2023 Bookpost
I read a lot this year, including quite a bit of fantasy. Below are mini-reviews of books related in some way to elfgame blogging, in the order I think of them.
E. R. Eddison: The Worm Ourobors -- exquisitely idiosyncratic. Maybe the most Nietzschean book I've read, all strength & beauty & mountain air, plus the glamorization of violence and free-spirited disregard for the lowly and humble. Lord Gro, ambiguously upholding his lonely value system elevates it (IMO) from 'Nietzschean in a facile way' to 'Nietzschean in a profound way'. If I run a 5e campaign again I will steal the main quest from this book.
Gene Wolfe: Book of The New Sun -- I've flippantly pitched it to friends as 'what if Umberto Eco wrote for Games Workshop'. I know I'm a phillistine for saying so, but I mainly enjoyed the 'sci-fi through dusty stained glass' worldbuilding and surface-level picaresque adventure. I can see the literary rationale for the sadism & sexual violence but it left a bitter taste in my mouth, and I find the 'deep' readings where every character is masquerading as another character to be tiring and claustrophobic. I'm glad I read it, I want to steal heaps of ideas from it, but I don't really want to reread it any time soon.
Jack Vance: The Dying Earth, Eyes of The Overworld, Cugel's Saga, Rhialto The Marvelous -- I was pleasantly surprised how imaginative and funny these were, and I loved the peculiar use of language and oddly-structured dialogue. I do think they 'Flanderized' somewhat, with the latter two feeling less coherent and more prone to cheap 'lol xP random'-type humor.
Michael Moorcock: Elric Saga vol. 1 -- Disappointment, the pacing was rushed, Elric is whiny and boring, the tone is overly self-serious, and Moorcock's general vibe seems mean-spirited. I will grant that there were some neat ideas and images, but none stayed with me very long.
Robert E. Howard: Kull, Exile of Atlantis -- Some fun bits, but very rough around the edges. I probably didn't need to read the whole collection. The best story was "By This Axe I Rule!" which did go pretty hard.
Ursula K. LeGuin: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu -- Overall these are excellent stories and I'm glad to have read them. If I ever have kids I'll definitely read some of these aloud. Atuan and Tehanu were my favorites, because by being less about capital-W Wizardry they afford fascinating glimpses into LeGuin's constructed world. From the standpoint of stealing bits and bobs for D&D, I was impressed and inspired by her anthropological skill at painting vivid cultures with sparse prose, and her attention to place, ritual, domesticity, and nature.
Ed Yong: An Immense World -- One of the best pop-science books I've read in a long time. For elfgame purposes the immense array of animal Umwelten described are a wellspring of monster ideas. What is it really like to be an Umber Hulk?
Clark Ashton Smith: Zothique -- Generally liked it but lost steam around 2/3ds of the way through. "Weaver in the Vault* was my favorite story.
Umberto Eco: Baudolino -- Great book, and as others have pointed out 'high weird fantasy'. It has fewer 'table-ready' tidbits than other books on this list, but it is a great injection of 'medieval mindset'.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -- ditto.
Shoutout to the Appendix N podcast for hosting some fun conversations about many of these books & introducing me to a few of them.