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Hey everyone - I'd like to get some good anthology or collected works type books of some of the classic fantasy books / series. I talking about Conan, Elric, Fafard and the Grey Mouser, maybe John Carter of Mars, that sort of thing. You know, a big "The Collected Conan Saga" or "The Complete Elric" style book.
Can anyone point me to some good specific titles?
Gollancz have got an excellent "Complete Chronicles of Conan" collection, along with great one-volume collections of Jack Vancer's LYONESSE and DYING EARTH series. They also have the complete Fritz Leiber Newhon tales, but in two volumes, and an Elric collection which brings together the novels but not all of the novellas and short stories.
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Del Ray has put out a pretty comprehensive collection of Elric Stories. They are six omnibuses:
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 1: Stealer of Souls
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 2: To Rescue Tanelorn
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 3: The Sleeping Sorceress
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 4: Duke Elric
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 5: Elric in the Dream Realms
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 6: Swords and Roses
To me, the classic fantasy series as we know it began with L. Frank Baum's Oz series. And there is a complete, one-volume edition. I haven't seen that collection, and I expect it's missing the artwork. I heard it also deleted a few passages of The Patchwork Girl of Oz which might be construed as racist (but those passages aren't important). But I can't emphasize enough how great the Oz series is - I bought two editions of the complete series.
Tolkein originally intended Lord of the Rings to be one book, but because it was first published in three volumes, the one-volume compilations - of which you can find several today - seem like collections.
My other favorite series' aren't all that old. (How classic is "classic", anyway?) But I must mention that one of my favorite series', the Dragonlance Chronicles by Weis and Hickman, was collected in a single volume. So was its first follow-up, Dragonlance Legends. There was even another, annotated edition of each of those two trilogies, each compiled into one volume.
Then there was The Great Book of Amber, compiling all 10 Amber novels by Zelazny. (The first series - the first five books - is what I would really recommend, but after reading the first series, I think you would want to read the second as well.)
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Gollancz have got an excellent "Complete Chronicles of Conan" collection, along with great one-volume collections of Jack Vancer's LYONESSE and DYING EARTH series. They also have the complete Fritz Leiber Newhon tales, but in two volumes, and an Elric collection which brings together the novels but not all of the novellas and short stories.
Thanks - that "Complete Chronicles of Conan" collection is exactly what I'm looking for!
I forgot about Jack Vance, but I should absolutely have a Jack Vance collection!
Do you happen to know the actual names of the Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber Newhon, and Elric collections
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To me, the classic fantasy series as we know it began with L. Frank Baum's Oz series.
My other favorite series' aren't all that old. (How classic is "classic", anyway?) But I must mention that one of my favorite series', the Dragonlance Chronicles by Weis and Hickman, was collected in a single volume. So was its first follow-up, Dragonlance Legends. There was even another, annotated edition of each of those two trilogies, each compiled into one volume.
Thanks! Oz isn't something I'm very interested in, but you make good points!
I love DragonLance and have both of those books. When I say classic, I'm really looking for then books and authors that pretty much inspired Gygax and his fellows to eventually create D&D: Conan, Elric, Fafard and the Grey Mouser.
I forgot about Jack Vance, but I should absolutely have a Jack Vance collection!
Look into the Vance Integral Edition, comprising all of Vance's works in 45 volumes; as an upshoot of that project, most of his novels are available as low-cost ebooks.
Thanks - that "Complete Chronicles of Conan" collection is exactly what I'm looking for!
I forgot about Jack Vance, but I should absolutely have a Jack Vance collection!
Do you happen to know the actual names of the Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber Newhon, and Elric collections
Jack Vance: "The Complete Lyonesse" and "Tales of the Dying Earth".
Fritz Leiber: "The First Book of Lankhmar" and "The Second Book of Lankhmar"Michael Moorock: "Elric of Melnibone"
I also suggest the Kane series by Karl Edward Wagner. It's about an immortal trying to become a god and usually failing spectacularly.
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Those look perfect - thanks!Del Rey put out a nice set of all the Howard Conan stories some years back.
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
The Conquering Sword of Conan
The Bloody Crown of Conan
Speaking as someone who owns all three of these books (and all the other non-Conan Del Rey collections), I second Marc's recommendation. I looked around for a while before buying and this set is arguably the best on the market.
One thing you have to be careful with when buying Robert Howard books is that a lot of the original Conan stories were re-written or questionably edited after their original publication. The Del Rey set collects the original texts, along with some of his personal notes and essays. So stories he didn't finish are published as-is ... abrupt ending and all. There are no extra paragraphs inserted, the occasional reference to his friend HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos are intact, and they are presented in the order they were published without any attempt to cram them into some editor's preferred timeline.
If you like these, Del Rey also collected all the Kull, Bran Mac Morn, and Solomon Kane stories. So you can read the whole massive multi-generational story arc that is Kull->Conan->Bran Mac Morn.
Btw, the ISBN for the first book is 978-0345461513. If you punch it into the Amazon search bar it will give you the exact book we're talking about. That should make it easier for you to find them online or in the brick & mortar store of your choice.
I have the Gollancz Collections
They are
The Complete Chronicles of Conan
Conan's Brethern
The Necronomicon (H.P. Lovecraft's complete)
Eldritch Tales (H.P. Lovecraft miscellanea)
In addition other collections in one volume I have are
Fantasy Works of Peter Beagle
Exploits of Ebenezum
Wanderings of Wuntvur
By Fred Saberhagen
The Complete Book of Swords
The Lost Swords: First Triad
The Lost Swords: Second Triad
The Lost Swords: Endgame
By Joel Rosenberg
Guardians of the Flame: The Warriors
Guardians of the Flame: The Heroes
The latter are more inspired by the RPG generation, and most of those I listed are not those that inspired Gygax, but in some ways are classics of fantasy for our day.
some others I'm looking at currently are the Gene Wolfe books of the New Sun...
Shadow & Claw
and
Sword & Citadel
Del Ray has put out a pretty comprehensive collection of Elric Stories. They are six omnibuses:
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 1: Stealer of Souls
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 2: To Rescue Tanelorn
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 3: The Sleeping Sorceress
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 4: Duke Elric
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 5: Elric in the Dream Realms
Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melnibone Volume 6: Swords and Roses
I have the old Elric collections (The Elric Saga I, II, III, and IV) in hardcover. I think they used to be book collector club editions.
How do these compare. Are they repeats, new stories, do they differ?
Thanks
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Del Rey put out a nice set of all the Howard Conan stories some years back.
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
The Conquering Sword of Conan
The Bloody Crown of ConanNot sure about the others.
I have the entire series. There are some repeat stories across the entire collection, but not so much that I wasn't able to enjoy each. Along with the Conan books, they had a book for Solomon Kane, one for Kull, and one for Bran Mak Morn. There are more, but I can't recall them off the top of my head.
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Hey everyone - so far, I've picked up a great 3-book Elric collection and a nice Conan anthology. Still working on finding good Vance Dying Earth and Fafard and the Grey Mouser collections...
Speaking of that great 3-book Elric collection, I ended up with an extra copy of the first book in that set, so I popped it on Ebay in case anyone is interested: