Literary Fantasy
“Literary fantasy” is an umbrella term given to books with fantastic elements that apply graceful style, symbolic language, complex characters, ethereal settings, alliterative in-jokes, meta-references, or non-linear timelines (to name just a few devices).
Literary fantasy includes forerunners such as Mervyn Peake, Peter Beagle and Richard Adams. The term encompasses magic realists including Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Salman Rushdie, and Isabel Allende. Fantasists like Robert Holdstock, Emma Bull, and Patricia McKillip, who explore an anthropological mythos, fit in literary fantasy. Tricksters and shaman prophets of the New Weird such as Jeff VanderMeer, James Blaylock and Hal Duncan, bring the genre new possibilities. Authors mentioned elsewhere in this article are also literary: Tolkien, Le Guin, de Lint, Martin and Clarke to name a few, as are new writers like Kelly Link, Keith Donohue and Catherynne Valente. Finally, it should be noted that countless “mainstream” authors use fantastic elements.
The tie that binds such disparate authors is their audience. Literary fantasy invites crossover readership from literary fiction, attracting readers who like to be challenged and entertained. Alert collectors should watch annual awards to make literary fantasy selections. World Fantasy Award, Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Mythopoeic Award nominees almost always come from this part of the genre.
Carroll, Jonathan. The Ghost in Love. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008. (ISBN: 0374161860).
Carroll’s latest makes a fine entry to his work. Ben Gould falls on ice—an accident that should kill him. He survives, but his life turns down the rabbit hole. The ghost sent to guide Ben in the afterlife falls for his girlfriend; Ben talks with his dog; and a mysterious knife-wielding man hunts them all. Carroll’s trademarks are here: metaphysics; the afterlife; talking animals; settings that border the “real” and dream worlds; and storytelling that makes luminous that which other writers only make scary.
Crowley, John. Little, Big. New York: Harper Perennial, 1981. (ISBN: 0061120057).
Smokey Barnable marries Alice Drinkwater, joining an incomparable family saga: a quirky, shambling tale as variegated as Edgewood, the family home built with elements of every architectural style. The novel ranges up and down the Drink-water family tree, exploring their connection to the fairy world. Crowley’s style is elegant, affirming, entertainingly digressive and descriptive in the manner of first-rate storytellers. Loosely plotted, this gentle book must be savored, not gulped.
Miéville, China. New Crobuzon series. Perdido Street Station. New York: Del Rey, 2000. (ISBN: 0345459404).
Set in a grand, rotting heap of a city called New Crobuzon, these loosely connected novels mix magic, technology, and decay in an indeterminate time. Miéville takes Dickens’ protest politics into a sprawling dark world populated by diverse, morally ambiguous characters. Political, gritty, and overflowing with dazzling language, these novels prove how different a successful fantasist can be from Tolkien. Start with Perdido Street Station.
Powers, Tim. Last Call trilogy. Last Call. New York: Harper, 1992. (ISBN: 038072846X).
Powers brings the Fisher King to the American Southwest in three novels that mix ghosts, magic, immortality, and Jungian archetypes with real world figures like Bugsy Siegel and Thomas Edison and milieus like poker and psychiatry. With his complex, engrossing style, it’s easy to see why many literary fantasists cite Powers as a favorite.
Wolfe, Gene. The Book of the New Sun. Shadow & Claw. New York: Orb, 1980. (ISBN: 0312890176).
Known for untrustworthy narrators and labyrinthine plots, Wolfe originally published his masterwork in four installments. Now in two omnibus editions, it’s the story of Severian, a suave but dishonest torturer with a photographic memory. Motivated readers will reread this mix of Christian imagery, archaic language, and science fiction elements, each time finding new insights.
Resources
To learn more about major fantasy writers and the appeal of the fantasy genre try these tools.
Books
Fichtelberg, Susan. Encountering Enchantment: A Guide to Speculative Fiction for Teens. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2007. (ISBN: 1591583160).
Offers annotations of over 1400 titles aimed at readers in grades six through twelve. Eleven of fourteen chapters focus on fantasy titles, with additional chapters on science fiction, horror, and graphic novels.
Herald, Diane Tixier and Bonnie Kunzel. Fluent in Fantasy: The Next Generation. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2007. (ISBN: 1591581982)
A guide to current fantasy titles, arranged in thirteen thematic categories. This revised edition includes over 2000 titles either new or newly described.
Hollands, Neil. Read On … Fantasy Fiction. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2007. (ISBN: 1591583306)
Part of Libraries Unlimited’s Read On series, Hollands’s book lists over 800 fantasy titles arranged by their primary appeal factor. An excellent resource for quick lists of fantasy for readers and librarians.
Saricks, Joyce. The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2001. (ISBN: 978-0-8389-0803-7).
Saricks’s book is a boon to those exploring a new genre or looking to build genre knowledge. The fantasy section includes a discussion of fantasy’s appeal characteristics, lists of benchmark authors and subgenres, and suggestions for working with fantasy readers.
Stevens, Jen and Dorothea Salo. Fantasy Authors: A Research Guide. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2008. (ISBN: 1591584973).
Includes a discussion of the fantasy genre, a timeline of fantasy writing, and research resources on about one hundred prominent contemporary fantasy authors. A useful resource for building knowledge of the fantasy genre.
Review Sources
In addition to the major review sources—Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly—all of which regularly review fantasy titles, be sure to look at the following specialty sources in both print and online form.
Fantasy Book Critic
Provides in-depth reviews of new fantasy titles and is a useful compendium of news about the fantasy publishing industry, fantasy writers, and fantasy awards.
Green Man Review
Offers reviews of books, music and film focusing on titles with elements of fantasy, folklore, and fairy tale. Additional content includes articles on fantasy writers and topics and reviews of performances in these areas.
Core Collections in Genre Studies
Locus Magazine. Oakland, Calif.: Locus Publications, 1968–. Monthly (ISSN 0047-4959)
Locus is a major source of information for fantasy and science fiction collectors and readers. Each monthly issue includes author interviews, publishing news, 20–25 reviews, lists of newly published titles (monthly) and forthcoming titles (quarterly). Locus also has an online edition.
Overbooked: Speculative Fiction, www.overbooked.org
Winner of the 2008 Louis Shores–Greenwood Publishing Award for reviewing, Overbooked is an excellent resource for locating starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. The Speculative Fiction section of the site lists titles receiving a starred review arranged by year and then approximate date of publication, then alphabetically by author.
Internet
Fantastic Fiction (for series sequence)
Recommended Fantasy Author List
Correspondence concerning this column should be addressed to Neal Wyatt, The Alert Collector, c/o RUSA, 50 E. Huron, Chicago, IL 60611; alertcollector@comcast.net. Wyatt is a Collection Development and Readers’ Advisory Librarian from Virginia. She wrote The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Nonfiction (ALA Editions, 2007), is an Editor of Library Journal’s “Reader’s Shelf” column, and compiles LJ’s weekly “Wyatt’s World Lists.”
Charlotte Burcher and Neil Hollands are both Adult Services Librarians at the Williamsburg (Va.) Regional Library (WRL). Andrew Smith is Readers’ Services Librarian, Barry Trott is Adult Services Director, and Jessica Zellers is Electronic Resources Librarian at WRL.