The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series Is a Fantasy Genre History Lesson 

I don't know anything about ASMR, but I am planning to record some audiobook versions of classic stories later this year. I did a couple of spooky stories for Halloween last October and uploaded them here on my channel if you're interested. Thanks!

@@thelibraryladder The audio, as audio, is quite nice and would work quite well as off screen narrative. Otherwise it does not match the visual of a man in a room speaking to a camera. It sounds more like a man in a sound dead studio speaking carefully into a screened condenser microphone with pronounced bass balance. As such it is a jarring contrast. Otherwise it was a most informative video. thank you.

Thanks for the feedback! Out of curiosity, would you have felt the same way about the audio in my video if it had been a scene from a movie or tv show instead? Is the jarring contrast you experienced caused by your expectations about what RU-vid videos tend to sound like? I ask because my recording setup is comparable to what professional filmmakers use in similar indoor environments. I'm not filming on a phone or with a cheap lavalier mic. Instead, I'm aiming for a higher level of production quality in my videos that approximates that of professional documentary filmmakers. :)

@@thelibraryladder As a simple example I would suggest viewing clips from Dances with Wolves and note the contrast between the audio of Costner's dialogue, which is always ambient in quality and the narrative, which is not. I get what you are aiming for, but you seem a bit off the mark in terms of what you have achieved because the audio does not seem to match the video. It does not sound like a guy in a ordinary room who happens to have some background music playing in that room. It sounds (and looks) more like a well executed overdub. One there is a total lack of reverb and two your tone, while pleasant is unnaturally bass heavy for an ambient setting. To the viewer it should sound like we are sharing the room, this video does not.

@@thelibraryladder we need more content makers with your narration style, not less

I think the stylistic and narrative uniqueness of the Gormenghast books can make them harder to appreciate for many readers accustomed to modern fantasy novels with straightforward narratives and strong propulsive action. The rather bizarre atmosphere in the books can overshadow the story in my experience. I struggled with Titus Groan the first time I attempted to read it decades ago because it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I wanted to take the story at face value, but my rational brain kept rebelling. On reread years later (and with a greater appreciation of different styles of storytelling), I was able to adapt myself to the trilogy and the story it contains much better, and I found a lot to enjoy.

@@thelibraryladder well said. Gormenghast is what the prevelant style of fantasy could have been. I prefer the modern style of fantasy as well and also struggled at first with titan groan due to the bizzare story beats and really stylised writing style but there is much to appreciate here once you progress through the series.

Titus Alone may prove disappointing once you get to it... But the other two are great.

I'll say it outright, Gormenghast is too damn advanced for the average fantasy reader. Mervyn Peake is a writer's writer. Popular tastes will come and go, but those books will always be quietly studied and preserved. Edit: I should say I came to appreciate fantasy only after a long time. I always thought it a juvenile genre in the unflattering sense, but Terry Pratchett's Colour of Magic changed all that for me because he could poke fun at it and showed us that there was meat there to begin with.

Prose is very outdated and hard to read even in that time gormenghast was written Victorian style of writing was not popular and it was fading

I agree. I was introduced to so must great fantasy writing through this series when I was a kid growing up, and still have a large number of these books on my shelves

Pre-Tolkien? Not much Pre-Tolkien.

​@@ericsierra-franco7802 That's simply not true. Here's a list of just some of the rich and hugely varied world of Fantasy before Tolkien The Blazing World (1666) by Margaret Cavendish On of the earliest fantasies, The Blazing World is the satirical depiction of a utopian kingdom inhabited by various races of talking animals. Readers of Alan Moore's 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' will be familiar with the place Vathek (1786) by William Beckford. Written in the style of the Arabian Nights, an early example of Orientalism The Shaving of Shagpat (1856) by George Meredith. Another one written in the style of the Arabian Nights, George Elliot was enthusiastic about this interesting early fantasy Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women (1858) by George MacDonald A hugely influential work for later authors such as C S Lewis, the story follows Anodos and his journey through the dreamlike Fairy Land which acts as a spiritual quest. Morris wrote several other highly regarded novels in the genre, including 'Lilith' (1895), the children's books 'The Princess and the Goblin' (1872) and 'The Princess and Curdie' (1883) and a number of short stories, often collected together for example in 'Evenor' in the Ballantine series Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) by Jules Verne Verne wrote many early science fiction novels, but also quite a few fantasies as well, his best and most well known being 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' the first, as far as I know, of many, set inside a hollow Earth, inhabited by a variety of prehistoric creatures and lost civilizations. Other (sort of) fantasies by Verne include 'The Castle in Transylvania', an inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula of 1897. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll This and its sequel 'Through the Looking-Glass' (1872) a hugely famous, and don't really need describing. But Lewis also wrote 'The Hunting of the Snark' (1876), and 'Sylvie and Bruno' (1889), and its sequel 'Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893) in the genre. Vril, the Power of the Coming Race (1870) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton This story of superior subterranean master races powered the energy form called "Vril", was hugely popular in Victorian England, especially those inclined to Madam Blavatsky's theosophy. Inspired the name of Bovril. Erewhon (1872) by Samuel Butler A political satire as much as a fantasy, Erewhon ('Nowhere' backward) is a mirror with which Butler exposes what he sees as the faults of the Victorian society he lived in The Cuckoo Clock (1877) by Mrs Molesworth Writing children's fantasy much as the more well know E. Nesbit, the small heroine of the story, Griselda, is befriended by a magical cuckoo from a cuckoo clock, who transports her to a series of fantasy worlds

(con) Vice Versa (1882) by F. Anstey A humorous novel set in Victorian times that starts off with businessman Paul Bultitude lecturing his son Dick on how schooldays are the happiest years of a boy's life, and how he wishes he were the one going off to school instead of Dick. Unfortunately for Paul Bultitude, Paul is carrying a magic stone from India that grants wishes, and Paul becomes a boy much to the amusement of Dick, who as he's the one holding the stone, wishes to become a man identical to how Paul previously looked. The boy Paul is then dispatched to a boarding school run by the cane-wielding headmaster, Dr. Grimstone. Bultitude, where he finds out how happy those days are. So sort of an early version of the film 'Freaky Friday', the first of many body-swapping fantasies. She: A History of Adventure (1887) by H. Rider Haggard One of his first of many fantasy novels, very much of the 'Lost World' genre. Filmed several times and is very popular The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales (1888) by Richard Garnett A collection of humorous short stories set in various parts of the ancient and medieval world. First published in 1888 Garnett kept adding additional tales in subsequent editions. Ardath (1889) by Marie Corelli Corelli was hugely popular in her time, and several of her books were turned into films in the early silent era; now she is largely forgotten. Ardath itself is a story of reincarnation and mystical romance between the hero, the poet Theos Alwyn and his 'spiritual affinity', the maiden, Edris on the field of Ardath near Babylon. Peter Ibbetson (1891) by George du Maurier Written by the grandfather of Daphne du Maurier, this is an odd fantasy about two lovers who can meet only in dreams, but here they live out their lives together. Very popular in its day, it was turned into a film of the same name in 1935 starring Gary Cooper and Ann Harding. In her book 'A Question of Time: J. R. R. Tolkien's Road to Faërie' Verlyn Flieger discusses this book's possible influences on how Tolkien viewed time in his Middle Earth. A House-Boat on the Styx (1895) by John Kendrick Bangs A humorous novel set on the river Styx, where the shades of the dead live after their lives on Earth. Charon wakes up one day to learn someone has put a houseboat on the infernal river, but gets over his annoyance when he finds he will be its janitor. The House Boat makes an appearance in Alan Moore's 'Promethea', the heroine of which is Sophie Bangs, one of the author's supposed descendants. Etidorhpa (1895) by John Uri Lloyd An adventure story featuring another underground realm, this time entered from Kentucky. Full of alchemy, secret Masonic rites, the hollow Earth, a truly fantastic novel. 'Etidorhpa' is oh course 'Aphrodite' spelt backward The King in Yellow (1895) by Robert W. Chambers A collection of short stories, most of which are fantastical, some veering into horror and based around a mythical book in play form, "The King in Yellow", of which reading the third and final act generally leads to mental decay and madness, and the associated mysterious and malevolent supernatural entity of the same name, and its Yellow Sign. Elements of these stories made their way into H. P. Lovecraft''s Cthulhu mythos stories, and recently on TV into the first season of 'True Detectives' The Water of the Wondrous Isles (1897) by William Morris The novel, published the year following Morris's death, follows Birdalone, a young girl who is stolen as a baby by a witch who takes her to serve in the woods of Evilshaw. She travels through an Arthurian-type world, as one of the very first female heroines of the fantasy genre. Morris's vocabulary might be offputting to some moderns, using many archaisms even for a Victorian, but I've always been fond of his writings. As well as this fantasy novel, Morris wrote many more, starting with 'The Hollow Land' (1856), and including 'The Story of the Glittering Plain' (1891), 'The Wood Beyond the World' (1894), 'The Well at the World's End' (1896), 'The Sundering Flood' (1897) as well as a number of short stories eventually collected in 'Golden Wings and Other Stories' in the Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library series. The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900) by Ernest Bramah A collection of fantasy stories most of which feature Kai Lung, an itinerant storyteller of ancient China. Bramah went on to complete another three short story collections and a novel, all of great charm, featuring the old storyteller. Brahmah was a highly prolific author, who also wrote the Max Carrados series of detective stories. Fancy Free (1901) Eden Phillpotts A collection of short stories set in various eras. Phillpotts wrote several more fantasy short story collections along with a number of novels. Another author who seems largely forgotten Five Children and It (1902) by E. Nesbit The first of three children’s novels featuring the five children, Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother known as the Lamb, come to discover a rather grumpy and very unfairly-like creature called a sand-fairy or 'Psammead', capable of granting wishes. This leads them into a whole series of adventures in this, and the two sequels ‘The Phoenix and the Carpet’ (1904), where the Psammead is mostly absent and then returning in the final ‘The Story of the Amulet’ (1906) Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904) by Lafcadio Hearn Hearn's retelling of a number of Japanese ghost stories and folk tales. The Japanese film director Masaki Kobayashi based his famous film of the same name on Hearn's book The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame Adventures of Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. this is a classic Edwardian fantasy.

(con) The House of Souls (1906) by Arthur Machen Collection of short stories combining horror and fantasy, containing what I think is his best work, 'The White People'. This takes the form of a diary kept by a young girl who, starting with the influence of her nurse, is drawn into a supernatural world. In his 1986 'Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural', T.E.D. Klein declared it ‘...the purest and most powerful expression of what Jack Sullivan has called the “transcendental” or “visionary” supernatural tradition. Most other tales in that tradition ... merely describe encounters with the dark primeval forces that reign beyond the edge of civilization; The White People seems an actual product of such an encounter, an authentic pagan artifact...’. The collection also includes his other great masterpiece, 'The Great God Pan', as well as 'The Inmost Light' and 'A Fragment of Life'. Tarzan of the Apes (1912) by Edgar Rice Burroughs Burroughs wrote a lot of early science fiction, but this first of a whole series of Tarzan books is pure fantasy. Burroughs also wrote a series set in that popular destination the hollow Earth, starting with ‘At the Earth's Core’ (1914) where adventures use an excavating mining “mole” to find the interior world of Pellucidar. ‘The Land That Time Forgot’ (1918) has its 'Lost World' location on an island in the Antarctic ocean, warmed by volcanoes and teeming with dinosaurs and tribes of semi-human creatures The Book of Wonder (1912) by Lord Dunsany Some have already mentioned his novel 'The King of Elfland's Daughter', but I think mention should also be made of his short stories, as these were much more of an influence on a whole host of later writers, particularly the early H. P. Lovecraft of 'The Doom that Came to Sarnath', 'The Cats of Ulthar', 'Celephais' and 'The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath'. The Book of Wonder was written as a collaboration with the artist Sidney Sime; Sime provided a fantastic illustration which Dunsany then wrote the story of. Dunsany also wrote a few humorous fantasy novels such as 'The Blessing of Pan' (1927) where a stuffy 19th century English village is transformed by the god Pan, and 'My Talks with Dean Spanley' (1936) where the Dean of the title is able, under the influence of a rare Imperial Tokay wine, to recall his life and adventures as a dog sometime in the Victorian period. Some people mistakenly think the movie based on this book is better, rather in the same way Peter Jackson “improved” on Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’. Incredible Adventures (1914) by Algernon Blackwood A collection of short stories of weird fantasy stories. A highly recommended author in the genre, though little known now. other story collections include John Silence (1908) a series of short stories about a Carnaki-like paranormal investigator, The Lost Valley and Other Stories (1910), Pan's Garden: a Volume of Nature Stories (1912) as well as novels such as The Human Chord (1910), The Centaur (1911) and Julius LeVallon (1916). Many of his stories fall into the category of nature fantasies and stories involving the fourth dimension. The Fates of the Princes of Dyfed (1914) by Kenneth Morris A fantasy novel written by Welsh author and theosophist Kenneth Morris, this is a retelling of the medieval Welsh Mabinogion. Ursula K. Le Guin praised his writing The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin (1915) by P. D. Ouspensky. Based on Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence the hero realizes he can remember past iterations of his life, and tries to alter it from its recurring nature Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1919) by James Branch Cabell Part of a series of vaguely interconnected novels Cabell wrote, collectively called Biography of the Life of Manuel' Count of Poictesme (a fictional province of France). A comic fantasy novel, influencing Terry Pratchett amongst others, this is the story of Jurgen, a "monstrous clever fellow" who sets out on a quest through a dreamscape of various medieval realms, Heaven and Hell, in search of "justice" The Moon Pool (1919) by A. Merritt Another 'Lost World' novel, of a race within the hollow earth, ruled by a powerful evil entity called the Shining One, which periodically visits the earth's surface, capturing men and women to somehow feed off of. This was the first of a series of similar fantasy novels written, some of which were adapted to film, including 'The Devil-Doll' (1936) based on Merritt's 'Burn Witch Burn!' (1932) Mary Rose (1920) by J. M. Barrie Better known for his play Peter Pan (1904), his other plays shouldn't be overlooked, particularly the odd, disturbing Mary Rose. Here Mary Rose is a child who vanishes whilst visiting a remote Scottish island, but three weeks later she just as mysteriously returns with no memory of what happened to her. Many years later she returns to the island, and again vanishes, and again mysteriously returns. This time though it is decades later she hasn't aged at all in the interim, but her family has aged beyond recognition, and her son, Harry, who was nearly three when she disappeared, is gone. Alfred Hitchcock wanted to create a film version but his studio believed that the project was "too troubling". The Haunted Woman (1922) by David Lindsay Better known for his odd science fiction book 'A Voyage to Arcturus' (1920), 'The Haunted Woman' is a work of dark, metaphysical fantasy. The heroine Isabel Loment visiting an ancient country home discovers a mysterious staircase leading to a series of rooms that exist outside of our reality. Whilst there Isabel and the owner of the house, Henry Judge undergo an expansion in their consciousness and start a romance, but they are unable to recall this state when they leave the room. Topper (1926) by Thorne Smith First of a series of humorous fantasy novels, set in 1920s America, in this one respectable banker Cosmo Topper has a series of adventures with a couple of ghosts. Very popular at the time, it was turned into a film starring Cary Grant, as was 'The Passionate Witch' filmed as I Married a Witch, starring Veronica Lake. Turnabout (1931) is a body-swapping fantasy, in this case, the married couple Sally and Tim Willows; also turned into a 1940 film starring Carole Landis and John Hubbard. Also from 1931 is his ' The Night Life of the Gods' where inventor Hunter Hawk having met a nine-hundred-year-old lady leprechaun named Megaera who helps him master the art of transforming statues into people, runs amok with Metropolitan Museum of Arts statues of Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, Diana, Hebe, Apollo, and Perseus, unleashing them on prohibition-era New York.

Mervin Peake, too!

I was working in MIT's college bookstore. The book was ordered for a class that was canceled but was still on the shelf. The cover and title intrigued me and encouraged me to travel "beyond the fields we know." It led me to GRRM. I am one of those poor suckers who have been holding their collective breath since around '97.

I discovered Dunsany lived in Shoreham, Kent as well as Samuel Palmer the painter. It is on my list to visit and draw the landscape.

Plus all the fabulous short stories. And no disrespect to the King of Elfland's Daughter but my favorite is The Charwomans' Shadow.

@@coltaine503 I enjoyed that one but not as much.

I'm a big fan of concisely told stories, and many of these older ones are great in that respect. My enjoyment of them varies, but even the ones I'm less fond of don't require a substantial time commitment to read.

The covers Bob Pepper did for Peake's 'Gormenghast' books are classics in themselves.

diga quando tiver a versão revisada da dissertação, cacei sem sucesso :'(

@@fcouperin A biblioteca demora para disponibilizar online, as engrenagens internas giram devagar rs. Vou ver se consigo colocar o pdf aqui.

@@fcouperin Não parece ser possível enviar o pdf por esta thread ou pelo youtube. Há algum email ou profile para o qual eu poderia enviar o arquivo? (Pelo que me disseram, a disponibilização no banco de teses/dissertações pode demorar meses depois de enviada a versão corrigida)

I too enjoyed the Belgariad, although I'm less fond of the Malloreon because of how much it follows the same formula as the Belgariad.

Thanks! Like you, I gained a greater appreciation of the roots of the fantasy genre after encountering the Ballantine series. Many classic authors and works I'd never heard of until I found these paperback editions. I can't say that I've fully enjoyed all of them, but they've given me a greater appreciation of the genre and its history.

@bastiat4855 you have no idea who l am so keep your silly assumptions to yourself.

I grew up on the old tsr books, I loved the old well written fantasy books . They were obscure too but exciting and I still remember them today

😂

Thanks! Kurtz established a template with that first trilogy that influenced many later authors. I quite enjoyed the series when I first encountered it around 1980 or so.

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I try to incorporate many of those elements into all my videos (some more successfully than others).

I agree with you that The Sword of Shannara often gets unfairly maligned. It's a fun read. Lin Carter intended Smith's Averoigne Chronicles to be part of the Ballantine series, but Random House shut down the series before it could be published.

Lin Carter got it published by Zebra, the successor to Lancer Books.

I agree that Eric Brighteyes is a great read. I plan to make a video about Haggard's works at some point, but probably not in the next year (too many other video topics ahead of him in the queue). I thought about mentioning Newcastle's Forgotten Fantasy Library in this video about Ballantine (I have several of the Newcastle books, and they complement the Ballantine series nicely by filling in gaps), but I didn't want the video to be too long, so I decided to incorporate them into a future video. Thanks for watching and commenting!

No one is reading She or King Solomon's Mines. Ayesha is long forgotten. Why on Earth publish a Haggard B-Side from the same era?

Lin Carter did talk about eric brighteyes in one of the volumes. Funny I had never heard of Newcastls publishings forgotten fantasy library. Have to look into that.

@@StegoKing You mean no one you know is reading them

I received the same set of Tolkien paperbacks as a present when I was around 11, and I read them cover to cover many times over the next ten years. I might have been more enthralled by the Appendices at the end of The Return of the King than I was with the main story (and I loved the main story). I still have those books, although they're showing their age.

You were lucky. What my mom would do is get me interested in books and then when the time came to buying the books through Scholastic or books ads, she would say, "We'll check 'em out at the library." I credit my mom for making me a library rat. It was a sneaking trick though.

@@thelibraryladder - the quick sequel to my anecdote is that a couple years later I bought the nearly matching paperback of The Silmarillion while my family visited Mark Twain’s house in Hannibal, Missouri… there was a gift shop that had a rotating wire rack of some popular titles at the time, and this “new” book by Tolkien naturally caught my eye. It would be several years later, on my third attempt, before I finally made it through (and fell in love with) The Silmarillion.

The latter half of The Silmarillion is amazing. My 12-year-old self struggled with the first half, but I made it through. On subsequent rereads, though, I tended to skip over the first few chapters. As an adult I encountered the early fiction of Lord Dunsany, who is often cited as a major influence on Tolkien's fantasy writing. I was shocked to discover just how much of an influence. Dunsany's short fiction collection 'The Gods of Pegana' reads almost like a cross between the first two sections of The Silmarillion and the King James Bible. Tolkien clearly patterned those parts of The Silmarillion after Dunsany's fantasy debut.

Wow! I too purchased all three volumes of the Ballantine edition of the LOTR with white covers featuring Tolkien's watercolors at my local suburban Philadelphia mall in November 1978 when I was twelve years old! They were the first "real books" I ever read: I remember taking the "Fellowship" home that night, turning the page to "Concerning Hobbits" and was immediately entranced. Although I now have a study lined with books, those original Ballantine volumes of Tolkien still take pride of place on my shelves and are probably the most prized items in my collection!

Thanks! To read Eddison, I have to take myself out my modern sensibilities and instead try to perceive the novels as readers did a hundred years ago. Narratively and stylistically they're a little excessive by modern standards, but I can imagine what an impact the books might have had on literary readers back then who had rarely if ever encountered storytelling like that. I find it easy to see how Tolkien was so enamored with Eddison's books and how much they influenced his own writing. Fortunately, Tolkien largely resisted the urge to imitate Eddison's excesses. I appreciate nearly all of the early weird fiction writers, but I have to be in the right frame of mind to read and stay immersed in their works. I prefer Smith over Lovecraft, but my leanings are even more toward earlier (and less overtly weird) authors such as M.R. James, Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood to name a few.

@@thelibraryladder Algernon Blackwood yes - a friend recommended me The Willows and it was so good! I want to read more by him.

I love Gormenghast! Hope Bridger does a video on those books.

@@thewatchfemme4051 I love how gothic, bizarre and whimsical they are. They remind me of Neil Gaiman, Tim Burton and Charles Dickens (:

It's in my queue of planned videos, although I'm unlikely to get to it before next year.

When paired with the introductions Carter wrote for most of the books, as well as his essays in Imaginary Worlds, the BAF series really is like a course in neglected literature. That truly is a pity about Dunsany's legacy in Ireland. Was he perceived as being not Irish enough, given his English heritage, or is it simply a matter of later generations paying more attention to newer, more modern authors?

Carter's notes and introductions really make the series feel like it has been curated with love, and his choices in the anthology books lay a good foundation. I've gone on to read many of the classic authors he included. I'm not sure why Dunsany has been forgotten. It may be because he was “on the wrong side” in the Easter Rising, or came from the upper classes, but then Yates and Wilde are well remembered all the same. It could simply be due to changing tastes, fantasy, his plays, and the Jorkins club books may have gone out of fashion soon after his death. There is a poster of writers that appears in every Irish classroom and Dunsany is not on it. It might be as simple as that, he hasn't been propagandised! I'm really enjoying your series. It's great to see editions of books I hope to one day read and to get information about the history of them. I have several Elkin Matthews editions of Dunsany, one signed by the man himself, so looking forward to your thoughts.

Thank you! I too think of the BAFS paperbacks as a kind of curriculum on the history of the fantasy genre. I'm glad they were as popular as they were at the time Ballantine published them, because it means there are many used copies still around for readers to enjoy.

Thanks!

I've seen a few in the wild. Not in the best of shape...but decent.

I discovered many of these paperback editions at my local library when I was young, and I'm glad I did.

Thanks! The Ballantine series contains a very eclectic mix of books, which can be a nice change of pace from the relative sameness of a lot of modern fantasy. Some of the older works can be a bit of an acquired taste, but they're still an interesting reading experience (if not always one you'll want to repeat).

Thanks, and I agree!

Thanks! My hope is to encourage more people to explore these books and others that deserve more attention these days.

Thanks and welcome aboard! I have many more videos planned that I hope you enjoy.

I've never read any of the Mr. Moto stories, despite reading about them. Is there a title you would recommend?

It's nice to see people still reading Rohmer, Biggers and Marquand. Have you tried any Talbot Mundy or P.C. Wren? I'm a fan of all of them, and at some point I plan to make videos about their works in an effort to encourage modern readers to embrace their place in literary history despite the insensitive elements they can contain.

I suggest starting with the third novel in the series: Think Fast, Mr. Moto. Note, though, that Mr. Moto isn't the central character in the books bearing his name. The stories tend to focus on other characters who find themselves in difficult situations full of political intrigue, while Mr. Moto appears only occasionally throughout the stories to play instrumental roles. I mention this in order to help you set expectations.

Thanks! I hope to film my Dunsany video later today. I'll be recording audiobook versions of some of his stories as well to accompany the video.

You're right. Burroughs was one of the few exceptions who remained in print, due to the popularity of the Tarzan character and the helpful fact that Burroughs owned his own publishing company.

Thanks for sharing! I discovered the series in my school and public libraries around the same time you did. Good luck in your quest to find them all. A few are pretty scarce, which can drive up their prices to levels that seem absurd for books that were produced to be essentially disposable.

Thanks, Jared! There are some books in the series I want to find time to read as well.

Awesome, thank you!

Excellent choice! Evangeline Walton's books are great reads. I bought all of them when they came out, and still have three of them - I lent 'Prince of Annwn' to someone and never got it back

Thank you for your very kind comment! I hope you settle into your new environment soon.

@the library ladder appreciate it, so far I'm settlin in good so far

I'm so happy to have been recommended! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks!

Thanks! I'm very glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks! The Broken Sword is a very good read, although it might feel a little light in comparison to the massive tomes fantasy authors tend to write these days. There's only so much worldbuilding an author can squeeze into a 200-page mass market paperback.

@@thelibraryladder An interesting note about that book--Poul Anderson significantly revised it for the BAFS printing, modernizing the language and changing a few secondary plot elements. For a long time that was the only version of the book widely available. Most people prefer the original version, though, and to the best of my knowledge, that's what's been in print since the Gollancz fantasy series revived it.

I completely agree!

Thanks! Piecing it together has been a labor of love for more than 40 years.

Thanks and welcome aboard!

Thanks! I'm so glad you found it entertaining and informative.

@@thelibraryladder I read a descent amount of fantasy, including the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and Tolkien (the hobbit and the trilogy) when i was a pre-teen/teen (before the films) and as an adult I read several of Tolkien's other works. I always wondered who came before Tolkien and it was cool to finally get the information in such a well put together presentation.

Thanks and welcome aboard!

Thanks, and welcome aboard!

Thanks! That fire/cocoa/book combination sounds great!

Fortunate you! Those are hard to find at reasonable prices these days.

​@@thelibraryladderIt took YEARS of patiently watching ebay. Xiccarph was actually the hardest for some reason.

I was discovering them a little more than ten years later in my school and public libraries. I loved exploring the paperback racks. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! You’re very fortunate. It’s getting difficult to piece together a complete set of the BAFs. They’re both readable and collectible.

I am too! Thanks for watching.

Walton's adaptation is remarkably good. So much more engaging than the two direct translations of The Mabinogion that I've read. Thanks for watching and commenting!

Thanks! Pern and Del Rey go hand in hand in my mind, along with the original Star Wars novelization and The Sword of Shannara. They were my first introductions to Del Rey back in the late 1970s. Whenever I see the Del Rey logo, it immediately triggers flashbacks to those books. I might do a video about Del Rey, but I have a few more influential publishers I want to cover first. I definitely plan to do a retrospective of Anne McCaffrey's works.

Thanks, Liam! It was such a shame that Unknown only lasted a few years before wartime rationing during WWII brought it to an end. One can only imagine whether the fantasy genre might have evolved differently with John W. Campbell at the helm.

@@thelibraryladder I love that it had early Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, I have the issue of their first appearance but the quality of my copy is rather poor.

I'm a stickler for condition, which makes it tough to find the older books and magazines I want at a reasonable price.

Thanks for sharing! So many of the BAF covers are really stunning, reflecting aspects of the counter-culture movement of that era.

Thanks, Josh! I'm pretty picky about book condition. Creased spines are significant sticking point for me, but for some of the scarcer titles, I'm more willing to accept some of those flaws (e.g., my copy of Clark Ashton Smith's Xiccarph has a terribly creased and rolled spine, but it's hard to find any copies of it for less than $30-40 in reasonable condition, so I was happy to find that one for about $5 as part of a bulk lot of five Ballantine paperbacks). When buying books in bulk lots (as I often do) to get the best price, the quality tends to be more varied. I've been known to buy multiple bulk lots just to accumulate duplicate copies of a set of books, and then sort through them to select the best ones to keep and sell off the rest.

@@thelibraryladder that's a good strategy with book lots. I find the spines the most important part for me as well, as that's what you see when it's sitting on the shelf!

Thanks, Chas! Gormenghast is in my queue of videos I plan to make, although I'm unlikely to get to it before next year.

@@thelibraryladder I’m very much looking forward to that, but you’ve got a bunch of upcoming content you mentioned that I’m interested in.

I've enjoyed exploring Bauman's collection over the years.

@@thelibraryladder BRB made some very nice collections possible.

@@thelibraryladder I enjoyed working with them. Certiainly high end book collectors are interesting peeps. Plus I got the connections to put together an entire run of Firsts from Edna St. Vincent Millay

Thanks! That's the focus of my channel -- spotlighting classic books and authors that are overlooked on BookTube and might be at risk of being forgotten. I have several books in the Newcastle series. I considered including the series as part of this video, but when I realized how long the video would be, I decided to cover Newcastle at a later date. I'm a fan of Chesterton as well. I intend to make a video about him, but probably not for a couple years, given how long my list of planned videos is. You might be interested to know that my next video is a look at the fantasy works of Lord Dunsany.

Thank you kindly!

Thanks! I'm so glad to have been of service in helping you remember a book. You're the third person in three days to tell me that!

Thanks for sharing! Lee had a very distinctive voice as a writer. Her Tales from the Flat Earth reminds me of a mashup of Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock and Angela Carter.