Thomas Burnett Swann’s Day of the Minotaur (1966) is his first novel, a sometimes messy, sometimes saccharine, sometimes poignant novel about the final days of the prehuman mythic beings as human civilization pushes them to extinction.
Author: sonofsagan
Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Reading “Gormenghast” by Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast 2)
The sixth essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which looks at Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast (1950), the powerful second novel in his Titus series.
Fall 2025 University Press Recommendations
A curated list of recommended books published by university presses and academic publishers in fall 2025. Recommendations tend toward my own interests and books that I think can help make a better world.
Reading “Shadow” by Anne Logston (Shadow 1)
Anne Logston’s Shadow (1991) introduced a talented new fantasy writer with a tightly plotted, elegantly written, hilariously bawdy adventure about an expert thief who gets in over her head when she robs the wrong person. If you like Xena: Warrior Princess or Baldur's Gate 3, then you'll love Shadow.
Reading “The Eye of the World” by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time 1)
Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World (1990) is the titanic first novel in his Wheel of Time series (1990-2013), yet for all its prominence in the fantasy field, it has rarely been given serious critical attention by fantasy scholars.
Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Reading “Titus Groan” by Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast 1)
The fifth essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which looks at Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan (1946): an atmospheric, richly wrought novel about power and social hierarchy in a castle populated by absolute weirdos, and how it all starts to crack up.
Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Reading “A Fish Dinner in Memison” by E.R. Eddison (Zimiamvia 2)
The fourth essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which looks at E.R. Eddison’s A Fish Dinner in Memison (1941): a novel that lays out plainly Eddison's concerning philosophical vision.
Reading “Firedrake” by Richard A. Knaak (Dragonrealm 1)
Richard A. Knaak’s Firedrake (1989), the first in his Dragonrealms series, is a atrociously written male fantasy that represents some of the worst excesses of 1980s fantasy fiction, perfectly captures the era's crisis of masculinity, and features an ancient empire of armadillo-people.
Orientalist Fantasy Novels, 1970s–1990s: A Bibliography
A bibliography of orientalist fantasies published in the genre fantasy market c. 1970s–1990s.
Reading “Out There” by Adrien Stoutenburg
Adrien Stoutenburg’s Out There (1971) is an interesting early environmentalist sf novel about the dangers of unchecked pollution and ecological devastation, wrapped up in young adult melodrama, and harshly critical of capitalist exploitation.
Genre Fantasies 