The Sword and Laser discussion

Slashdot has a thread where the OP is looking for recs for "forgotten" sci fi and fantasy. I thought it would be gun yo discuss that here. The /. post is at http://ask.slashdot.org/story/12/03/0...

The first thing that comes to my mind is A Wrinkle in Time. I know a lot of people my age read it, but few read the follow-on books. None of the kids I babysat read them that I know of. I'm not sure if that's a reflectiln of what was popular at the time or just changing interests. Anyway, thought it would be fun to discuss here.

terpkristin wrote: "The first thing that comes to my mind is A Wrinkle in Time. "

That was actually one of my assigned books in 5th or 6th grade. It was really good and kind of started me up on the whole Sword & Laser theme. I hope that my daughters will like it as much as I.

I loved that whole series and have kept my copies from when I was a kid so that my kids can find them on the bookshelf someday. Assuming my kids don't think of paper books the way I think of 8-tracks...

Speaking of books I read as a kid, what about Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series? Those were my pre-Wrinkle in Time first intro to fantasy.

Seth wrote: "Speaking of books I read as a kid, what about Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series? Those were my pre-Wrinkle in Time first intro to fantasy."

They're hilarious if you're familiar with the original mythology. In the Mabinogion, Arawn is actually a cool dude while Gwydion is a rapist, but Alexander wanted to write a Tolkien knock-off for children, so he changed them into Sauron and Aragorn clones.

Sean wrote: "Seth wrote: "Speaking of books I read as a kid, what about Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series? Those were my pre-Wrinkle in Time first intro to fantasy."

They're hilarious if you're familiar with th..."

Huh, interesting! I haven't read them at all since my childhood, I should reread with that in mind.

For me it would be Alan Garner's books, especially The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. By coincidence, I looked at the Wikipedia entry for it today, and it has nice quotes by Neil Gaiman and Philip Pullman, who rates him as being perhaps better than Tolkien...and I can't entirely disagree, either. There are some awesomely atmospheric bits in Garner's stories.

The Cats of Seroster by Robert Westall is another very obscure one. It's got a little grim medievalness, more than should be in a children's book, but it was marketed as one, so I read it as a kid. I'd love to read it again as an adult.

Stuart wrote: "For me it would be Alan Garner's books, especially The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. By coincidence, I looked at the Wikipedia entry for it today, and it has nice quotes by Neil Gaiman a..."

Stuart, I read the Weirdstone of Brisingamen when I was ten years old in 1966. It was one of the most influential books in my life and help set my reading habits for the years to come. I remember the sequel, The Moon of Gomrath, was also excellent. I still have that old copy of Weirdstone on my
shelf. Alan Garner is a terrific author.

Tom Swift and the Tom Swift Jr books. I tried to check them out for my son and couldn't find them at the Library or any of the B&M book stores.

Noel wrote: "Stuart, I read the Weirdstone of Brisingamen when I was ten years old in 1966. It was one of the most influential books in my life and help set my reading habits for the years to come."

I think that I was also about ten or eleven when I read it for the first time (in the '80s). Weirdstone and Elidor both definitely made a lasting impression on me.

Stuart wrote: "Noel wrote: "Stuart, I read the Weirdstone of Brisingamen when I was ten years old in 1966. It was one of the most influential books in my life and help set my reading habits for the years to come...."

Ah yes, Elidor, I had forgotten about that. Another great book. Oh, on an unrelated point, how do you make the book titles in your message a hyperlink? after years using computers I really should have worked that out by now.

I'm using a Goodreads feature. It's slightly clunky...

If you click the "add book/author" link just above the comment box a little floating search window opens up. You can then search for the book and get a list of matching books. Clicking the "add" next to one of the search results will put a link in the text of your comment.

My mom gave me The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, about two kids who build a rocketship in their backyard and start a friendship with a weird little man who blows away in high winds.

It's one of those "verging on a nightmare" memories, so I may have to read it again just to purge the negative associations.

I know a lot of people like Silverlock, but I didn't get it much. It is supposed to have a lot of allusions.

I did enjoy the Lord Darcy books Lord Darcy books, which combined alchemy with Sherlock Holmes type investigation.

One forgotten trilogy I absolutely loved was Wayland Drew's Earthring Cycle. It's fantastic Sci-Fi fun. The three books are:

1) The Memoirs of Alcheringia: Part One of the Erthring Cycle
2) The Gaian Expedient
3) The Master of Norriya

Well worth the read

Stuart wrote: "I'm using a Goodreads feature. It's slightly clunky...

If you click the "add book/author" link just above the comment box a little floating search window opens up. You can then search for the book..."

Stuart, thanks very much, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

I loved the Lloyd Alexander books. I credit them with getting me to read the Mabinogian. It's great for kids, although I worry that people who have seen the Disney destruction will judge the book based on that.

I also read at least 4 books in the Wrinkle in Time series, Loved them then, but never seem to think about going back to it. I wonder why.

It might not be 'forgotten' per se, but i recently read "Blades of Mars" by "Edward P. Bradbury", that has, since the original paperback that i read from, become "Lord of Spiders" by Michael Moorcock.
It certainly feels like a forgotten book when the writer uses a pseudonym and the title changes at some point in the future.

(Blades of Mars is a much better title for the book than "Lord of Spiders". The so called spider scene lasted about 4 pages in the entire book.
Not bad for a book found in a random box of scifi/fantasy books in the basement.)

As a child our teacher read us Tom's Midnight Garden and from then on I was drawn to books that stepped away from reality.
Some favourites:The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, The Wild Hunt Of Hagworthy, The Owl Service, A Stranger Came Ashore and anything by Nicholas Fisk.