Artifacts of Interest: Books

Books that were just around, alternate covers of books that I already have, oddities that I found later. All have left an impression on my memory, but are neither in the Archives nor exactly in the Shadow Library.

To Your Scattered Authors Go: The Shadow Library Re-Organized

 

The Atlas of the Land … Karen Wynn Fonstad

Lord Foul’s Bane; The Illearth War; The Power That Preserves, The Wounded Land, The One Tree, White Gold Wielder … Steven R Donaldson*

Daughter of Regals and other tales … Stephen R. Donaldson

Gildenfire … Stephen R. Donaldson

The Mirror of Her Dreams … Stephen R. Donaldson

A Man Rides Through … Stephen R. Donaldson                  

Fatal Revenant … Stephen R. Donaldson

Against All Things Ending … Stephen R. Donaldson    

The Runes of the Earth … Stephen R. Donaldson

[The Last Dark … Stephen R. Donaldson]

The Bishop’s Heir; The King’s Justice; The Quest for St. Camber; King Kelson’s Bride; Deryni Magic … Katherine Kurtz

The Harrowing of Gwynedd; King Javan’s Year; The Bastard Prince … Katherine Kurtz

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Vols. I, II, and III; Mixed Magics; Eight Days of Luke; Archer’s Goon, Enchanted Glass; Earwig and the Witch; Hexwood … Diana Wynne Jones

The Dalemark Quartet … Diana Wynne Jones

A Wizard of Earthsea*; The Tombs of Atuan*; The Farthest Shore*; Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings … Ursula K. Leguin

The Translator … John Crowley

Novelty: Four Stories … John Crowley*

Four Freedoms … John Crowley

Beasts … John Crowley*

The Folk of the Air … Peter S. Beagle

I See by My Outfit … Peter S. Beagle

The Fires of Windameir … Neil Hancock*

Riddle of Stars … Patricia A. McKillip*

The Wicked Day … Mary Stewart

Time Cat … Lloyd Alexander

Encyclopedia Cthulhiana … Daniel Harms

Secrets of The Wee Free Men and Discworld … Carrie Pyykkonen & Linda Washington

These are all books by good writers whom I admire, or about their creations, of which I do not feel I need to keep copies. Some, whose work I enjoyed, just lost my interest. Take Donaldson, for instance. While I enjoyed the first Thomas Covenant trilogy a good deal, and the second less so, the third batch seemed dedicated to unweaving the triumphs of the first books simply for the reason of continuing the series; it devalued the previous work for me. I lost interest and never even bought the final volume, The Last Dark. Kurtz seemed to me to lose some of her zest and became just like an endless D&D campaign; there is a whole other Deryni trilogy, The Childe Morgan Trilogy, that I never bothered to seek out. Some books are simply spare copies I can do without.