I’m 61 and this brought back so many memories of my own! I worked in bookselling until 1987 when I became a librarian. I just got a lot of these on Kindle because my physical collection has outgrown my house!

I was born in 95, but I enjoy finding and reading old fantasy books from the 30's to 90's. They have a certain charm and polish to them that a lot of modern fantasy series lack. Reading the Belgariad earlier this year helped lift me out of a depression.

I’ve officially run out of complimentary adjectives, Steve. All of your videos are amazing and this one is no exception. I was the inverse of you, I started as a fantasy reader and then moved into SF (and thanks to your knowledge and erudite presentation I continue to learn at the feet of the master). I can wholeheartedly second your recommendations in this video. They are all great books and I will bang the drum for Stephen Donaldson & Thomas Covenant all day long. It’s a shame that those books aren’t as widely read these days. Thank you, Steve. Cheers!

I love that Hawkwind shirt! I recall considering myself exclusively an SF fan outside of REH until I found Elric and Hawkmoon and Corum, and I found I had abundant reader affection to share with that kind of fantasy. Great talk on Fantasy from that formative time.

Have and have read some of the four . I must say i prefer Donaldson Mordant's Need . Along with his short story collections( a bit of a clenser after TC) .I also read lots of Tanth Lee and Cherryh . Almost fell down too deep into the Piers Anthony Xanth et al rabbit hole ( i will so no more ) . Now fantasy have become so " cookie cutter like " ( 🤔 what the hell do i mean ?) .I feel a sense of tiredness , trying to read, and they go on and on . ( My bias informed opinion ) Thanks for the video awaiting more . Mayhaps some of the less know or remembered .

In the 70's, I was heavily into fantasy--but I can measure my disillusion in the genre by the books still on my shelf... I read Tolkien many times by 1979, Evangeline Walton, TH White, Earthsea, Anne McCaffery, Leiber, Andre Norton, and so on were staples in my paperback collection. Piers Anthony was a favorite--read the first 4 or 5 Xanth books before I tired of it (still hung on to his SF works for a few years later). I read Terry Brooks when he came out--made it about halfway through the second book, no more. I read Strata and the Colour of Magic when they came out, never made it to the second Discworld book. I made it through Thomas Covenant's 2 trilogies--later on I forced my way through the third series. Other than Holdstock, Glen Cook, and a few others, I didn't get back to fantasy until I read Ice and Fire from Martin, The First Law from Abercrombie, and now I'm slogging through the endless pages of Wheel of Time. I might quit that before too long-I'm on the 5th book, so I might be committed. The crossovers from Zelazny, Harry Harrison, P.J.Farmer, Bulmer, Wolfe, Niven and so on are still great, but there are too many derivative fantasy books upon whom I will not waste my time. I'd much rather break open another Bernard Cornwell or Joseph Conrad book.

Eddings and Gemmell were my goto's as a teenager. Absolutely loved those Eddings books. Never got Tolkien, could not be doing with the wackiness and humour of Pratchet. Weirdly I did enjoy rhe Xanth books. Loved Gormenghast. Currently on a reread of Titus Groan and loving it. Great vid. Thanks for the memories! Cheers.

I'm not really a fantasy reader at all. I get fed up with quests, swords and elves. I did read LotR when it was almost compulsory to read it. I loved parts of it. I was completely freaked out by the Dark Riders and thought the return to the Shire at the end really captured what soldiers must have felt returning to Britain, but I was never convinced by the battle scenes, and the endless bit featuring Treebeard, I would have gladly given the hobbits a chain saw! I did try to read some Donaldson but hated his style of writing. I remember a drinking game among fans where you had to take a shot of something every time the word "clench" came up. Few remained sober for the first 20 pages. I read bits of Pratchett, but I'm not good with humour books. I tend to get what the author is doing in the beginning and get bored with the style quite quickly. Not just TP but most humourists. I even find P G Wodehouse repetitive.

"Closer to Gandalf than Elric", you say. That's because you are like a wise sage, sharing your knowledge. This video brought back memories of growing up in the 1980's when i noticed that fantasy novels started to get a larger following and dominate bookshelves. I was daunted by the length of the Thomas Covenant novels to attempt to read them. Damiano is in a triptych. I still have my Bantam Spectra paperback copy of A Trio for Lute, which contains Damiano, Damiano's Lute and Raphael. It has great artwork on the cover. The artwork is what grabbed my attention when i purchased it as a fifteen year old. I must re-read it. I recall in the 1980's R.A. Macavoy was a prolific writer, whose work was widely available. I don't think her work is in print anymore. I just opened my copy of A Trio for Lute, and R.A. Macavoy states that the character Damiano was based on musician Pierre Bensusan. Curiously, there is a quote in the novel from a poem by Ezra Pound, who had fascist leanings. Another Bantam Spectra paperback I recall reading in the 1980's was a fantasy based on Celtic myths , Riders of the Sidhe, by Kenneth C Flint, which i recall i really enjoyed. Unfortunately i no longer have my copy. It was part of a trilogy, but i could not find the other novels in bookshops. I voraciously read Raymond Feist's Riftwar series, on their release in the 1980's. It was the artwork on the covers that lured me. I reread them in the late 1990's and i did not the books as compelling than when i was an adolescent. I found the dialogue a bit trite and the prose not very compelling. I preferred the books he wrote with Jenny Wirt. I recall that the prose was more compelling, the characters were better described and well rounded and captivating plots.

❤❤❤ Thomas Covenant, I had a lovely set of those in my teens, sold em for pennies. I have now replaced them, and mordants need which I think I preferred. Eddings, had those books in my teens, and the following series. Sold em for beans. 😢 Pratchett, had the first 4 dw books back then, just pb, still have em! Faded now. Feist, had those too, flogged em for beer money. Have replaced 1 and 3 now, still missing Silverthorn. The collab with Janny Wurts, set on the other side of the rift, was good, better arguably. V nostalgic video!

I've been a fan of David Eddings since the mid '80's starting with that Corgi edition of Pawn of Prophecy - which, even though it *is* in a bit of a state, I still have on my shelf. I think his work still holds up well even today.

Ah yes, the 80s... I started working in late 83 and would go to London each month to spend a chunk of my wages on books and LPs (mostly LPs, I have to say). I'd start, usually, on Oxford Street, dropping in at HMV & Virgin (and Simon's and Our Price, too), then make my way to Charing Cross Road. So many book shops back then! It really was something of a boom time. And, of course, being pre-internet, pre-Amazon, it was exciting to discover books I didn't know existed. Good times!

Marvellous video. I still have all those books on bookshelf even though they are now 30-40 years ago. This is a problem with so-called "fantasy book tubers" on KZfaq, it is like all these great books don’t exist. If it wasn’t published in the last 10 years they don’t want to know. On the Terry Pratchett thing, you would be lynched by the Facebook groups, I joined them as I liked his early works but I had to leave, they are fanatics, it is like, Terry wouldn’t like this, Terry would agree with this, I was like, I just like his books (early ones), he wasn’t writing a bible that I followed and lived my life around, but some of them on there do.

Kirby covers only! They are a huge part of Discworld to me.

Forgive the multiple comments as I respond to different sectjons of this great vid. I made several attempts on Discworld but rarely cracked a smile. His Good Omens collaboration is the only work I really enjoyed. For humorous fantasy, can't go past Barry Hughart's "Bridge of Birds", Harvard Lampoon's "Bored of the Rings" and Seamus Cullen's smutty "Astra & Flondrix"

Terry Pratchett was so good writer. I think his more mature books are better, my favorite is Night Watch.

'A Warm Glow is a Rare Thing in Life' - Stephen E. Andrews That should be printed on a tee

Utterly marvelous. I graduated from uni in this period, and found myself with time to read rather than STUDY. In Australia we inherited the UK's publishing trends at the time. Eddings/Hubbard/Zindell, et al.

What a great summery especially those who are new to SF. I liked your thoughts on nostalgia - I recently bought some Phantom comics which I collected 20 years ago to buy and start a new collection for nostalgia. From that single book shop visit I saw my first vintage SF novels and the striking cover artwork and was hooked. x3 book hauls later and now discovering all that is vintage SF and a 'new nostalgia' to learn about and discover for myself. My first novel ever and just finished is a excellent example of the first edition -Exiles to Glory : Pournelle, Jerry

Another fabulous video. Your statement on nostalgia in particular resonated with me. I've been sitting on a copy of the first half of Magician for about a year now, and I think this will finally prompt me to read it. Given your Silverberg appreciation, I was slightly surprised to not see Lord Valentine's Castle make the cut here, but I guess as Science Fantasy it's a bit of an outlier (also nowhere near the same class of sales I'm sure).

27:40 You would think.... meeting all your Fans would be at the top of the list.... for every one making such great works(the books) The fans spend their money and collect their favorite books.

it's great that you remember instances in your life up to the month and year. I can't even remember what I had for lunch last week.

I'd imagine 80% of all sold Donaldson books are untouched, certainly from vol 2 onwards :D

Some great book there... that's the first time I've seen those particular Belgariad covers. Did you ever get into the Chronicles of Amber? They were among my favorites back in the 80's.

Very enjoyable, Steve!

A very intriguing dissertation on the Sword & Sorcery/High Fantasy phenom, Stephen. Really opened my eyes about a sub-genre I never warmed up to, but wanted to understand. Thanks much for your insights on the matter. Cheers.

Very enjoyable Steve. Totally with you on Pratchett as a person, sure we've talked about him. It's made me want to try the Donaldson's again. Aren't those original jackets lovely compared to the awful ones today🙂

I was given the PB omnibus edition of LOTR for Xmas just before my 12th birthday but swapped it out for the Unwin three volume slipcase version as the omnibus omitted the appendices.

I read all of these when they were first released and I still re-read them all now and again. Wonderful video ^_^ Many people seem to be unaware that David Eddings wrote his books in partnership with his wife Leigh. Even in the later books which adhered to the formula I feel that they still managed to maintain a freshness and some delightful touches of irony and humour to the end.

I read a lot of Pratchett's Discworld books as a teenager in the 90s, but I stopped after Hogfather and haven't read any since. I still feel nostalgia for the Kirby covers though, and I've noticed that when they show up second-hand they get snapped up quickly.

A great memory Lane tour, for sure. I remember the fantasy explosion at bookstores when they were suddenly one of the standing table displays. . . for. . . a LONG time. 1977, and the animated Hobbit movie had been released, and produced a number of tie ins in a way that hadn't been seen like that before. And the same display would have the newly-released hardcover of "The Sword of Shannara." I understand why you mentioned the ones you did, and left some others out, but the other big Tolkien cash in release from that year you didn't mention at all, & I wonder if the "Circle of Light" books sold in the UK the way they did here. They were a staple of the fantasy section of book stores for over 10 years (even if very few people ever read them, every bookstore kept them on the shelves.) And this was the time period that Earthsea got its re-release, and iconic covers. And don't forget how Piers Anthony pioneered the tongue-in-cheek somewhat anachronistic fantasy for-profit Starting in 1977 with the first Xanth novel "A Spell for Chameleon" which sold really well for at *least* 25 years. It was really a pivotal time for fantasy books. This was also during the re-release and increased attention on Conan and Tarzan and John Carter. The SF section of most bookstores seemed to double overnight: how could it not with all of the fantasy cash-in and Star wars cash in?

Love the Hawkwind t-shirt. Moorcock all the way!

I try so very, very hard to get into fantasy. No dice. I'm a science fiction guy. I'll do my best to make it through this video.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I too worked in bookstores when I was young, from 1981-88. But I worked around the Cleveland OH area. P.S. Your cover art is all wrong! (Ha-ha)

I've never read Lord of the Rings, and honestly I think I'll go to my grave not having read it.. it is what it is...

I've always considered the difference between sword & sorcery, and high fantasy is that high fantasy goes on for far too long! 😉 I think they call it the new weird in a vague attempt to get young people who wouldn't touch the old stuff with a barge pole, to give them a chance. The Donaldson books were the Marmite of the book market, in that readers either loved them, or hated them. I fell into the latter group, but I haven't tried them since they were first published. The Eddings books came out around the same time as I decided I was really bored with high fantasy. I remember having a long phone conversation with Terry Pratchett, when he told me that he'd just turned in the latest Discworld book (the 8th, I think),and he was done with that series. He wanted to do something else now. I'd have loved to have seen what he might have done, had he not been so successful he felt he had to keep the Discworld going. I liked them a lot for a while, but eventually lost interest... Long before the series ended. I have the US 1st edition of The Colour of Magic, which isn't the proper UK first, but might be worth a Bob, or two. I also have the Cup and Sourcery promo set, which was a cardboard box made to look like the luggage, containing a paperback of Sourcery, and a limited edition mug. I've never come across one of these online. I heard that maybe 200 were made, but there was some sort of mishap, and all bar around 40 were badly damaged. I wonder what sort of money that will fetch when I decide to sell it?

I was hugely disappointed by both Brooks and Donaldson when I tried to read them. Previously I had read the same range of fantasy as you…. and now I’m wearing the same yellow watch as your Casio…..”bet I bought mine first! …(new) weird! Your producing so many videos that I’m struggling to keep up. I think I was quite snobby about the 1980s fantasy, I was busy with all the Picador and Virago stuff, and people like Fowles. Then Robert Holdstock, Tanith Lee and Storm Constantine into the nineties. Pratchett was not for me, although I did like the Watch, Vimes. The golden age of watches? The “yoofs” don’t wear ‘em no more. Sigh… apart from my younger daughter who wears several old ones that don’t work. Thanks as ever for my favourite KZfaq channel.

I also don’t see the challenge separating fantasy from sci-fi unless you’re looking at specific authors that do some mixing like Gene Wolfe. I have only read one sci-fi Poul Anderson book as a kid but I liked it-I am putting the one you spotlit on my reading list. I have been going back and exploring more fantasy and sci-fi from my childhood days that I passed on back then. That Thomas Covenant edition looks great. I grew up in the 80s with the Darrell Sweet covers published by Ballantine. They’re still my favorite covers and most everything I have seen since then has been pretty generic. Currently reading Gormenghast. I bought my daughter the recent Overlook Press illustrated hardcover edition (and a Kindle edition for myself when it was on sale for a buck). I tried a Pratchett book and didn’t last a chapter. It may be brilliantly witty and clever but I just don’t much like the silliness and style.

Really enjoyed donaldsons first trilogy second was okish. Liked his sf gap series read it as it came out long time ago so don’t know if it stands up on a reread . Moorcock Elric corum and dancer’s brilliant enjoyed all I’ve read by him picked up knight of swords again recently grabs you from the opening words . Much better than Tolkien for my money .

I’ve got the same paperbacks of belgariad somewhere in the loft along with pratchett, Gemmell, Brooks and feist among many others. Might be my age (54) but modern fantasy just isn’t the same as the earlier ones 😕

Your long videos are superb

Oh i didnt know that about terry pratchett ...I love his books. Sad that maybe he didnt have the best attitude

More Max Bygraves!

Austin Tappan Wright "Islandia"

This is an era of fantasy writing that I am still exploring, as I was just a toddler at that age and I grew up with the big Tolkien copycats. I read Feist and Donaldson. I wonder if Eddings is still worth reading if you're nearly 40. Should I still give that a try? And Gemmell is one I want to be familiar with.

"Sword and sorcery and high fantasy are nearly indistinguishable..." What!? They are very different. And I say this as someone who, like you, only occasionally reads fantasy. Sword and sorcery is stuff like Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber and Karl Edward Wagner. Gritty, smaller scale, mainly humans. High fantasy is Tolkien, Terry Brooks and most of Dungeons and Dragons. Humans, elves and dwarfs banding together to stop the evil overlord's plans for world domination. I prefer S&S. High fantasy gets repetitive and tiresome.

My first (long) comment has disappeared, possibly due to me adding a link to LIbrarything where you can find a whole lot of SIlverthorn covers including the one with the swords.

* quietly subscribes * I still have an older copy of Silverthorn! It's the U.S. artwork though, apologies.

An interesting video, Steve. Like you, I'm really an SF reader, and have little time for fantasy, some Jack Vance, particularly the Cugel tales, Peake of course, Tolkien no, its badly and tediously written. Eddings and Feist, I tried, but found them dreadful. Pratchett, basically the Wodehouse of fantasy, writing the same thing over and over again, with small variations. The Donaldson trilogy I enjoyed. I read them in US proof copies for Fontana and recommended that they publish them because they'd be big. Incidentally, Chris Evans (not the writer) and Colin Murry were the editors at Fontana, nice guys. Chris is now dead, Colin became a writer of crime novels and is partnered with Lisa Tuttle.

Recently found out Charles Platt has a 4 volume autobiography called An Accidental Life from a couple of years ago, have you dug into that?

I just turned 60 too. Another old nostalgic. Am I prejudiced or is it true that Fantasy in the 80s was a lot more interesting?

Thomas Covenant appalled me as I couldn't like a rapist, couldn't understand how the plot was forwarded and/or the character improved by such. Loved Mordant's Need and The Belgariad, the later Terry Pratchett books including Wee Free Men, preferred the Empire Trilogy to the rest of the Riftwar Saga, loved The Riddle of Stars and The Faded sun trilogies most.

When I first started reading Discworld (god, in Primary School!) there were some of the books in the series that I devoured in a couple of sittings, and some that I struggled with to the degree that I only ever finished them decades later when I read them all in order in 2014. The quality was choppy, and I feel he did suffer in the later works with that curse of the big star writer...your publisher becomes frightened to edit you. The books got longer but not necessarily better! As to whether his style can't be copied as well as him? I'm not so sure on that.

@15:15 - is it important to read the entire 10-volume set or just the initial three, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever?

Did you ever read the Amber series by Zelazny?

What first editions are worth any $$, l have many,lol

I really didn't like the Thomas Covenant books. I may have gotten halfway through the second book. The main character was so dislikeable.

Looks like the dustjacket of the 1985 Granada Silverthorn hardcover is here: isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:SLVRTHRNFQ1985.jpg

sword & sorcery and high fantasy are very distinguishable even to such a laymen as myself :) do you mean this cover? s.s-bol.com/imgbase0/imagebase/large/FC/0/5/1/5/1001004002855150.jpg