Midling Fantasy Series: The Shadow Library Re-Organized

 

A Voice for Princess; The Questing of Kedrigern; Kedrigern in Wanderland; Kedrigern and the Charming Couple; A Remembrance for Kedrigern … John Morressy

The Dark Tide; Shadows of Doom; The Darkest Day; Trek to Kraggen-Cor; The Brega Path … Dennis McKiernan

Another Fine Myth; Myth Adventures; Myth-ing Persons … Robert Lynn Asprin               

The Elfstones of Shannara; The Wishsong of Shannara; Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold! … Terry Brooks

The White Hart; The Golden Swan; The Black Beast; The Silver Sun; The Sable Moon … Nancy Springer

The River of the Dancing Gods; Demons of the Dancing Gods; Vengeance of the Dancing Gods; Songs of the Dancing Gods … Jack L. Chalker

The Lure of the Basilisk; The Seven Altars of DuSarra; The Sword of Bheleu; The Book of Silence; The Misenchanted Sword … Lawrence Watt-Evans

Dragons of Autumn Twilight; Dragons of Winter Night; Dragons of Spring Dawning … Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman

The Summer Tree; The Wandering Fire; The Darkest Road … Guy Gavriel Kay

Pawn of Prophecy; Queen of Sorcery; Magician’s Gambit; Castle of Wizardry; Enchanter’s End Game … David Eddings

The Exploits of Ebenezum … Craig Shaw Gardner

Spellsinger; The Hour of the Gate; The Day of the Dissonance; The Moment of the Magician; The Paths of the Perambulator; The Time of the Transference … Alan Dean Foster

The Sword and the Satchel; The Elves and the Otterskin; The Thrall and the Dragon’s Heart; The Wizard and the Warlord; The Troll’s Grindstone … Elizabeth Boyer

The Time of the Dark; The Walls of Air; The Armies of Daylight; The Silent Tower; The Silicon Mage… Barbara Hambly

• [Candace looks at a row of books on a table] 

Candace : Boring, dull, stupid, lame, heavy-handed and derivative.

Mom : Oh, thank you for those insightful reviews of books... you haven't read.

Candace : Mom, that's why books have covers - to judge them. I mean, why did you choose these books from the library?

Candace : They looked … interesting.

Candace : [gesturing]  So...

Mom : Point taken.   –- Phineas and Ferb

 

Man, back in the Eighties I wanted to be the Fantasy Guy, at least in the little circle of people I knew. I had already found my delight in established tales of magic and adventure; now I wanted to be in on the ground floor of any new works that might arise. Imaginative Literature was undergoing a surge in popularity and was even being granted some relevance. I scoured my places of resource and tried to decide where to spend my meager funds.

Sometimes the cover was a deciding factor. If it had art by the Brothers Hildebrandt or Darrell K. Sweet or even Carl Lundgren, that was a strike in its favor. If it was also a Del Rey book, that earned it strong consideration. And, of course, subject matter counted. If it had a wizard or a dragon or reasonable facsimiles thereof, you could bet I studied it before deciding to lay any dollars down.

But the reason I would continue a series could be most unreasonable. Often if I had a mildly engaging encounter with the first volume of a series, I would follow it with diminishing returns, hoping it would improve until I would finally abandon it. Sometimes the mild engagement would continue until I realized it wasn’t going anywhere or doing anything new anymore. Sometimes I hadn’t even read the first volume but kept buying in the fear that I would like the series and then be hopelessly behind. And then when I had them, decades passed when there seemed no reason to sell them.

As I have said elsewhere, there are good books here and there I wouldn’t mind still having. Some of the series I never completed: I know there are at least two more volumes in the Spellsinger series, and Watt-Evans’ The Misenchanted Sword is just the tip of a very big iceberg, and as for Dennis McKiernan …! Even so, I have no urge to complete the cycles. I don’t know how I ever managed to avoid “The Wheel of Time” series that started in the early Nineties and which I would almost certainly categorize here; it seems wearisome to me in so many ways. But then I have long ago given up my pretensions to be the Fantasy Guy and need not read anything that doesn’t really appeal to me, just to give an opinion. Robert Jordan’s books seem very popular and have made a lot of money and some people have dedicated decades of fandom to it; I leave it at that.