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.

Reading “The Weirwoods” by Thomas Burnett Swann

Thomas Burnett Swann’s The Weirwoods (1967) is his second novel, a story of slavery and freedom, of love and grief, set at the waning of Etruscan power in ancient Italy. Come for the ancient historical fantasy, stay for the achingly beautiful meditations on love, loss, and belonging.

Reading “Land of Precious Snow” by Thaddeus Tuleja

Thaddeus Tuleja's Land of Precious Snow (1977) is a fantasy-adjacent historical fiction novel about religious and spiritual experience, disaffection with modernity, and an American adventurer seeking new meaning in 1890s Tibet—a novel that captures counterculture's dissident feelings toward life in postwar America.