Russ Taylor Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6 |
Scrapped from ENWorld. Supposedly contains 2 works that weren't in the original DMG, but were mentioned in Dragon.
Anderson, Poul. THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS; THE HIGH CRUSADE; THE BROKEN SWORD
Bellairs, John. THE FACE IN THE FROST
Algernon Blackwood
Brackett, Leigh.
Brown, Fredric.
Burroughs, Edgar Rice, "Pellucidar" Series; Mars Series; Venus Series
Carter, Lin. "World's End" Series
de Camp, L. Sprague. LEST DARKNESS FALL; FALLIBLE FIEND; et al.
de Camp & Pratt. "Harold Shea" Series; CARNELIAN CUBE
Derleth, August.
Dunsany, Lord.
Farmer, P. J. "The World of the Tiers" Series; et al.
Fox, Gardner. "Kothar" Series; "Kyrik" Series; et al.
Howard, R. E. "Conan" Series
Lanier, Sterling. HIERO'S JOURNEY
Leiber, Fritz. "Fafhrd & Gray Mouser" Series; et al.
Lovecraft, H. P.
Merritt, A. CREEP, SHADOW, CREEP;MOON POOL; DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE; et al.
Moorcock, Michael. STORMBRINGER; STEALER OF SOULS; "Hawkmoon" Series (esp. the first three books)
Norton, Andre.
Offutt, Andrew J., editor SWORDS AGAINST DARKNESS III.
Pratt, Fletcher, BLUE STAR; et al.
Fred Saberhagen Changling Earth
St. Clair, Margaret. THE SHADOW PEOPLE; SIGN OF THE LABRYS
Tolkien, J. R. R. THE HOBBIT; "Ring Trilogy"
Vance, Jack. THE EYES OF THE OVERWORLD; THE DYING EARTH; et al.
Weinbaum, Stanley.
Wellman, Manly Wade.
Williamson, Jack.
Zelazny, Roger. JACK OF SHADOWS; "Amber" Series; et al.
Ones from the list I would highly recommend:
World of Tiers
Hiero's Journey
The Lankhmar books (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser)
H.P. Lovecraft anything
Elric saga
Saberhagen's Changeling Earth and related books (eventually led to the Book of Swords)
Jack Vance's Dying Earth
The Amber series
Tolkien
Three Hearts and Three Lions
The Mars books
Whee :)
Erik Mona Chief Creative Officer, Publisher |
Kirth Gersen |
It is absolutely frightening how many of those I've read. All but Fredrick Brown, Algernon Blackwood, Andrew Offutt, and Margaret St. Clair, I think.
Of those listed, The Face in the Frost is by far my favorite, with the Harold Shea stories (especially "The Mathematics of Magic" and "The Wall of Serpents") following close behind. Vance, Zelazny, and Burroughs consistently provided great entertainment. There are a lot of really great ones there. Moorcock, Lovecraft, Leiber, and Wellman are all well worth reading. Hiero's Journey was cool, although the sequel fell flat, in my opinion.
Gotta say, though, I found de Camp without Pratt (and vice versa) just not up to par; P.J. Farmer slow going; and Gardner Fox and Lin Carter to be rather overly-derivative.
What I don't see on the list (what was EGG thinking?) is Clifford Simak's The Goblin Reservation.
Black Dougal |
Totally agree with the Saberhagen recommendation on the changeling earth series "aka Empire of the east". When I first picked it up in a used book store I was very dubious but very high quality story telling.
It put me on the trail of the book of swords trilogy and the lost swords series. I am happy to say that after 2 years of prowling through used book stores I found book 6 and 8 of the lost swords series last weekend and I now have them all. So satisfying to read and collect.
Krypter |
I would heartily recommend Lord Dunsany, who's fallen somewhat into obscurity, and William Morris, for that classical D&D medieval romance feel. The Harold Shea series was wildly entertaining, but I found Poul Anderson to be too brutal or too trite to be enjoyable. Leiber, Burroughs, Howard, Lovecraft, Moorcock and Zelazny are all fantastic; Vance is unique and exceedingly clever.
The list is quite good overall, but it's surprising how many classic books got left out by Gygax (probably on purpose); Gormenghast, Kai Lung, Vathek, Well at the World's End, Book of 3 Dragons, etc.