tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post8832374934446890561..comments2023-10-21T23:57:46.155-04:00Comments on Wheat Among Tares: Magical Seriesterrihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12399706958844399216noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-54588424900835903942010-04-19T19:30:40.196-04:002010-04-19T19:30:40.196-04:00Lewis's Sci-fi series is more powerful, but al...Lewis's Sci-fi series is more powerful, but also has that older feel to it. George MacDonald's and William Morris's fantasies were more of an influence on him, and those are even more fully in the wordy, late-Victorian mode. He also mentioned E Nesbitt's (Five Children and It) and Edward Eager's (Half Magic) fantasies, which I also loved. But Lewis and Tolkien were pretty much making up the genre as they went along. The style does seem stilted now, as even The Hobbit does, and I imagine that sense will increase as the years pass. The Narnia books read well out loud, however. I also wonder how much the stilted illustrations influence the perceived tone.<br /><br />My wife is a children's librarian and fantasy addict, and would recommend Madeline L'Engle's series - an offbeat Christianity - Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series, the Dragonsong Series, Brian Jacques Redwall Series, and the Lloyd Alexander Prydain series. The half of that list I have read I would concur with. Susan Cooper and Alan Garner have darker fantasies, if you like that, though Cooper's don't improve as the series progresses.<br /><br />That's a long list, I know. Unfortunately, we could go on much longer. There's a lot out there now, much of it crap, but much that is excellent.<br /><br />Regarding Rowling, her books are also in the older English tradition of "school stories," which never caught on in the US that well.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33818852.post-57721421381616748242010-04-19T14:20:03.363-04:002010-04-19T14:20:03.363-04:00Somewhere in there, I'd like you to squeeze in...Somewhere in there, I'd like you to squeeze in the Tripods trilogy by John Christopher. I checked the first book, "The White Mountains", out of the library in the thoughts of having the Rationalist read it and decided to read it again this past weekend. When I was his age, it was the first real sci-fi series I read, and I was enthralled by it, and I was curious how I would feel about it now.<br /><br />The series was written in the late 60s/early 70s, and as I read it, I was struck by the writing style and how different it was from what I am more used to nowadays. It felt stiff and a bit stilted, though the story is still good.DHnoreply@blogger.com