books and reading

This wonderful book will give great enjoyment to anyone who loves fantasy. It is amazingly comprehensive, well-written, carefully edited and proofread, and as fair and objective as it's possible for such a book to be. In addition to the extensive coverage of authors (including those not known primarily for fantasy), it also includes a great deal of information on movies and TV. As an opera lover, I was delighted to find 24 pages on that topic. A few of the most curiosity-piquing entries are Cauldron of Story, Timeslips, Thinning, Recursive Fantasy, Rationalized Fantasy, Crosshatching, Into the Woods, Instauration Fantasy, Godgame, and Taproot Texts. Read this book to find out about all these and much, much more.

This is the most exhaustive Fantasy reference available.

All of the contributors are concise, probing and informative. Even if you don't know the author or work being cited, it is as revealing as its arguments are persuasive, which can lead you to the library to learn more.

For anyone who gets lost in the sea of jargon used throughout, the book is a glossary in itself, so don't fret! It includes the definitions of common Fantasy terms such as "Swords and Sorcery", "Fairy", and esoteric terms, like "thinning".

Basically, if it's not in here, it's not worth reading -- or at least according to the authors. They said that they've only discluded authors who they consider relatively unimportant.

A long entry indicates the importance of the author, so of course Tolkien's entry takes up a few pages. Get books by those authors if you want to read the groundbreaking genre-defining stuff.

John Grant's movies reviews are very inciteful and comprehensive. Without giving ratings, he often hints at what made one either good or bad, which can help you decide whether to see it or not.

If you want to get more interested in Fantasy, but can't pick the good books and movies from the bad, this should enlighten you. I find it a great means of escape.

Lawrence

I'm sure that this would be a wonderful book for anyone interested in the history of the fantasy genre - including movies and television shows, characters and certain authors. However, if you are looking for a book that contains information of the fantasy world itself (ie. mythical beasts, worlds, spells, etc...), like I was, this is definately the wrong book for you. I am a fantasy writer and was looking for information that would help in my writing. This book, now that I have had a good look at it, will sit on my shelf and collect dust until I can find someone to give or sell it to. If you are looking for information on movies, this is a book for you... If not, then don't waste your time and money on this book. It is not worth it.