Books by Eric Rücker Eddison
“It’s incredibly high romantic fantasy, and it’s very strange. We’ve got people in pixie land and goblin land. We have people who are fundamentally extremely good, and then we have the enemy who are deeply unpleasant bad people, and we end with the good guys winning. But rather as Blake said of Milton, you get the feeling that Eddison is much more interested in what’s going on in the enemy court – the machinations! It’s historically accurate, as far as you can say that for a secondary world fantasy novel. There are political machinations: people will stab each other in the back, there’s an attractive young woman who is clearly sleeping around to get power and influence… And he’s really enjoying writing that – much more than he’s enjoying writing about the good king and his two brothers, who are these upstanding, noble, jolly good chaps you can imagine on the playing fields of Eton.” Read more...
Anna Smith Spark, Novelist
Interviews where books by Eric Rücker Eddison were recommended
The Best Grimdark Fantasy, recommended by Anna Smith Spark
Grimdark fantasy is cynical about the righteous and the good – but it brings fantasy into line with historical reality, says author Anna Smith Spark. She explores why we want to read about flawed people doing terrible things, and introduces her top five choices: stories that charge gleefully beyond the bounds of sanity, offer a shock treatment for anxiety, and above all provide an honest mirror to reality.
The best books on Fantasy’s Many Uses, recommended by Brian Attebery
Visionary storytelling, or fantasy, is part of our cultural DNA. Far from being simply fantastical or facile, we can use the fantasy realm as a testing ground for important ideas, argues Brian Attebery, a leading scholar of the genre. He talks us through five key works that demonstrate fantasy’s many uses, from 1922 through 2010.
