One of the few negative things about Tolkien was the way that the success of THE LORD OF THE RINGS tended to obliterate any awareness of some of the great fantasy writers that were not influenced by him.
I've read a handful of these authors. Leiber, Lovecraft, and Zelazny are superb. I struggled with Moorcock a bit. I have Vance's Dying Earth series in my pile of shame.
Lin Carter's mythos work is good--haven't read much else. Derleth is far too derivative of Lovecraft, but his efforts to preserve Lovecraft's work were instrumental and he deserves credit for that.
I sadly haven't read any Howard or Burroughs in so long, decades now, that I can only vaguely nod and say they were greats, but couldn't possibly elaborate.
Of the rest, I've heard good things about some, I've at least heard of a few others, the rest are unknown to me.
Most of my SF&F reading these days is from this precise era. Jack Vance is easily my favorite SF author, but Andre Norton is coming up fast behind him. Fritz Leiber rules, as well.
Great book, I loved it and way more people should know about it and read it. Btw, Jeffro recently wrote another one, this time not about the literary inspirations behind DnD but about the rules of the game, and how playing it following them instead of discarding half of them is actually like. It's on Kickstarter right now:
One of the few negative things about Tolkien was the way that the success of THE LORD OF THE RINGS tended to obliterate any awareness of some of the great fantasy writers that were not influenced by him.
Truth.
Thank you for this. I had no idea this book existed.
Appendix N wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appendix_N
I've read a handful of these authors. Leiber, Lovecraft, and Zelazny are superb. I struggled with Moorcock a bit. I have Vance's Dying Earth series in my pile of shame.
Lin Carter's mythos work is good--haven't read much else. Derleth is far too derivative of Lovecraft, but his efforts to preserve Lovecraft's work were instrumental and he deserves credit for that.
I sadly haven't read any Howard or Burroughs in so long, decades now, that I can only vaguely nod and say they were greats, but couldn't possibly elaborate.
Of the rest, I've heard good things about some, I've at least heard of a few others, the rest are unknown to me.
Lotta stuff to exxplore!
Most of my SF&F reading these days is from this precise era. Jack Vance is easily my favorite SF author, but Andre Norton is coming up fast behind him. Fritz Leiber rules, as well.
Yeah this is all great stuff.
Separate comment to say:
Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber (the first Amber book) is one of the best books I've ever read.
The first five books in his Amber series are a gold standard. Books six through ten are a step back, but still great, call them a silver standard.
Agreed.
Great book, I loved it and way more people should know about it and read it. Btw, Jeffro recently wrote another one, this time not about the literary inspirations behind DnD but about the rules of the game, and how playing it following them instead of discarding half of them is actually like. It's on Kickstarter right now:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cirsova/winning-secrets
I think the two books combined can finally show everyone the kind of worlds that Gary Gygax imagined, and what he then tried to create with his work.