The twelfth essay in my Ballantine Adult Fantasy reading series, which looks at Fletcher Pratt's The Blue Star (1952), an impressive, short novel of "rational" fantasy about power, gender, and why you should not cheat on your witch girlfriend.
Tag: Genre: Fantasy
Reading “Will-O-the-Wisp” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s Will-O-the-Wisp (1976) is the author's tenth novel and is set in seventeenth-century Devon. It is a critique of Puritan moralizing against love, sexuality, and the body, and is surprisingly good!
Reading “The Not-World” by Thomas Burnett Swann
Thomas Burnett Swann’s The Not-World (1975) is the author's ninth novel and is set in eighteenth-century Bristol. It's not very good but articulates Swann's typical themes nicely in the context of the rise of capitalist, colonialist modernity.
Reading “How Are the Mighty Fallen” by Thomas Burnett Swann
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.
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.
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.
Genre Fantasies 