A Fantasy Bibliospective

This post is like a retrospective of the high fantasy literature I've read and liked. I had written a long time back about some favorite movie trilogies in brief. This post however, is more elaborate. It comes at this time because of a conversation with Ganesh, who needed recommendations for something to read and another reason that will be apparent in a few weeks. (The next Theory of Control post will be... later... need a breather.)

My reading, and to a great extent, my writing are aligned with two similar streams, Science Fiction and Mythology/ High Fantasy. So this is a summary of one of these - a bibliography of my favorites in hihg fantasy, and an introduction to what I thought of them. I may follow this up with a post on science fiction at a later date.

So what is high fantasy, you ask? To quote Wikipedia, "High fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy fiction that is set in invented or parallel worlds. These stories are serious in tone, often epic in scope, dealing with themes of grand struggle against supernatural evil forces. Other typical characteristics of high fantasy include fantastical races (such as elves and dwarves), magic, wizards, invented languages, coming-of-age themes, and multi-volume narratives. In some high fantasy, a contemporary, "real-world" character is placed in the invented world. Purists might not consider this to be "true" high fantasy." You can actually see some commonalities between this genre and science fiction if you look carefully.

Why did this genre entice me? I only know vaguely! I was first attracted to it because of the sense of wonder and escape that it could afford me... It enticed my imagination. Also, the themes of good and evil have been dear to me for the simple reason that I have been quite good and rather evil at various instances in life. On another level, the brutality and war that a lot of them depicted was in itself attractive. Bottomline... I was hooked.

The first thing I read in the genre was the Lord of the Rings (LOTR). Lucky I did, because chronologically, this was perhaps the first high fantasy tale written. Tolkein almost invented this genre. I bought the book in paperback, in my second year of engineering, at a then preposterous price of 300 Rupees in Aurangabad's only decent periodic book fair. It was a good time to read the books - a year before Peter Jackson would reinvent the tale in his movie trilogy.

A note here... it is unfair to say Tolkein invented this genre - but he did set the standard for it. Others had been active in the field before him... Edgar Rice Burroughs, for instance, was writing his Barsoom fantasy (another favourite for me) long before Tolkein - but I've classified that as science fiction, because, well... it is. Sort of.

Tolkein (and later Jackson) swept me off my feet with the span of his imagination... his creativity... the poignant beauty of this triumphantly tragic tale. I remember being delighted in later learning that the world of Middle Earth didn't begin and end in LOTR. I read the Silmarillion avidly. This is the tale of the three ages of Middle Earth preceding the events in the Hobbit and LOTR.

Where the latter two books span about a century in time between them, the Silmarillion is the tale of the 3000 years before that century. Oh, and for those impressed with Sauron - the arch villian in LOTR - he is but a sidekick of the real bad guy in the larger saga - Morgoth, the fallen Valar in the Silmarillion. (For some reason, I never quite read The Hobbit - or "There and Back Again - A hobbit's tale by Bilbo Baggins"...)

After this, I was hungry for more fantasy, and was then introduced to J K Rowling's Harry Potter series. Now this isn't high fantasy by any stretch of the term. It does however give excellent pointers to anyone who wants to write a good plot for a high fantasy work. Amazing plotting here... deserving of mention.

So then, after a couple of years in an Ayn Rand hangover, I stumbled upon Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Thanks for the recommendation, Nirat! This was just over two and a half years ago - I read the books on Shishir's very ramshackle PC, at the cost of his Caesar 3 time, in our very very ramshackle room in Pune, when we were supposed to be studying for the GRE. This was also when I got into the habit of reading ebooks by the way. Those were good times!

The Wheel of Time (WoT) series is currently 10 books, with the 11th of a projected 13 - 14 expected in October 2005. It is representative of everything that is going on in the world of high fantasy these days, good and bad. It is very obviously inspired by Tolkein; the first book, The Eye of the World, is almost similar to The Fellowship of the Ring in terms of plotlines; and yet it has at it's heart a detailed parallel world with a unique teleology and philosophy (The wheel of time turns, ages pass... in an age that once was, is, and will be again, which some call the third age... etc. It is a good mixture of politics, philosophy, ethics, magic, and war.

But then it is stretching now... it is more a franchise than a tale. It shows, to some extent, what's wrong with the world of high fantasy literature too because, of late, Jordan has been grappling with trying to close this story that he started as a projected 3 and then 7 book series. It has probably as many major characters as the Mahabharat, enough plotlines to tangle a Mentat (from Frank Herbert's Dune series... see below), and a huge, oft rabid, web-based fan following! Each book takes between 2 to 3 years to get published, and it is agonizing to wait and find out what happens next. Jordan has being writing these books since the 80's.

A less formulaic and charming fantasy series I read upon an aunt's recommendation is a standalone trilogy that doesn't suffer some of the faults of Jordan's work. It is more contained in terms of books, and yet the events in it unfold on a huge scale. To my delight, I found it also dealt with biblical themes, innocently attacking the very basis of monotheism - the benevolent, omniscient, omnipotent deity. I'm talking about Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

This tale concerns a little girl, Lyra, growing up in an Oxford in a parallel universe to our own, where each person has a "daemon" - a sort of non-imaginary imaginary friend in the form of an animal. It is also about a plot (by Lyra's estranged father) to replace the Christian God with a better alternative. Really charming trilogy that talks about very difficult issues in a very comfortable way. I read this one mostly at work, at a time when I didn't have much to do...

Then there is of course, the Covenant series by Stephen Donaldson that I've already written about. Seven books done, three awaited here...

To conclude there are some series that I have started but not finished that deserve mention, and some that I haven't read at all but are apparently necessary reading for the serious high fantasy reader.

First, C S Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. Ten rather short books set in an imaginary world called Narnia, accessed by entering a wardrobe in a English home. Lewis was a friend of Tolkein's and part of a club of four that met to exchange mythical tales and heroic sagas. I've never read beyond the beginning of book 2 in the series (chronologically in terms of events in Narnia, not in order of publication) so I shall reserve commenting on it. Note to self - finish reading it, because the movies will be out soon!

Second, Stephen King's multi-decade spanning odyssey - the Dark Tower septet which finished with this year's publication of book 7 - the Dark Tower. I've read book one, and some of book two, and am hooked. It gets you from the first sentence "The gray man fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." Very dark, very gory (its Stephen King, after all!), very brooding, very ambitious. Hope I find the time to finish it.

And then there's Frank Herbert's Dune. This series of six books (there are more "Dune" books out there, but they weren't written by Herbert himself) starts with a real bang. The first book, about the rise of Paul Atreides, Mua'dib to the Fremen, heir to Arrakis, and future Messiah is gripping and well written. But I simply couldn't read the others in the series. Mental block, go figure! These books sort of straddle the territory between high fantasy and science fiction, but I classify them as more fantasy than scifi.

To conclude, a list of some other notables in the high fantasy world that I haven't read, and come recommended from amazon.com for readers.

Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea series
Terry Brooks' Shannara series
Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series
Margaret Weis's and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance series
Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series
Roger Zelazny's Amber series
Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy

Right then... too long a post, this is... does it show how loony a high fantasy freak I am? Purpose served...