Best books ... chosen by Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman is Time magazine’s book critic and the author of The Magicians, a novel about a secret college for students of magic. Below, he lists his choices for ‘the six greatest fantasy books of all time.’
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (HarperCollins, $7). A shoo-in. Whether you’re young or old, Christian or whatever, Lewis’ tale of children crossing from one world to another—and discovering their power there—is pure Turkish Delight: The more you read, the more you want.
The Once and Future King by T.H. White (Ace, $8). Underrated to this day. White brought the story of King Arthur—the ultimate English epic—out of its medieval crypt and breathed life and power back into it in a modern idiom. Even his second lead, Lancelot, is a tragic masterpiece: a passionate lover of God whose very passion makes God cast him down.
Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories (Dark Horse, seven volumes, $13 each). Two men. One big, one small. One brutal, one subtle. Both haunted and hardened by their tragic pasts. Leiber writes high fantasy with a touch of the Shakespearean, but his heroes are pure hard-boiled noir. A founding work in American fantasy.
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner, $20). I was never a Tolkien fanatic, but he is indisputably the first and greatest of the great modern fantasy-world builders. The mines of Moria alone would put him on this list: “The Dwarves delved too greedily and too deep ...”
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury, $16). Two 19th-century English sorcerers and their troubled frenemy-ship, rendered in gorgeous, bittersweet Regency prose. Clarke’s novel reads like the work of one who has seen magic done, for real, in front of her, and has come to tell you about it. This is one of the first masterpieces of the 21st century in any medium.
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link (Harvest, $14). If I had to pick the most powerfully original voice in fantasy today, it would be Kelly Link. Her stories begin in a world very much like our own, but then, following some mysterious alien geometry, they twist themselves into something fantastic and, frequently, horrific. You won’t come out the same person you went in.
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22 Comments
Posted by Themba Mabona, Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 12:11 pm Well, one choice on this list will have to be replaced by The book of the New Sun by G. Wolfe, which by many writers of the genre itself is considered easily the most epochal achievement in Fantasy.
Posted by Nancy J, Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 6:01 pm I wish the Ghormangast books Titus Groan and Ghormangast written by Mervyn Peake back in the '30s had more of a following. Everything about them is unique and haunting: the language, the characters, the mileu, the culture.
Posted by ron brinkmann, Sunday, November 29, 2009, 2:11 am Earthsea first Trilogy. Srsly.
Posted by Tori, Sunday, November 29, 2009, 3:56 am 'Magic For Beginners' was nothing special.You're missing Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn, though I wouldn't fight you over the other four and I'm among the club on TH White's under appreciated classic.
Posted by C, Sunday, November 29, 2009, 11:17 am Two for five isn't bad. Gaiman, Pratchett, Delint, George RR Martin, all missing. I'd take Scott Lynch over Jonathan Strange any day. Also Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazney and Lewis Carroll.
Posted by Jason Durall, Sunday, November 29, 2009, 12:19 pm No The Worm Oroboros? No Three Hearts and Three Lions?
Posted by B.E. Earl, Sunday, November 29, 2009, 8:22 pm I'd have to include the first or second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, but those were some pretty good choices.
Posted by Adam Whitehead, Monday, November 30, 2009, 1:09 pm The lack of Gene Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN is a notable omission. Leiber is very good but Howard and Vance are more important. Peake needs to be on there as well.
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