Tagged: Fantasy 100 Best Books

She by H. Rider Haggard

Classics Club #20: She by H. Rider Haggard

She is the landmark fantasy/adventure novel by H. Rider Haggard that has influenced authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, Rudyard Kipling, and George R.R. Martin. It has appeared on lists like Fantasy: The 100 Best Books, Horror: The 100 Best Books, and Classics of Science Fiction. Serialized from 1886 to 1887, She was one of the first “lost world” stories, and laid the foundation for stories featuring characters like Doc Savage and Indiana Jones. In She, Horace Holly narrates the tale of his journey with his adoptive son Leo Vincey to the heart...

The Worm Ouroboros detail

Classics Club Book #14: The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison

Abase thee and serve me, worm of the pit. Else will I by and by summon out of ancient night intelligences and dominations mightier far than thou, and they shall serve my ends, and thee shall they chain with chains of quenchless fire and drag thee from torment to torment through the deep. The Worm Ouroboros might be called world-building fantasy in the tradition of The Lord of the Rings but for two details: it was published 22 years before Tolkien’s trilogy, and it is much darker. In fact, though Tolkien himself...

Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson

Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson

‘In olden time,’ said Hugi, ‘richt after the Fall, nigh everything were Chaos, see ye. But step by step ’tis been driven back. The longest step was when the Saviour lived on earth, for then naught o’ darkness could stand…’ Three Hearts and Three Lions is one of those classic heroic fantasy novels that satisfies on almost every level. Published originally in 1953 and expanded in 1961, it tells the story of Holger Carlsen, an engineer from Denmark who is suddenly transported from a World War II battlefield...