My Mind, Melded
... answers the question, "What fantasy book or series is just as good, if not better, than The Lord of the Rings?"
... Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books, Edward Whittemore's Jerusalem Quartet, the short story collections of Jeff Ford or Kelly Link, if you allow them under the general term "books" -- these are my benchmarks of fantasy at its best. Ackroyd, Bulgakov, Carter, Delany -- there's a whole alphabetised library of writers whose books or series -- Hawksmoor, The Master and Margarita, Nights at the Circus, the Nevèrÿon books -- I think are ultimately better than The Lord of the Rings as works of literature. They just leave him in the dust in terms of general literary craft, I'd say... unless, of course, you're trying to fit them into this particular mould set by Tolkien, unless you're asking them to match Tolkien at his quite idiosyncratic game of subcreation.
... Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books, Edward Whittemore's Jerusalem Quartet, the short story collections of Jeff Ford or Kelly Link, if you allow them under the general term "books" -- these are my benchmarks of fantasy at its best. Ackroyd, Bulgakov, Carter, Delany -- there's a whole alphabetised library of writers whose books or series -- Hawksmoor, The Master and Margarita, Nights at the Circus, the Nevèrÿon books -- I think are ultimately better than The Lord of the Rings as works of literature. They just leave him in the dust in terms of general literary craft, I'd say... unless, of course, you're trying to fit them into this particular mould set by Tolkien, unless you're asking them to match Tolkien at his quite idiosyncratic game of subcreation.
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posted by Hal Duncan | 6:42 pm
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