You wonder if anyone still reads these once well-known fantasy books.

[Extollager]

Does anyone still read John Gardner's Grendel and T. H. White's The Once and Future King?

These two might have become relatively obscure (if they have) because they are revisionist treatments of Beowulf and Thomas Malory's Morte, works that (I suspect) are less often read than formerly.

What are other fantasy books that seem to have fallen out of view or nearly so? Obviously we are dealing here with impressions since hard data are probably not available.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I tried reading Grendel, a long time ago, didn't get far, and never went back again.

On the other hand, I've read The Once and Future King a number of times over the years. (And also, the original versions of the various parts before White revised them and compiled them.) Recently I've been thinking about reading it again, except I keep putting it off for some special occasion. Maybe one of these days I'll just go ahead and read it, special occasion or not.

 

[hitmouse]

TH White is certainly still read, but I don’t know by whom. Maybe English lit classes, and given to by parents who think their children should read the classics ( I think I was one of those.) The 2014 bestseller H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald is significantly about White and may have boosted interest.

As far as other fantasy novels go,
I think that the works of James Branch Cabell and ER Eddison are more deservedly becoming obscure.

George MaDonald persists: probably a minority interest, but perfectly accessible.

 

[Pyan]

On the other hand, I've read The Once and Future King a number of times over the years...

Snap. Many times.
Put onto it by the Disney film, then read the most accessible first book ( The Sword in the Stone), and gradually continued through The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight and The Candle in the Wind, getting darker and darker. Great book.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Actually, the original version of The Queen of Air and Darkness was The Witch in the Wood. I think it did a much better job of setting everything up for the final tragedy.

 

[ablackenedrose]

What are other fantasy books that seem to have fallen out of view or nearly so?

The various Pern novels seem to have gone that way, though I'm no expert (I didn't read them until well after their heyday). For the series that more or less codified and popularized the concept of dragon riders, you don't hear them talked about much anymore in most fantasy spaces.

Doesn't help that they dropped off a cliff in terms of quality, especially once Todd got involved in the writing process.

 

[Pyan]

Actually, the original version of The Queen of Air and Darkness was The Witch in the Wood. I think it did a much better job of setting everything up for the final tragedy.

Hmm. Doesn't seem to be in print. The cheapest copy I can find (on Ebay) is £60 ( $78).

 

[BAYLOR]

Jurgen A Comedy of Justice by James Branch Cabel From ive read,It was for a time banned in both Boston and New York . At one point this book pretty widely known and read. It's all but forgotten as are the 49 other Fantasy novels he wrote . He was master of Ironic humor and pessimist but, a very funny pessimist. In some ways he kind of reminds me of Terry Pratchett .

 

[Pyan]

Doesn't help that they dropped off a cliff in terms of quality, especially once Todd got involved in the writing process.

Oh, they started dropping off before then. I could never understand why she started retconning Master Harper Robinton into every major event that occurred.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Hmm. Doesn't seem to be in print. The cheapest copy I can find (on Ebay) is £60 ( $78).

Try a public library? That's where I found the copy I read.

 

[Extollager]

Are those Shannara books read any more?

The Stephen Donaldson books?

The de Camp & Pratt stories about Harold Shea? I would expect a lot of readers today would have little idea of what was going on since they allude to The Faerie Queene and so on, which I suspect even English majors don't read any more. (I enjoyed the FQ very much, though I came to it mostly on my own after leaving college.)

 

[nixie]

My brother still reads The Shannara books and I often see them in book shops. Brooks was his intro to fantasy, mine was Feist. He still buys any new books by him, like I do with Feist.
Donaldson's book are sill sold in bookshops and probably still widely read.

 

[Peppa]

Does anyone still read John Gardner's Grendel and T. H. White's The Once and Future King?

These two might have become relatively obscure (if they have) because they are revisionist treatments of Beowulf and Thomas Malory's Morte, works that (I suspect) are less often read than formerly.

What are other fantasy books that seem to have fallen out of view or nearly so? Obviously we are dealing here with impressions since hard data are probably not available.

I read T. H. White's book The Once and Future King when I was 12 or 13. I reread it later when I was older (19 or so) and liked it even more.
I like Mary Stewart's books a lot better, though.

My brother still reads The Shannara books and I often see them in book shops. Brooks was his intro to fantasy, mine was Feist. He still buys any new books by him, like I do with Feist.
Donaldson's book are sill sold in bookshops and probably still widely read.

I've read one or two of the Shannara books, but not the others. I can't remember exactly why I stopped reading the series. Maybe I was interested in other books at the time.
However, the Shannara books seem to be quite famous and many people praise them.

 

[Toby Frost]

I suspect there's quite a lot of long sub-Lord of the Rings epic stuff from the 80s or so that isn't read as much these days: Feist, Goodkind, Eddings, the Dragonlance books etc - although I'm sure they are still read. Tastes have moved on a bit. Modern fantasy seems to be less interested in closely imitating Tolkien, which to my mind helps the genre and doesn't hurt Tolkien (even though I don't feel the wish to read a lot of it).

I've never even heard of Grendel, but like a lot of others I enjoyed The Once And Future King. I don't like it as much as the Steinbeck Acts of King Arthur, but it's a very different approach. I think it must have had a subliminal effect on me, or at least the bit with the dictatorship of ants, which crops up in Space Captain Smith!

 

[Extollager]

I like Mary Stewart's books a lot better, though.

I should have mentioned The Crystal Cave. Is anyone still reading that?

Note that with all these books I'm mentioning, I'm not insinuating that, if they are not much read now, it's because they are bad. Someone once said that a book may be undeservedly forgotten but no book is undeservedly remembered. (I'm not sure that's true, but as a rule of thumb it might be right.)

 

[JunkMonkey]

there are a couple of those Mary Stewarts in my TBreR pile. Read many years ago and remembered fondly.

 

[Montero]

Not re-read The Crystal Cave in at least ten years but have re-read a number of times. Must pick it up again. Did a Mary Stewart 50s/60s romance thrillers re-read about three years ago. All stood up very well. Airs Above the Ground and so on.

 

[BAYLOR]

I should have mentioned The Crystal Cave. Is anyone still reading that?

Note that with all these books I'm mentioning, I'm not insinuating that, if they are not much read now, it's because they are bad. Someone once said that a book may be undeservedly forgotten but no book is undeservedly remembered. (I'm not sure that's true, but as a rule of thumb it might be right.)

Read Stewart , superb .

Recommend Sword At Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliffe

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro recommend that one every highly also The Dragon Lord by David Drake

 

[Swank]

My friends in high school were gaga for Piers Anthony. Never hear about him here.

 

[Elentarri]

I read John Gardner's Grendel beginning of this year. I had never come across it before. I'm not really a fan of King Arthur retellings (at least not after slogging through MZB's Mists of Avalon when a teenager), so Once and Future King is not something I'm inclined to pick up.

I've read David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Donaldson, McCaffrey and Raymond E. Feist novels as a teenager, but the never-ending-series syndrome kicked in and I simply gave up due to lack of time and inclination and well - lack of freshness/originality with the series. The authors' tend to recycle ideas etc and everything becomes stale. Raymond E. Feist's standalone novel Faerie Tale I found rather enjoyable and original (at the time - haven't re-read it in decades - don't know if it will stand up to me growing up).

To be honest, I re-read Tolkien novels (including the History of Middle Earth) regularly, but the Eddings, Brooks, and Feist, not so much. Donaldson's novels are tedious and not something I'm inclined to waste my precious time on again.

I see some of those old never ending series in the book shop. Presumably if the publisher is still publishing them, and the book shop is still selling them, someone is buying, and presumably reading them too? Then also, the new books get put on the shelf and the old books you have to look for - assuming you know they exist in the first place? In addition, if someone makes a movie/series out of the old books, those books will get resurrected and sought after. So, maybe it comes down to: do the younger folks know that the old books exist?

Sorry - too much rambling.​