Best Novels No One Has Heard Of

[Graylorne]

Hambly - Quite a few titles, once widely read, most apparently falling into obscurity. "Walls of Air', 'Ladies of Mandrigyn', 'Knight of the Demon Queen', and quite a few others. Magicians generally activiely persecuted, genuinely evil demons, and characters ranging from good to coldly treacherous. Never seen her works mentioned here, despite their one time popularity.

I remember Hambly, I had Mandragyn and the Walls of Air books. I also remember her as pretty dull. I know Simak, but not the title you mention. I have at least 2 of Norton's Witchworld books. Always was a fan of her, but I don't really remember those two. Most of the rest I haven't even heard of. That's my problem with many American titles even now. Either they never crossed the Atlantic or they were promoted so marginally that no-one over here ever heard of them.

 

[ThinkerX]

I remember Hambly, I had Mandragyn and the Walls of Air books. I also remember her as pretty dull. I know Simak, but not the title you mention. I have at least 2 of Norton's Witchworld books. Always was a fan of her, but I don't really remember those two. Most of the rest I haven't even heard of. That's my problem with many American titles even now. Either they never crossed the Atlantic or they were promoted so marginally that no-one over here ever heard of them.

Hmmm...Cabel died in the 1950's, if memory serves. He was a contemporary of Tolkien, Lewis, Leiber, and Lovecraft. His stories remained popular for decades afterwards, but havn't seen any reprints in a long, long time, which is a bit of a shame.

Godwins 'Beyond Another Sun' never got much in the way of promotion, and has been out of print since the 80's, if I remember right.

Simak...kept telling different versions of the same tale. But it is an interesting one, though more...philosophical than the norm for fantasy.

Millers series...its strength and its weakness was the 'newness of the world'. Civilization, at least in this area was something very new. I would have liked to have seen some of the rest of his world.

Gentiles 'Rats and Gargoyles'...real pity this one fell by the wayside. The city the tale is set in has lots of story possibilities. I suspect it might have influenced some of the authors of present day urban fiction.

I've been rereading some of the 'Witch World' stories as of late - most of them by authors who were playing around in the framework created by Norton, rather than Norton herself. Some of these authors were 'names' thirty years ago (or more) and some were obscure then but are 'names' now. Most of them are female, and while I find the stories interesting, I suspect female readers would find them much more appealing.

 

[michael.harrel]

"The Night Land" by William Hope Hodgeson. Published in 1912, it is a eerie, dreamlike dark fantasy in the dying world genre, and though it has some flaws, it's really spectacular and well worth reading.

Also, "Till We Have Faces". Even though it was written by C. S. Lewis, I feel like very few people have read it, which is a shame.

 

[Graylorne]

Bron Fane / John E. Muller — two of the very many pseudonyms of the Rev. Lionel Fanthorpe (1935), published by Badger Books (UK). An interesting gentleman (see his Wikia page). He wrote over 180 novels (mostly sci-fi) for Badger, of which 89 in a 3 year period (a 158 page book every 12 days, small print). He’s still alive and kicking, too.

 

[Jess A]

Joanne Bertin's The Last Dragonlord. It needs more love.. the 3rd book in the series comes out November 27th!!

I sold the first book in this series to a customer last week, based on reviews I found on this site. I don't have time to read every book I sell, so reviews are, of course, valuable - I normally get them from other customers but in this case, I remembered it had been discussed favourably here. I look forward to hearing what he thought of it.

 

[Phietadix]

The Door Within by Wayne Thomas Batson

As well as the rest of his books.

 

[Xaysai]

Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, and the second book in the series Red Seas Under Red Skies - loved them both!

 

[Aravelle]

I've found a few other promising authors with a disappointingly small fanbase: Octavia E. Butler, Catherynne M Valente, and Hermann Hesse.

I've also recently found and fell in love with Tanith Lee and Angela Carter [rediscovered the former, that is].

 

[Steerpike]

Tanith Lee and Angela Carter are both excellent.

Octavia Butler - wonderful writer. I particularly like Kindred, Fledgling, and the series that begins with Parable of the Sower.

 

[Fiarene]

I don't know if they've been mentioned or not, but here are my contributions:

Robert Holdstock. He is my absolute favourite but people never know what I am talking about. I now know that Steerpike above me knows this author, which is amazing!! The Mythago Cycle is my favourite work of Holdstock's, but I also love his Merlin Codex.

Cecilia Dart-Thornton. She's an Australian writer and her style is VERY Purple Prose, but I love it.

Also, I adore the Trillium books, Black Trillium being the first in the series. They were co-written by Marion Zimmer-Bradley, Julian May and Andre Norton. There's a LOT of continuity issues with the series because the authors sort of split up and each took the books their own way, but I really enjoyed the books nonetheless. They're charming.

 

[Sheriff Woody]

"The Night Land" by William Hope Hodgeson. Published in 1912, it is a eerie, dreamlike dark fantasy in the dying world genre, and though it has some flaws, it's really spectacular and well worth reading.

Grabbed myself a free epub download (I love old books!). Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Just going back over the threads, Andre Norton, great writer for YA. I read much of her work as a teenager, especially the witch world novels, but apparently she's fallen off the radar a little. Quite likely because she passed away seven or eight years well into her nineties.

As for Clifford Simak, great author. From the Golden Age of Science fiction (or a little bit after). Who said he just kept writing the same novel? His novels were very diverse, but his characters very similar. Best works would be Catface (aka Mastadonia), The Goblin Reservation (which is really funny), Project Pope (Catholics may not like this), and Cemetary World. He wrote most of his characters as a sort of easy going, southerner, which oddly enough translated into his robots. He also came up with some very clever ideas, like a sci fi idea for creating metapmorphs, - The Werewolf Principle, where a man had two distinct genetic codes within him and they could be activated independantly.

Robert Holdstock - yes, yes, yes. Mythago Wood counts as one of my favourites of all time.

As for some that I haven't seen mentioned so far, Michael Moorcock for his entire Champion Eternal Series (so what if they were written in ten days apiece!), John Lymmington for the Hole In The World, A Merritt (yes, even older than the Golden Age of Science Fiction) for the Moon Pool, and the legendary H Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines, Quatermaine, She and The Return of She. (I really do recommend the two She novels.)

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Steerpike]

I didn't mention Moorcock because I thought he was too well know. A great addition.

If we're going with "golden age" works, check out Jack Williamson's novel "Darker Than You Think." Great book.

 

[wordwalker]

I didn't mention Moorcock because I thought he was too well know. A great addition.

If we're going with "golden age" works, check out Jack Williamson's novel "Darker Than You Think." Great book.

Agreed; Darker is great fun. And before those, Lord Dunsany, Tolkien's inspiration.

 

[Graylorne]

As for some that I haven't seen mentioned so far, Michael Moorcock for his entire Champion Eternal Series (so what if they were written in ten days apiece!), John Lymmington for the Hole In The World, A Merritt (yes, even older than the Golden Age of Science Fiction) for the Moon Pool, and the legendary H Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines, Quatermaine, She and The Return of She. (I really do recommend the two She novels.)

Lymington's Green Drift Made it into a Dutch edition (under a rather psychedelic title, translated backwards as: The Green Spiders Came Tomorrow [came, yes ])

Rider Haggard is one of the writers I name when asked who influenced me. They were adventure stories more than fantasy, but very impressive.

---

Does anyone ever read Where were you last Pluterday? by the Belgian author Paul van Herck. It was published in 1973 by DAW Books (and in several other languages). I've some personal memories about how that book came to the USA, so I wondered.

 

[Sheriff Woody]

Michael Moorcock for his entire Champion Eternal Series (so what if they were written in ten days apiece!)

Is there truth to this? I'm not familiar with the background on the Eternal Champion series. The most I know is that Blind Guardian wrote a few awesome songs based on the books.

 

[Aravelle]

Tanith Lee and Angela Carter are both excellent.

Octavia Butler - wonderful writer. I particularly like Kindred, Fledgling, and the series that begins with Parable of the Sower.

I can't help but feel so much more admiration for you knowing you like all 3 of those authors.

Which is your favourite Angela Carter book?

 

[Aravelle]

I have this all the times, since I live in Australia so most of you would never have heard of Jennifer Fallon, Glenda Larke, Juliet Marrillier...

I've heard of Ms. Marillier. A book or two of hers is on my Amazon wishlist :3

 

[psychotick]

Hi Sheriff,

Yes it's true. In fact he devised a way to write a book in three days. (Plus a couple of others for various bits and pieces.)

How to Write a Novel in Three Days.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Steerpike]

I can't help but feel so much more admiration for you knowing you like all 3 of those authors.

Which is your favourite Angela Carter book?

I like her short story collection The Bloody Chamber. Although it is best to get Burning Your Boats, which has all of her short stories in it! She was a wonderful writer.