[LMB] OT: Seminal SF/fantasy

[ANDREW BARTON]

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:19:45 -0400
From: Elizabeth McCoy <arcangel at io.com>

  > Tanith Lee seems like someone to get a mention -- perhaps on the 
"anti-hero
in fantasy" side of things? I recall a book that was essentially all 
about 
a demon lord and the many ill things that happened to the mortals he 
got
mixed up with. Fantasy-horror-romance, perhaps. <
   
  Night's Master, published 1978.  In that book her demons are truly demonic, but in the various follow-ups they start shading towards being the good guys and the stories lose focus.  Her resolution of the feud between the Masters of Night and Delusion is particularly weak.
   
  Lee will be a GoH at the 2008 Eastercon in Britain, but I suspect that her fellow GoH Neil Gaiman will draw more attention.
   
  An earlier and better candidate seminal work for anti-hero fantasy is Michael Moorcock's Elric series.  He first appeared in print in Michael Moorcock’s novelette, "The Dreaming City" (Science Fantasy #47 June 1961) - I still have my copy somewhere.
   
  Andrew