Mike in "Tolkien" anthology (German) ??

[GuyLawley]

Does anyone know about this book (see link to eBay auction below):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tolkiens-Erbe-...QQcmdZViewItem

Seems to be implying that Mike is in this book, but my German skills aren't up to figuring ouit if it's an essay or a atory.

[L'Etranger]

Literally translated the title is "Tolkien's Heritage". A quick counter check with Amazon/Germany reveals it is an anthology of literary "jewels" - samples of the best Fantasy authors like Moorcock, Stephen Donaldson and even Lord Dunsany, plus some fairly unusual terrain (for those who enter Fantasy via Tolkien) like Jack Vance, Tanith Lee and finally on a satirical branch - Terry Pratchett.
The book, obviously well intended, tells readers there is Life after Tolkien and a lot of quality too.
One might find the selection a little limited, but at least Michael Moorcock is in it. .... which, remember, also sells you more tickets for the movie when it comes one day :)

[A_Non_Ymous]

It appears to have something from E. R. Eddison in it, too. (An excerpt from one of the novels, perhaps?)

I have often thought there was a connection of sorts between some of Dunsany's work and Jack Vance. Their being grouped together seems pretty natural to me.

The only included writer about whom I have doubts here would be Steven Donaldson. Still, it might well be to the taste of readers who come to the book from Tolkien.

L'Etranger's analysis seems correct, to me.

LSN

[GuyLawley]

Many thanks, gentle sentients.

[Michael Moorcock]

Um, call me a nitpicker, but Eddison was writing BEFORE Tolkien, wasn't he ? As was Dunsany... Still, I like books which work to give readers a context, especially these days when so many people seem to insist that the likes of Potter and LOTR sprang fully born from the head of Zeus (or Odin) as it were. The popular bestsellers will always outsell the more obscure works, but if only a handful of people rediscover them, that's good.

[A_Non_Ymous]

Dunsany and Eddison do indeed have chronological (and dare I say, literary) precedence over Tolkien. If the goal of the book was to pick interesting work in the fantastic both before and after Tolkien, then it makes sense -- sort of, "Tolkien didn't invent the genre, and it didn't end with him, either."

I'm surprised they didn't include Fritz Leiber, too. Leiber's first fantasy stories started appearing in 1939. He was younger than Tolkien, but I don't think his work is beholden to LOTR in the least. It's quite a different kettle of fish. (And to me, a preferable one.)

LSN

[Michael Moorcock]

I agree re. Leiber. And Leiber, of course, was no great fan of the Prof's, for very good reasons, in my view. I admired Leiber enormously, both as a writer and a friend. His work generally stood head and shoulders of anyone else's and in my view was usually the finest writing in any anthology in which he appeared. Like so many others, however, he opted for publication where he could find it (the pulps, mostly) rather than in posher, literary places, and thus continues to remain insufficiently known.

[A_Non_Ymous]

Leiber is really good. The sf AND the fantasy AND the horror he wrote all stand high in my estimation -- and in general, I don't even LIKE horror. (I also make an exception for Tom Disch's work in that genre these days.)

I'm not sure all of Leiber's best work is available. In fact, I'd bet it wasn't. Fortunately (for me), I picked it up back in the days when a lot of it first appeared.

LSN

[Vampyro]

I read the Grey Mouser & Fafrhd books in the 80's...great books of course.
Last year I was lucky enough to pick up all six books in 2 hard cover Sfclub editions. I will start reading them when I take a break from Mike's books, which will be who knows when :clap:

[RussellB]

Funny that Fritz Lieber should come up. I was just thinking about him a great deal the last two days, as I saw his actor father in the pivotal role of the priest Farneaux in the last scene of Charlie Chaplin's epic "Monsieur Verdoux" on DVD the other night. Prompted a bit of imdb searching, and I saw that Lieber had acted alongside his father in the Hunchback of Notre Dame!

For my taste, Lieber's S&S was the second best ever done in the genre. No need to mention who was the best, right. :D

It was clear from his writing that he had a consience, an intellect, a generous spirit, and was a fellow traveller when it came to political thought. Every Mike fan should be well versed in the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories, at the very least...

[GuyLawley]

Um, call me a nitpicker, but Eddison was writing BEFORE Tolkien, wasn't he ? As was Dunsany... Still, I like books which work to give readers a context, especially these days when so many people seem to insist that the likes of Potter and LOTR sprang fully born from the head of Zeus (or Odin) as it were. The popular bestsellers will always outsell the more obscure works, but if only a handful of people rediscover them, that's good.

Looking at the German text on the eBay listing, it seems the book is divided into three parts; antecedants, the "heritage", and a section of parodies (?) or humorous stuff.

[L'Etranger]

Dunsany and Eddison do indeed have chronological (and dare I say, literary) precedence over Tolkien. If the goal of the book was to pick interesting work in the fantastic both before and after Tolkien, then it makes sense -- sort of, "Tolkien didn't invent the genre, and it didn't end with him, either."

I'm surprised they didn't include Fritz Leiber, too. Leiber's first fantasy stories started appearing in 1939. He was younger than Tolkien, but I don't think his work is beholden to LOTR in the least. It's quite a different kettle of fish. (And to me, a preferable one.)

LSN

Indeed the text states just this, Dunsany actually having influence on Tolkien, and the latter not inventing Fantasy, but giving it a tremendous boost.
The book means to encourage readers to explore "darker" fantasy worlds like that of Donaldson and Moorcock, and ultimately promisses "pleasure on highest level" with these works.

[Vampyro]

Every Mike fan should be well versed in the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories, at the very least...

Absolutely!

[Michael Moorcock]

You'll see Fritz as Armand's friend in Camille, as well, and I think that's his dad as Judge Jeffreys in Captain Blood. Fritz wrote somewhere, as I recall, about his early life when he was deciding between acting and writing and decided he had more talent as a writer. He had a wonderful face and it's a great shame he didn't do both. He was a great reader. For years I had a tape he'd made specially for me, reading the narrative verse he could do by heart, as well as Shakespeare. I think anyone who counts themselves as literate should be familiar with Leiber.

[A_Non_Ymous]

I think I've read almost everything Leiber wrote, having felt compelled to search out his work since the time I first encountered it back in the mid-'60s.

Of the various genres he seems to have played with, do you have any preferences? I would say I'm not all that taken with The Wanderer, but some of his other sf stories and novels, particularly the more satiric ones, are quite entertaining. The Big Time seems quite good, and I also like The Green Millenium and Gather, Darkness. The Silver Eggheads is quite funny and pointed; A Spectre is Haunting Texas I liked when it first came out, but I fear its satire, being somewhat topical, may have dated -- I haven't read it in many years. I suppose the book from the late '40s, Destiny Times Three is sf. I like it, but I wish he had had a bit more space to develop the story, because it seems a little perfunctory.

The other novels, Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness, seem to lie on the borderland between fantasy and horror. I like both of them. The picture of late-'70s San Francisco in Our Lady of Darkness is very nicely drawn.

I love the stories. The best ones are astoundingly good, even when working within the confines of the genres they (more or less) adhered to.

There are some stories that seem to skirt the boundaries between all 3 genres in which he worked: sf, fantasy, and horror, all at once. A quick example that comes to mind is his novella, "Ship of Shadows." I found the resolution not entirely satisfactory, but the prose and the atmosphere and the imagery imprinted themselves on my mind when I read it.

"The Belsen Express" is a late story I like a lot.

LSN