Thomas Burnett Swann’s How Are the Mighty Fallen (1974) is the author's eighth novel and his most (in)famous for the “controversy” of telling a queer story about the biblical King David. Also, Goliath is a Greek Cyclops.
Category: Genre Fantasies
Reading “Wolfwinter” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s Wolfwinter (1972) is the author's seventh novel, one of his best, and a deeply moving meditation on love and choice set in the forests of sixth-century BCE Italy.
Reading “Green Phoenix” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s Green Phoenix (1972) is the author's sixth novel, a partial retelling of the story of Aeneas that deals heavily with gender relations and sexual violence.
Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Reading “The Mezentian Gate” by E.R. Eddison (Zimiamvia 3)
The eleventh essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which looks at E.R. Eddison's final novel in the Zimiamvia trilogy, The Mezentian Gate (1958).
Reading “The Goat Without Horns” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s The Goat Without Horns (1971) is the author's fifth novel, an attempted Gothic satire set in the colonial Caribbean. It is not very good and pretty damn racist. Also, the narrator is a talking dolphin.
Reading “The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova
In which I return to Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian (2005), a literary fiction vampire novel about historians fighting against Dracula across three generations—which once meant so much to me and which I now find both frustrating and disappointing.
Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Reading “Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings” by Lin Carter
The tenth essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which looks at Lin Carter's curious non-fiction study Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings (1969), a book that helped pave the way for the BAF series.
Reading “The Forest of Forever” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s The Forest of Forever (1971) is the author's fourth novel, a prequel to his first novel, Day of the Minotaur (1966). It's a mediocre and somewhat messy return to story of Eunostos on Crete but offers some interesting ideas about gender in Swann's oeuvre.
Ballantine Adult Fantasy: Reading “A Fine and Private Place” by Peter S. Beagle
The ninth essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which looks at Peter Beagle’s first novel, A Fine and Private Place (1960), a rather dull novel about people dealing with death.
Reading “Moondust” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s Moondust (1968) is the author's third novel: a bizarre, partial retelling of the Battle of Jericho that revolves around a society of evil, telepathic fennecs.
Sean Guynes 