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Post by David A. Riley on Jun 23, 2011 9:21:37 GMT
Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & Gray mouser series which I revisited a few years back and was delighted to find held up to my memory form late childhood/ adolescence. As I'm sure most will know, this lies in the gutter running along the side of the sword and sorcery high road, the narrow strip inhabited by the low lifes exiled from more typical fantasy novels Clark Ashton Smith's ironic short stories which are by turns witty and dark. Cheers - Chris Both these writers are due for a well deserved rereading by me. I have most of their stories in pb. I love CAS's dark stories, especially those set in Zothique. Lancer brought out some brilliant volumes of his stories years ago, which I still have: Zothique, Hyperborea and Poseidonis. Beautiful covers.
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Post by cw67q on Jun 23, 2011 11:14:11 GMT
I have the same editions (plus a fair few others) of CAS, David and yes those covers are among the best ever. It is a pity that the recent/current 5 vol collected CAS didn't go down the route of thematic volumes. But I can see that chronological perhaps leant itself more to avoiding orphane or contrived volume syndrome, and it is nonetheless a very grand project.
- chris
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 23, 2011 17:17:24 GMT
My own favourite modern author of fantasy, now sadly dead, is David Gemmell. His books I could devour. Though I'm probably best advised to read them instead, Not read Gemmell, but like the joke. - chris First Peake is a masterpiece, second is a flawed masterpiece and third is the work of a man who was very ill - it has flashes but is generally disappointing.
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Post by andydecker on Jun 23, 2011 18:24:15 GMT
I have the same editions (plus a fair few others) of CAS, David and yes those covers are among the best ever. It is a pity that the recent/current 5 vol collected CAS didn't go down the route of thematic volumes. But I can see that chronological perhaps leant itself more to avoiding orphane or contrived volume syndrome, and it is nonetheless a very grand project. - chris It is a great edition, the 5 vol set. Well worth having. After having some other Best of CAS I was pleased that they went chronological. It gives more historical context, I think, if you can follow the stories like they were written. For me this was one of its selling points. Of course you get the good with the not so good. I guess it is a no-win situation for a publisher. If you go the Best of approach, guys like me are whining or not buying, if you go chronological some people won´t buy perceived "lesser" (mostly earlier) collections.
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