Favorite fantasy author

[Wendigo]

Originally posted by Arryn:
A quick check of Dunsany with B&N Online shows that his works do not seem to be available in mass-market editions. That's one problem right there. I cannot afford large-format volumes.
[/QB]

'The King of Elfland's daughter' has been reprint as part of the Fantasy Masterworks compilation, I bought it in London a year or two ago (look for 'Murder One' or somesuch store in Tottenham Cour Rd, has an excellent offer in Fantasy, SciFi & Crime literature).

[Jasper]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Of course I could blame it on the fact that Barnes and Noble's storefront outlets only seem to carry popular authors ...

I've had no trouble finding the books I mentioned at the two Barnes and Noble storefronts I've visited recently.

A quick check of Dunsany with B&N Online shows that his works do not seem to be available in mass-market editions. That's one problem right there. I cannot afford large-format volumes.

I bought my Dunsany books at a B&N several months ago.

Holdstock's Mythago Wood came out in August of Last year and I must have just overlooked it. His other works are long out of print it seems. As are about half of Kay's. Kay's stuff that is still in print does not appear to be normal stock items in the B&N stores. And I don't buy books I cannot thumb through and get a feel for.

Mythago Wood I believe is Robert Holdstocks first book published, and I've been seeing it in stores for years. Most of Guy Kay's books are still in print as well.

By the way, as a personal note, you might want to think twice about recommending books that are hard to get. It's one reason (besides simply forgetting about him) that I didn't recommend a good author like Michael Moorcock. Most of his stuff is out of print. And worse, hard to find used. (Luckily for me, I got his books many years ago when they could still be found, new and/or used.) Ditto for Andre Norton.

Try the library. If you have trouble getting any of these authors, you simply haven't tried.

[alexti]

Originally posted by LordArioch:
By the way, would anyone advise reading any of Fred Saberhagen's stuff? I have some of his books that I bought used sitting around in my line of books to read.

I've picked up his "The Lost Swords" in the library about a week ago and now I'm at page 100 something. I guess I can not recommend him. So far we've got a set of god-forged swords with specific characteristics (like in Dominions), but nothing other of interest has happened.

[ExitJudas]

I'm amazed that noone here has read the amber series by roger zelazny. That has got to be one of _the_ best fantasy series ever. Too bad he died so young.

[Wendigo]

Not mentioned doesn't equal not read...for more Zelazny you might check 'Lord of Light' if you haven't yet.

On the matter of Kay, he gets a lot of praise from educated readership, yet what I have read of him left me cold. Tried 'Tigana' first and finished the book without liking the characters nor the plot. Tried 'Lions' afterwards and was not impressed either, as the most interesting character is a rip-off of 'El Cid', someone I am already familiar with because of my origins. Not tried a third time.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by ExitJudas:
I'm amazed that noone here has read the amber series by roger zelazny. That has got to be one of _the_ best fantasy series ever. Too bad he died so young.

Zelazny has written a few good books, but the Amber saga certainly isn't one of them.

[Maven_007]

Originally posted by ExitJudas:
I'm amazed that noone here has read the amber series by roger zelazny. That has got to be one of _the_ best fantasy series ever. Too bad he died so young.

I read them all. I don't know that I would say they were the best, but there were some decent moments. Sort of petered out at the end, IMHO.