Crowley is such a gifted writer that he is always going to be a a serious proposition. Most of the mainstream ‘serious’ literary authors aren’t in his league, so even when his books get a bit shaky (Aegypt for me is a bit overrated, Little Big gets a bit baggy and meandering), the sheer mastery of prose has to be acknowledged.
You don’t think the fourth earthsea book is all that great?
I think there’s been threads before on the jaw-dropping, scrotum shrivelling, literary abortion that is tehanu. I may have posted this before, but it retro-actively degraded her entire ouvre for me. Wizard of Earthsea is untouchable, obviously, but is ‘The Dispossessed’ or even ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ really all that good? I haven’t read them for a long time, but viewed through the lens of the hateful book that should not be named, I don’t think I’d like them as much.
I’ll third (fourth? fifth?) Tim Powers – I just recommended his books in another thread here
Another beautifully weird series is a (so far) trilogy by G. P. Taylor Shadowmancer consisting of Shadowmancer, Wyrmwood, and The Shadowmancer Returns (new – I haven’t read it yet). They are wonderfully nuanced stories which are very evocative of the dark fantasies that seem to be representative of northern England
I tried reading Le Guin, but I never quite clicked with any of her books. I did read The Mists of Avalon and liked it a lot, but I’ve heard that her other books aren’t as good.
A lot of these titles are ones I’ve been eyeing at the bookstore but haven’t had the conviction to buy. Again, thanks for the suggestions everyone! I’m well into The Bone Doll trilogy and am trying to decide what to try next. So far, so good.
I always have to recomment The Philosophical Strangler by Eric Flint to people asking for fantasy recommendations. It’s a light read when you just want to unwind.
“When the mighty Greyboar, professional strangler, discovers The Supreme Philosophy Of Life, he becomes a new man - but just how can a villian in good standing pay the bills with all this philosophical exploration getting in the way? That’s that his hardheaded agent and manager Ignace wants to know!” -Back cover- you can read the rest of the back at Amazon.
Marion Zimmer Bradley wrote Mists of Avalon, not Le Guin. That book really irritated me–again, different tastes! (I actually don’t mind Tehanu that much: if you read it as a portrait of a bitter old woman who nonetheless does a few decent things despite her bigotry, it’s a lot more palatable than if you see the protagonist as intended to be wise).
jsgoddess, I didn’t like Un Lun Dun much, either. My expectations for it were impossibly high, but I ended up thinking it was derivative, preachy, and uninspired, as if The Phantom Tollbooth collided with Stories for Young Socialists. My wife liked it, though: I think hearing me whinge about it lowered her expectations sufficiently :).
I was never a big fan of reading fantasy, but seeing it in action is really different. I’ve been watching Afterworld on bud.tv and I am totally hooked, the plot is fascinating to me.
