Can anybody recommend any? I’ve read general Greek myths (nasty beasties they in those, other than perhaps Chiron), Updike’s book Centaur, and HARRY POTTER but was interested in others that use the animals for a paper I’m writing on the use of Greek myth in modern literature.
Thanks
S
They make an appearance in at least one of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Try The Last Battle.
There are Centaurs as characters in the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis.
Rick
I think some of the Naria stories by CS Lewis has Centaurs…(I could be misremembering though)
Villians By Necessity has one…but that’s such a dumb book I don’t think it’d really work with the whole modern literature thing.
ermm nothing else pops into my mind.
Nessus (Ringworld) Larry Niven
Glenstorm (Prince Caspian) C.S. Lewis
and lots more here…
http://members.aol.com/usualspcts/namesem.htm
SFworldbuilding at
http://www.orionsarm.com
Phillip Jose Farmer’s Maker of Worlds has centaurs, but they’re pretty non-standard. For instance, he tries to make them realistic.
In the first of Jack Chalker’s Well World series, some of the characters who pass through the zone gate are transported to a hex populated by centaurs and are themselves transformed.
John Varley’s Gaean trilogy **Titan, Wizard, Demon ** has a whole race of centaurs. Their mating habits (with genitals both fore and aft, so to speak) come in for a lot of discussion, as do their sometimes complex genetive schemes.
The animated centaurs in Disney’s Fantasia have 1940s hairstyles, not surprisingly considering when the film was made,
Diana Wynne Jones has 2 books with centaurs as secondary characters: “Deep Secret” and “A Sudden Wild Magic.” Her latest might as well; I can’t remember if one ever shows up.
The Xanth novels had plenty.
Yes, there are tens of centaurs trotting through the Xanth novels. The main ones that come to mind are the first trilogy ( A Spell for Chameleon, The Source of Magic, Castle Roogna ), Isle of View, and I want to say The Vale of the Vole as well.
The Apprentice Adept series also had them, but I’d never recommend Piers Anthony to anyone I didn’t hate.
Now, now, Sampiro can use the Anthony novels as an example of bad centaur usage/bastardization.
The Faery Convention by Brett Davis featured lots of supernatural creatures, but centaurs were some of the main characters.
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s book The Firebrand has “Kentaurs” but they’re not half-human/half-horse. They’re just guys who ride around on horses a lot. They’re also the sometimes companions to the also-mounted Amazons.
Harry Turtledove’s Thessalonica has centaurs.
Ummm, I know it has already been mentioned, but John Varley’s Titan, Wizard, Demon trilogy is very worth reading.
Along with, if I’m not mistaken, Centaur Aisle.
[Christopher Walken]Dirty Centuars![/Christopher Walken]
Dark Prince by David Gemmell, a sequel to Lion of Macedon, features some centaurs. The books mix Greek history with myth/fantasy elements.
Alex.
There are centaurs in World Enough, and Time by James Kahn (he of the book versions of Poltergeist, Return of the Jedi, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom).