Fantasy: The 100 Best Books

by James Cawthorn, Michael Moorcock

Home and exile, memory and yearning, childhood and aging - the themes are timeless, but the moments captured in these exquisitely told lyrical stories of women alone and abroad lie on the edge of the century now ending. In "The Country Road," eight-year-old Cathy moves at a heartbreaking pace through lonely days in a Northern Ireland populated by elderly neighbors and menaced indeterminately by security forces, while the eponymous heroine of "Bronagh" finds herself wrenched from an idyllic sojourn in Andalucia and thrust into a painful homeward trek when her mother falls ill. In "A Banal Stain," a graduate student lodging in a once-grand house in Lyon confronts the ghosts of France's colonial and Vichy past, and in Morocco the twenty-something English painter and her American writer boyfriend of "A Recitation of Nomads" strive to mend their dreams. "The Marriage at Antibes" is an arranged one, of a Middle Eastern political refugee, long settled in France, and his newly arrived bride. At the core of these scrupulously observed, brilliantly realized stories of foreign travel and exotic cultures stand the pull and the power of vital human relationships - between men and women, fathers and daughters, landlords and tenants, husbands and wives.

Genres: Fantasy, Reference, Books About Books, Literary Criticism, Science Fiction, Essays

Hardcover

First published September 30, 1988

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1988 (although there are later editions), this book is largely the work of Cawthorn. Moorcock honourably admits as much in his short addition to Cawthorn's Introduction. Moorcock's name sold amongst genre fans so there seems to have been agreement to share bragging rights.

Cawthorn on his own is perfectly capable of good, if at times idiosyncratic (assuming the idiosyncrasies are not those of Moorcock), assessments. 100 books and nearly 100 authors get useful and interesting two page summaries from Jonathan Swift to Tom Holt.

Some of the later entries might not stand the test of time, there are omissions (Moorcroft himself notes that Robert Holdstock is missing) and many of the books were no longer available (some still are not despite the rise of Kindle) but the general run of judgement is sound.

There are suggestive discoveries here. Cawthorn takes special pleasure in finding some genre significant works that show that he knows his subject and does not rely on someone else's canon. Already I find myself reading Pratt and De Sprague's 'Land of Unreason' as a result.

It remains surprising thirty years on what is still not easily available - for example, I could find no integrated volume of Clark Ashton Smith's 'Zothique' stories despite him coming back into appreciation with a Penguin special edition in recent years.

Similarly Marjorie Bowen's 'Black Magic' and David Garnett's 'A Man at the Zoo' are hard to get hold of as is Van Vogt's 'The Book of Ptath' outside US E-Bay sellers. Frank S. Stuart's 'Caravan for China' appears to have dropped off the face of the earth bar one antique E-Bay hard-back.

Compared to the state of affairs in 1988, we can be thankful for Kindle reviving many 'ancient texts' and to E-Bay for re-circulating others that might have been pulped because a market has been created. The 'Fantasy Masterworks' series has also served a purpose in the intervening years.

As guides go, this is definitely not the last word on the subject of 'best fantasy' but the 100 works cited here from 'Gullivers Travels' through Merritt's 'Dwellers in the Mirage' to Kingsley Amis' 'The Green Man' and beyond is a worthy attempt at creating the basis for a canon of sorts.

[Eugene Khodakov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bear in mind, this is not a book by Michael Moorcock and some guy named James Cawthorn. It is the other way around. Moorcock was commissioned to write this thing, but he had many other obligations. Eventually publishers agreed to give the job to James Cawthorn - a friend and a colleague of Moorcock and the illustrator of his famous books. Obviously, Moorcock contributed to this book in some way. But it is Cawthorn who defined its style and gathered up its contents.

Cawthorn was an educated, talented, extremely well-read person. He knew what he liked and he knew what he was talking about. He had pretty bizarre definition of Fantasy genre and very peculiar literary tastes. And it is great! I would rather read about erudite’s favourite authors than go through depersonalized inventory of obvious famous names.

Cawthorn excluded George MacDonald from his list, but added... Wuthering Heights?! One of the fathers of modern Fantasy is absent, but the romantic tragedy by Emily Bronte is present, just because Cawthorn found Heathcliff’s personality somewhat "demonic". It looks like any kind of book even loosely related to Gothic is Fantasy in Cawthorn’s eyes. It is fine.

Only one book by William Morris? One by lord Dunsany? And 2 by Edgar Rice Burroughs, including Tarzan? It is fine.

I don't mind his obsession with American pulp. I don't mind the abundance of ghost stories and supernatural mysteries. His knowledge and expert opinions are very valuable.

So why did I rate this book with just two stars? Because of the spoilers!

James Cawthorn will spoil every story that he recommends to you! And I can't comprehend why is he doing it! Who is this book supposed to cater to? Am I expected to read in advance everything that Cawthorn is talking about? Storylines, character arcs, small details - everything will be spoiled. Individual articles are very short, and if you remove plot retellings from them, you would be left with 2-4 paragraphs of useful information.

To make matters worse, Cawthorn can't stop cracking jokes. Don't get me wrong, good sense of humor is an indispensable tool for any writer. But in this case it feels like Cawthorn wants to relate certain information to the reader, but just can’t stop his scoffing and jesting. Facts are buried under his elaborately eccentric manner of speaking.

Use this book as a list! The list is great. The collection of stories is fascinating. It is strange, original
and nonconformist. It will certainly broaden your literary horizons. Just go through it and google every surname and title you don't know. You won't be disappointed.

[Bruce Nordstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. 100 really interesting titles of fantasy books. Many I have already read- and a lot I have never heard of. And many I will be reading in the future.

Major LIKE factor: These books are not arranged in order from greatest to worst, or vice versa. In order of year of publication-most recent is 1987- this book could be updated. And each has a brief-average of two pages-history/review. Enough to tell you about the book, without becoming authoritative and dull.

Attached below here is a total list of all the title mentioned in this book, which I found on ILL, and have posted here for your assistance.

Hope this is helps you.

Gulliver's travels / by Jonathan Swift (1726) -- The castle of Otranto / by Horace Walpole (1765) -- Vathek / by William Beckford (1786) -- The monk / by Matthew Gregory Lewis (1796) -- Frankenstein / by Mary Shelley (1818) -- Melmoth the wanderer / by Charles Robert Maturin (1820) -- The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym / by Edgar Allen Poe (1838) -- A Christmas carol / by Charles Dickens (1843) -- Wuthering heights / by Emily Bronte (1847) -- Moby-Dick / by Herman Melville (1851) -- Uncle Silas: a tale of Bartram-Haugh / by J. Sheridan LeFanu (1864) -- Alice's adventures in wonderland (1865) and Through the looking-glass (1871) / by Lewis Carroll -- Flatland / by Edwin A. Abbott (1884) -- She / by Henry Rider Haggard (1886) -- Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde / by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886) -- The twilight of the Gods / by Richard Garnett (1888) -- The story of glittering plain / by William Morris (1891) -- The picture of Dorian Gray / by Oscar Wilde (1891) -- Dracula / by Bram Stoker (1897) -- The turn of the screw / by Henry James (1898) -- The man who was Thursday / by G.K. Chesterton (1908) -- The house on the borderland / by William Hope Hodgson (1908) -- Black magic / by Marjorie Bowen (1909)
Zuleika Dobson / by Max Beerbohm (1911) -- A princess of mars / by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1911) -- Tarzan of the apes / by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912) -- The lost world / by Arthur Conan Doyle (1912) -- The night land / by William Hope Hodgson (1912) -- Herland / by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915) -- The citadel of fear / by Francis Stevens (1918) -- A voyage to Arcturus / by David Lindsay (1920) -- A worm ouroboros / by E.R. Eddison (1922) -- The haunted woman / by David Lindsay (1922) -- Lady into fox (1922) and A man in the zoo (1924) / by David Garnett -- The king of Elfland's daughter / Lord Dunsany (1924) -- The ship of Ishtar / by Abraham Merrittt (1926) -- The trial (1925) and The castle (1926) / by Franz Kafka -- Witch wood / by John Buchan (1927) -- War in heaven / by Charles Williams (1930)
Turnabout / by Thorne Smith (1931) -- The night life of the Gods / by Thorne Smith (1931) -- Dwellers in the mirage / by Abraham Merritt (1932) -- Zothique / by Clark Ashton Smith (1932-51) -- The werewolf of Paris / by Guy Endore (1933) -- Lost horizon / by James Hilton (1933) -- Northwest Smith / by Catherine L. Moore (1933-40) -- Jirel of Joiry / Catherine L. Moore (1934-9) -- The circus of Dr. Lao / by Charles G. Finney (1935) -- Land under England / by Joseph O'Neill (1935) -- Conan the conqueror / by Robert E. Howard (1935/6) -- At the mountains of madness / by H.P. Lovecraft (1936) -- To walk the night / by William Sloane (1937) -- Roads / by Seabury Quinn (1938) -- The once and future king / by T.H. White (1939-77) -- Slaves of sleep / by L. Ron Hubbard (1939) -- Caravan for China / by Frank R. Stuart (1939) -- Fear / by L. Ron Hubbard (1940) -- Darker than you think / by Jack Williamson (1940) -- The case of Charles Dexter Ward / by H.P. Lovecraft (1941) -- Land of unreason / by Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp (1941) -- Conjure wife / by Fritz Leiber (1943) -- The book of Ptath / by A.E. van Vogt (1943)
The dark world and The valley of the flame / by Henry Kuttner (1946) -- Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950) and Titus alone (1959) / by Mervyn Peake -- The exploits of engelbrecht / by Maurice Richardson (1946) -- Mistress Masham's repose / by T.H. White (1946) -- Adept's gambit / by Fritz Leiber (1947) -- The well of the unicorn / by Fletcher Pratt (1948) -- You're all alone / by Fritz Leiber (1950) -- The dying earth / by Jack Vance (1950) -- The devil in velvet / by John Dickson Carr (1951) -- The tritonian ring / by L. Sprague de Camp (1951) -- Three hearts and three lions / by Poul Anderson (1953) -- The sword of rhiannon / by Leigh Brackett (1953) -- The broken sword / by Poul Anderson (1954) -- The lord of the rings / by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954-5) -- The golden strangers / by Henry Treece (1956) -- The great captains / by Henry Treece (1956)
The haunting of hill house / by Shirley Jackson (1959) -- Stormbringer / by Michael Moorcock (1963) -- The serpent (1963), Atlan (1965), The city (1966) and Some summer lands (1977) / by Jane Gaskell -- The crystal world / by J.G. Ballard (1964) -- Black easter (1967) and The day after judgement (1968) / by James Blish -- Rosemary's baby / by Ira Levin (1967) -- A wizard of Earthsea / by Ursula K. Le Guin (1968) -- The green man / by Kingsley Amis (1969) -- Neither the sea nor the sand / by Gordon Honeycombe (1969) -- The philosopher's stone / by Colin Wilson (1969) -- The pastel city / by M. John Harrison (1971) -- The infernal desire machines of Dr. Hoffman / by Angela Carter (1972) -- Red shift / by Alan Garner (1973) -- The compleat enchanter / by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt (1975) -- The alteration / by Kingsley Amis (1976) -- Our lady of darkness / by Fritz Leiber (1976) -- The drawing of the dark / by Tim Powers (1979) -- The sending / by Geoffrey Household (1980) -- The colour of magic and The light fantastic / by Terry Pratchett (1983) -- The businesman: a tale of terror / by Thomas M. Disch (1984) -- Hawksmoor / by Peter Ackroyd (1985) -- Expecting someone taller / by Tom Holt (1987).

[Heiki Eesmaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another booklist that expanded my to-read list with tens of works mostly of British authorship. Apparently Moorcock was too busy to really contribute to this volume, but is still mentioned on the cover.

[Muzzlehatch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1980s saw a profusion of works both scholarly and populist on the history and literature of fantasy and science fition; this work came out at about the same time as David Pringle's similar Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels : An English Language Selection, 1946-1987 which I've also reviewed. The Pringle book restricts itself to the post-World War II era and as such is more concentrated and the author seems to feel less need to try to come across as "definitive"; it's also, I think, better-written with some valuable introductory material that gives the project more weight and a more "intellectual" feel. This volume begins with Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (1726) and finishes with Tom Holt's "Expecting Someone Taller" (1987); both books are restricted to English-language works.

That's not to say that this volume, co-edited as it is by one of the leading figures in the field, Michael Moorcock (who admits in his modest intro to leaving most of the writing up to James Cawthorn), doesn't have value. It's a reasonably interesting guide to another 100 works in the field, offering little overlap with the Pringle book even over the 40 years of publishing history that the two books share. I like that the authors highlight quite a few fairly obscure books (Richard Garnett's "Twilight of the Gods", William Sloane's "To Walk the Night", two book by Henry Treece, etc) and focus quite a bit on the more "literary" sort of fantasy, though pulp and genre stuff is more in evidence here than in the Pringle book. I do think less space in the short (1-2 page) descriptions needed to be devoted to the plots of the works, and more on the literary qualities; but you can't have it all in such a short representative survey.

Still worth hunting down if you can get it cheap and used; between the Pringle book and this one you'd be missing precious little of importance in the English-language fantasy world dating before the mid-1980s.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not every book listed is a winner (in my opinion, of course), but I've derived a lot of reading pleasure from their choices.

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[Keith Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful reference book, especially for anyone who thinks fantasy fiction began with Tolkien. Fantasy as a publishing genre may have begun with Tolkien, but not as a form of storytelling.

[machinaheart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and I loved to sift through it in order to find new authors and books, and the inroduction and glossary are pretty neat, too.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, interesting read. I've read some of the books and I agree with the reviews. I can't wait to read the rest and see if I agree with those.