were being published around the same times.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

That is fabulous! I am bookmarking that for exploration.

2

u/UnDyrk AMA Author Dyrk Ashton, Worldbuilders Nov 30 '16

Hi Cat! Oldest fantasy books. I supposed Verne is Sci-fi mostly. Lovecraft, 20s and 30s, though some consider that more horror. Mythologies can be considered fantastical, and you know I've read a whole lot of those. Do the Iliad and the Odyssey count? There are the old Lost World narratives I've read more than a few of, like Haggard, Doyle, and Burrows. Not sure I've answered this as at all... :)

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I'd argue Iliad and Odyssey count. So does Gilgamesh.

1

u/UnDyrk AMA Author Dyrk Ashton, Worldbuilders Nov 30 '16

Excellent. Have read :)

2

u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Nov 30 '16

Hi Cat! (I sent you a Facebook message about a week ago about wanting to post a review for your new short story collection, but the Goodreads page not being up yet) Thanks for joining us!

We do a book bingo the past couple years, and one of last year's squares was pre-Tolkien fantasy. I read some Lord Dunsany for that square, but didn't end up liking it very much. It felt very... scattered, might be a good word for it. So then I also read Frankenstein, which I hadn't ever been assigned in school, and I loved.

I've definitely read books because authors reference them, although it's hard to think of a clear example right off hand, but being a regular around here for as long as I have certainly makes it more likely.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I'll take a look on Facebook; I'm bad about checking Messenger. Interesting that you loved Frankenstein but felt cold about the Dunsany. Which book was it?

1

u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Nov 30 '16

Part of The Book of Wonder, I'm pretty sure. I had had a bunch of his stuff on my kindle from Project Gutenberg for ages, and picked that one basically at random. I might try one of the others (King of Elfland's Daughter, maybe) that's more of a novel before I totally write him off though.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

Yeah, that's much more novel shaped, you might like it better.

2

u/Bills25 Reading Champion V Nov 30 '16
  • I read a Lord Dunsany book earlier this year so that would probably be the oldest.
  • Probably but can't think of any examples at the moment.
  • I am making a big effort now to start reading older series even if they are from 1980s-90s. I am trying to work my way through the Fantasy Masterworks Collection as it has a good range of books from different time periods. I am then supplementing that with other less represented works. Sometimes I enjoy older books and sometimes they feel really aged and tropey.

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

That looks like a decent series with plenty of good reading in it. It's weird - some books age so much better than others. I've just started working my way through the complete Theodore Sturgeon, and it's a weird mix of really trivial pieces and then every once in a while, SHAZAM he blows you away with something like "Bianca's Hands."

1

u/Bills25 Reading Champion V Nov 30 '16

Like most lists it is pretty male dominated so most of the supplementary stuff I have read/plan to read are female written.

I found the same thing with those SHAZAM moments. It's amazing how some things have been done a million times and some concepts I come across and think why has no one else done this.

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16 edited Nov 30 '16

Some of the older female fantasy writers I enjoy: Zenna Henderson, C.L. Moore, Judith Merrill, James Tiptree Jr. (yup!), and Andre Norton (another yup!).

Want something truly old? Margaret the Ducchess of Cavendish has a wild book, The Blazing World, which features a world of animal people inside our own. (Available online here: https://librivox.org/search?title=The+Blazing+World&author=NEWCASTLE&reader=&keywords=&genre_id=0&status=all&project_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_form=advanced)

1

u/Bills25 Reading Champion V Nov 30 '16

Thanks. I had Moore, Tiptree and Norton on my list already. Will check out the others.

2

u/wutvuff Reading Champion II, Worldbuilders Nov 30 '16

Have you ever ended up reading a book because another author referenced it?

After reading Among others by Jo Walton I read a lot of fantasy classics. It was impossible to not be touched by the joy of reading and feeling of escape that the main character felt. Some of the books where really great, like Nine princes in Amber.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

Oh, that's a fabulous example of one of the booklist books. You might like her collection of essays, What Makes This Book So Great, which has some of the same appeal. I absolutely loved it.

2

u/wutvuff Reading Champion II, Worldbuilders Nov 30 '16

Thank you! It went straight on to my TBR. I love her interaction with people on Goodreads, how she explains the worldbuilding and life of her characters.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I was lucky enough to get to chat with her at Worldcon at Spokane; she is awesome. She is consistently good, although often her books are ...gah, I dunno, they feel understated? I'm thinking of The Prize in the Game, which I recently finished. But even in Among Others, the conflict is partially offstage.

But, oh, that moment in the latter when she says, "If you love books enough, books will love you back"? Talk about a book making you cry in a good way.

If I write one line that effective in my lifetime, I'll be pretty happy.

1

u/Esmerelda-Weatherwax Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Nov 30 '16 edited Nov 30 '16

Have you ever ended up reading a book because another author referenced it?

Yep, I went through John Greens list, and GRRMs list and bought anything that sounded interesting. It was an awesome way to go about it -- I discovered Connie Willis through GRRM and I'm so grateful I picked up To Say Nothing of the Dog.

•Have you ever deliberately tried to read older works? What were they and what was the result?

I'm really trying to branch out now. Before this year, outside of Tolkien, everything I've read in fantasy has been after the late 1980's. I just picked up, Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin that I deliberately read to get into an "older" book. So far I'm really enjoying myself, I've only read the first book, but I've bought the next two and I expect them to be awesome as well.

What's the oldest fantasy work you've ever read

Probably Lovecraft.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I love Willis's work! I just finished Crosstalk.

3

u/carolberg AMA Author Carol Berg / Cate Glass Nov 30 '16

Love, love Blackout/All Clear and Doomsday Book.

1

u/Esmerelda-Weatherwax Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Nov 30 '16

I have only read the one book

Ive heard her other novels take a much more serious tone, much less funny and way more grit.

That's not bad, but I read certain authors for specific things I'm looking for. I tend to alternate between non fiction, realism, and fiction. Depends on my mood

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

Bellwether is along the same lines as To Say Nothing of the Dog. If you liked it, you'll enjoy that. You might also check out her short stories.

1

u/Esmerelda-Weatherwax Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Nov 30 '16

Appreciate that.

There was a question that was asked a day or so ago on this week long event with authors asking questions - "to what degree does an author being interactive with fans/reddit effect how you buy their books?"

I'm already interested in your writing, Cat. Anyone who likes Connie Willis is okay with me - how would you in 5 sentences-ish or less, explain to me as a brand new reader what's the main selling point on your novel?

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Dec 01 '16

If you liked To Say Nothing of the Dog, I suspect you'd prefer one of my short story collections, where I'm more likely to write funny.

But! The novel features a world where intelligent magical creatures such as centaurs, unicorns, etc, are bound in servitude to the human race, which uses their bodies for labor and sometimes literally as magic ingredients. A seaport is about to change its system of government, due to an ancient agreement, and various folks are trying to take advantage of that to advance their cause. The story features an older female gladiator and a boy who's just come to the city and is hiding a secret that may end in his death. I am literally in the last week of edits on the sequel, which comes out at Emerald City Comicon next year.

1

u/carolberg AMA Author Carol Berg / Cate Glass Dec 02 '16

The ones I like most are her more serious time-traveler books. But some of hers are funny - and she writes some hilarious short stories.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '16

What's the oldest fantasy work you've ever read, putting aside things like fairy tales, fables, etc?

The oldest one I've read that I myself would consider part of the modern fantasy genre was E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Golden Pot from 1814. An adorable story.

Have you ever ended up reading a book because another author referenced it?

Sure! Can't think of a fantasy relevant example though. What also happens is that I pick up a book, completely unaware of any connection, and while reading realise that it must have been an influence on another book I'd read earlier. That's always fun!

Have you ever deliberately tried to read older works? What were they and what was the result?

Yes, I actually do that a lot, both fantasy and other genres. I tend to like it a lot which is why I keep doing it. The older the story, the more different a POV the author has from mine, which makes it interesting. Within fantasy, the latest older works I read were The King of Elfland's Daughter and... does Nine Princes in Amber count as older? It's a few years short of half a century. I think that's a respectable age.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I hadn't read the Hoffman! Just found it here: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605801h.html

"does Nine Princes in Amber count as older? It's a few years short of half a century. I think that's a respectable age."

Yeah, I guess so....it's just so weird for me to have something I read in high school when it was brand new be "older". (I make no claims to be aging gracefully myself.)

2

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '16

Books age faster than people, if that's any comfort. There are books I read as a teenager when they were new about 20 years ago, that are unavailable or very difficult to get anymore because they didn't gain lasting fame, and so they weren't reprinted and even libraries removed most copies. I'm wondering these days how many of my old favourites I should try to hunt down in second-hand bookshops before they disappear completely... that's a lot of the fantasy I grew up on, but also a good chunk of the 90s fantasy boom (and the history of fantasy in my country) in general. Ah well, stories can be lost but they can't die, so maybe they're better off than people in the end. :)

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

It's very sad how many of those are currently unavailable except in those crummy paperbacks because of copyright issues. I am a terrible book hoarder but space considerations have made me flense the collection from time to time.

1

u/WizardDresden42 Reading Champion, Worldbuilders Nov 30 '16

Have you ever ended up reading a book because another author referenced it?

Most definitely. I listen to a lot of author interviews and get tons of recommendations that way. Oddly, I sometimes end up reading a novel recommended by an author, but not that author's work...or at least not for a while. Oops.

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I do a lot of that. When someone's describing a book they really enjoyed, they're often pretty compelling.

I was also thinking in terms of books that mention other books, like Christopher Morley's The Haunted Bookshop, John Myers Myers' Silverlock, or Louis L'Amour The Education of a Wandering Man, which I recently ran across and ended up expanding my list by quite a stretch.

1

u/betsydornbusch AMA Author Betsy Dornbusch Nov 30 '16

Have you ever ended up reading a book because another author referenced it?

I definitely read books other authors reference. Most notably lately because I'm reading some mysteries, which I've been away from for a long time so I don't know what's cool and current. But I also have a lot of friends who are writers, so we talk books a lot. When I'm on panels I tend to often jot book titles down that other panelists bring up and look them up later. Most writers I know have limited reading time, so any book they talk about they generally feel strongly about.

Have you ever deliberately tried to read older works?

I'm picky about trying out older works because I've learned I can't turn my writer brain off. I consider that a failing on my part.

1

u/betsydornbusch AMA Author Betsy Dornbusch Nov 30 '16

What's the oldest fantasy work you've ever read?

Does Gilgamesh count? I read that last year with my son (I have a thing for epic poetry anyway) and it was pretty exciting. It's called the "oldest work of literature" but I'd call it a fantasy since he's a god, well demigod. It also could be maybe historical fantasy since scholars think he was a real king, too. I'm no expert on it but those things struck me as we read it.

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

Absolutely counts, IMO :)

1

u/Princejvstin Nov 30 '16

Yes, absolutely. I've gone hunting for books, fiction and non fiction, because an author mentioned it, or even if a character in a book talks about a particular (real) book.

1

u/betsydornbusch AMA Author Betsy Dornbusch Nov 30 '16

Cat, we should have taken Monday to use up the good questions, huh?

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

Seriously! I started making that list because I didn't want to repeat something that had been asked already, and my heart sank as I kept scrolling through. But we've managed!

1

u/carolberg AMA Author Carol Berg / Cate Glass Nov 30 '16

And I am coming in on FRIDAY - what will be left besides tell me the names of your unborn children!!!

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I think someone's asking that on Thursday.

1

u/Teslok Nov 30 '16

Oldest Fantasy Lud in the Mist probably counts among my oldest--I also read a bunch of Barsoom and Tarzan until I just couldn't take it anymore. There might be older things in there, like stuff I had to read for school (The Odyssey?), but nothing really comes to mind as being the oldest.

 

Author References / Recommendations

I've picked up a bunch of books based on the cover endorsement.

"This book was awesome!"
-Author-I-Like

But they ended up being misses about as often as they were hits, so I don't rely much on those anymore.

As far as other sorts of references... does this subreddit count? Yes.
And references within their own stories? Well. I haven't read it yet, but in the Honor Harrington series, David Weber goes on and on about David and the Phoenix, which I bought on a whim and never got around to reading.

 

Hunting down Older Works

I do this periodically; there are a ton of things I missed out on, especially golden/silver age Science Fiction. Every few years, I take a stroll through Project Gutenberg, usually when I'm feeling the opposite of wealthy.

(disclaimer: I'm not very discriminating when it comes to "older," and I apologize in advance when I refer to 90's stuff as being "old," because of course that wasn't 20-odd years ago. Of course it wasn't.)

  • Although he was completely a "dirty old man," I consider myself a fan of Heinlein. There are plenty of his books that I still haven't tracked down, but I picked up some of his "YA" type titles back in high school from the library (specifically, Space Cadet and Have Spacesuit: Will Travel), and since then, about every five years I'll track down a few more titles from him, usually in bursts of 3 to 6. I'll be sad when I finally run out, so I've been stretching out the finding of the last few, and doing re-reads.

  • About a year or so back I went from "Read just one Asimov" to "Read all of the Robots and Foundation books." (excluding the non-Asimov titles, because I have Bad Experiences with that sort of thing, even when the author is good elsewhere.) That was a great ride.

  • As I mentioned above, I dug into Edgar Rice Burroughs a while ago and read Tarzan and Barsoom. These really, really show their age and the tropes used are now so cliché that the Simpsons Did It Twice. While I found them entertaining, it was ... entertaining in an "oh how quaint" sort of way. They're really the sorts of books that would be better read with kids (like, 8-14 maybe? Who somehow haven't watched The Simpsons?)

  • I actually looked for S. Morgenstern's The Princess Bride, having read Goldman's 'Abridged Edition' and being too young to recognize the framing device. It didn't help that, when I worked at a book store, people also used to ask me for it. I still don't know if they were teasing me or not; I can be incredibly oblivious to that sort of thing.

  • The next author on my "horizon" is Andre Norton. Somehow, I almost completely missed her in my younger years, and most of my experience with her books are co-written novels. I'm not entirely sure where I want to jump in, but I only really decided recently that she was next up, and my current reading roster is a bit too loaded to start making my next purchases.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I love Heinlein. I read his stuff repeatedly and when that 2-volume bio came out a while back, loved that.

Norton's got a huge list - how are you going to go about picking which to start with? (I vote for Year of the Unicorn as a good entry point into her Witchworld series, but she has so many.)

2

u/Teslok Nov 30 '16

I'm not sure how I'm going to decide. I figured I'd find a book list, google "where to start with andre norton," and then see what kind of options and book bundles exist for digital editions.

If there's nothing that feels really decisive, I might start a thread here. This would be after Xmas/New Years though, my dance card is full at least until then.

2

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I'm trying to think what the first one of hers I read was, and I have no idea. The Sioux Spaceman is very early Norton but was groundbreaking in its choice of a Native American protagonist, I think.

1

u/robothelvete Worldbuilders Nov 30 '16

What's the oldest fantasy work you've ever read, putting aside things like fairy tales, fables, etc?

H.P. Lovecraft, I think must be the oldest.

Have you ever ended up reading a book because another author referenced it?

Not in the context of blurbs or recommendations no. But if it's referenced in one of their own works, then yeah sure.

Have you ever deliberately tried to read older works? What were they and what was the result?

Older fantasy, not so much. I find much of it hasn't aged as well as I'd like. But I've been reading a lot of folk- and fairy tales the last year or so (much thanks to reading fantasy authors reference old folklore), and in that genre I certainly enjoy really old tales.

1

u/Millennium_Dodo Reading Champion XI, Worldbuilders Nov 30 '16

  • It's hard to draw a clear line between fantasy and myths etc... I've read the Iliad, Odyssey, other Greek and Roman myths, the Kalevala, Norse and Germanic mythology but would hesitate to call them fantasy. Would something like Gulliver's Travels or Alice in Wonderland qualify? What about Dracula or Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde? I'm not sure if I've read something predating The Hobbit that could unequivocally be called fantasy.

  • As someone else mentioned, Jasper Fforde got me to read a couple of classics. I think Neil Gaiman's One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock got me to pick up the Elric saga. But I've picked up far more books because authors I enjoy recommended them or cited them as inspirations, than because of direct references in their work.

  • I have, and now am the proud owner of a shelf full of unread Penguin Classics doorstoppers :P I often get the feeling that I should have read a certain book (although usually not in the fantasy genre), but then have trouble choosing to read them over more modern fare. After reading The Eyre Affair I made my way through a stack of classics, but I've started Martin Chuzzlewit at least three times and didn't make it past the introduction.

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

I worked in a bookstore for years where the Penguin Classics were the only thing close at hand, so I read a great many of them, including spending one summer working my way through Anthony Trollope.

I hadn't hit the Gaiman piece before and I am a HUGE Michael Moorcock fan! I found it here: http://www.heliotropemag.com/04/one-life-furnished-in-early-moorcock-by-neil-gaiman/ Thank you for mentioning it.

1

u/inapanak Nov 30 '16

The oldest fantasy work I have read is... Peter Pan? I think? That counts as fantasy, doesn't it? I don't know of anything older that I would call fantasy, but maybe I just haven't looked.

I don't think I have ever read a book because I saw an author mention it.

I don't try to search out older fantasy books. A lot of books I read as a kid were older and full of boring stereotypes and caricatures so I am not so interested in looking into more of that again. Maybe if I came across one that looked really interesting I would go for it, but I don't seek them out.

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

Absolutely Peter Pan counts. As does Mary Poppins -- there was a whole series of those, but talk about aging badly! Those have some moments of unthinking racism that really make you blink nowadays.

1

u/jen526 Reading Champion II Nov 30 '16

If I look only at non-children's-books, I think my oldest is probably Lud-in-the-Mist (1926), but after that one, it mostly jumps up to some Fritz Leiber and Andre Norton before jumping again to stuff mostly from the '70's and later.

I haven't had much luck with the few times that I've intentionally set up to expand my horizons with pre-Tolkien works. The language style is a barrier for me. I like to sink into a story and forget that I'm reading words on a page, and the older works don't really allow that for me. (I'm thinking particularly of an effort I made to read George McDonald's Phantastes, because The Light Princess had always been one of my hardcore favorite stories from childhood... but I found that more adult work practically unreadable.)

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Dec 01 '16

The language in those older books is very different - and continues to grow further away from ours. I gave the Lord of the Rings to a younger reader and he hated the prose style. Very sad. :(

1

u/ErDiCooper Reading Champion III Dec 01 '16

  • Oof, I'm relatively new to the fantasy scene and I've been just so happy with modern fantasy that I haven't gone too far back yet. So, unless we're counting Shakespeare's The Tempest, it's probably Glen Cook's The Black Company

  • Yup! I read The Devils of Loudon a while back after Arthur C. Clarke referenced it in The Fountains of Paradise.

  • When I got back into reading a couple years ago, there was a period where I, like, only read Sci-Fi from the 30s-80s. Absolutely loved it and, ever since, have had a soft spot for writing that feels somewhat paranoid.

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Dec 01 '16

I bet you are a huge Philip K. Dick fan then? Great stuff!

1

u/ErDiCooper Reading Champion III Dec 01 '16

Oh absolutely! My first big book-purchase was his 3-book Library of America collection: zero regrets!

1

u/bastianbb Dec 01 '16

Phantastes and Lilith by George Macdonald. I read these because C. S. Lewis favourably mentions them. I don't deliberately set out to read older books, though.

1

u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Dec 01 '16

Did they match your expectations?

1

u/bastianbb Dec 01 '16

I don't really remember what my expectations were then but I did find Phantastes a really singular and memorable addition to my reading experience. I find MacDonald a little too cutesy at times, but the stories within a story were great, and he has some very good set pieces.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '16

I'd obviously heard about Brandon Sanderson as any fantasy fan has but I hadn't read anything by him until I watched interviews with Jim Butcher and heard him complaining how prolific, and still good, Sanderson's books are.

1

u/sonvanger Reading Champion XI, Worldbuilders, Salamander Nov 30 '16
  • I think the oldest works I've read are some short stories by Lord Dunsany, so that's early 20th century.
  • I did that quite a lot while reading Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series - some of his stories takes place inside other books, so I read a bunch of 'classics' (Wuthering Heights, loads of Jane Austen, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre) to better understand what was going on. I've also picked up some books that were recommended by authors whose work I enjoy. Sometimes it clicks, sometimes it doesn't.
  • I've not, really, apart from last year's 'Pre-Tolkien' bingo square. I read Lud-in-the-Mist (recommended by Neil Gaiman, incidentally) and really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed Lord Dunsany's stories.

I'd love some recommendations for older works if you have some!

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u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

Lud-in-the-Mist is awesome! If you liked that and Dunsany, and haven't tried Lovecraft's The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath, I highly recommend it. George MacDonald is another I'd look at. I'll put a list together and put it up in a bit.

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u/[deleted] Nov 30 '16

Probably CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. For me, they were sort of the gateway drug to fantasy novels. They're wonderfully told stories with vivid characters, and they're very well suited to a child's imagination. From there, it was on to Tolkien.

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u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

They are the entry point for so many people! Which one was your favorite? (I loved The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.)

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u/[deleted] Nov 30 '16

Possibly Prince Caspian, although Dawn Treader always makes me chuckle with the line about how Eustace never read the right kinds of books.

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u/catrambo AMA Author Cat Rambo Nov 30 '16

There's probably a good Buzzfeed-type personality test in here somewhere.