There are three birthdays today that I want to look at, one briefly, one not so briefly, and one at a bit more length. Continue reading
McComas, Laumer, and Carter
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Tag Archives: Lin Carter
Ruminations on William Morris
William Morris
William Morris (1834-1896) was born today, March 24. Morris was active in a number of creative endeavors throughout his life, but the one that concerns us here is his writing.
Morris has a reputation today, when he’s remembered at all, of being difficult to read. And while there is some justification for that, I think it’s largely undeserved. I’ve read one of his novels, The Wood Beyond the World, which I reviewed some years ago at Black Gate, when I was reading through the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be. There’s a cadence to Morris’s work. Once I got into that rhythm, it was fairly easy going. Continue reading
Lin Carter’s Legacy: The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series
Lin Carter was born on June 9, 1930. He passed away in 1988. I’m not going to review any of his fiction for this birthday post. It’s been one of those days. I’m going to try to read something by Keith Laumer for Futures Past and Present.
Lin Carter
Today I want to discuss what was arguably his greatest contribution to the field of fantasy. No, I’m not talking about his involvement with L. Sprague de Camp and the Conan revival of the 1960s. I mean, of course, the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.
BENE NOTE: If you want to do a web search, type “Ballantine Fantasy” in your search engine. Don’t say “Ballantine Adult Fantasy” unless you want to set off all kinds of bells and whistles. Especially at work. Continue reading
Of Editorial Greatness
Earlier today I was reading a post on a site I don’t normally read these days (I was lured by the temptation of a free ebook). The post made the argument that John Campbell was the greatest editor the science fiction and fantasy fields have seen.
That got me to thinking, which usually gets me in trouble. I began wondering who would be the greatest editor, greater being defined as having the most impact over time. The original post didn’t include fantasy other than a passing reference to Unknown. So I thought I’d throw the question open to anyone who wanted to voice an opinion. Below is a list I compiled off the top of my head. I didn’t include any living editors. If I had, Ellen Datlow would be on it. My rationale is that the impact of living editors on the can’t be accurately assessed because they are still having an influence and their greatest influences may still be to come.
So in alphabetical order are ten editors. I’ll provide a brief explanation as to why they have been included. Some will be quickly eliminated. Others, not so much. Continue reading
What Anthology Series Should I Review?
I’m involved in a conversation on Twitter in which the DAW Year’s Best Fantasy Stories series came up. The series was originally edited by Lin Carter followed by Arthur W. Saha. I’ve got most of them. I was thinking about reading through them and reviewing. Things should lighten up for a bit in about two weeks, once finals are over and I’ve gotten my grades in. I think I’ll have a little time.
But then I got to thinking. I’ve got several anthology series that might be of interest to readers of this blog. There’s the Swords Against Darkness edited by Andrew Ouffutt, Whispers (Stuart David Schiff), Shadows (Charles L. Grant), and Karl Edward Wagner’s Year’s Best Horror Stories from DAW.
I had been toying with the idea of reading through another DAW series, Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories when John O’Neill invited me to blog about the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. I haven’t ruled that one out, but it’s probably not one I want to tackle right now.
So what do you think? Would you like to see a series of posts on one of these anthology series? If so, which one?
New BAF Post on The Young Magicians
I’ve got a new BAF post up at Black Gate.
This one is on The Young Magicians, the second anthology of the series that Lin Carter edited. It’s a companion to Dragons, Elves, and Heroes. This one starts at William Morris and continues up to what was then the present day (1969). Included are selections by Lovecraft, Smith, Howard, Kuttner, Merritt. and de Camp, as well as Lin Carter himself.
Has it Really Been That Long Since I Posted?
I guess it has. Time flies, whether you’re having fun or not. The Fourth was laid back. My wife took a few days off from work to visit her parents, and my son went with her. Since I had classes starting while she was gone, I stayed here and had the house to myself, just me and the dogs.
Things have been hectic at work. Classes started on Tuesday, and I still had seven teaching assistant slots to fill before labs started on Wednesday. That number went up before it went down, but all the positions are filled and all the labs are covered. I’ve got a good group of students in the course I’m teaching. Summer students tend to be of higher quality than the general student population, and that seems to be particularly true about this bunch. My class is every day from 8:00 to 9:50 in the morning, and they’ve done a great job of showing up on time and awake. I wonder if the quiz I started class with on Wednesday had anything to do with it….
Anyway, I’ve been a bit distracted, but I’m working on some things. I’m reading Age of Iron by Angus Watson, which is up for a Gemmell Morningstar Award. I’ve not gotten far, so I’m reserving any comments for the review. I’m also reading for my next BAF post at Black Gate. This is the Lin Carter edited anthology The Young Magicians. Now that I’ve made it through the James Branch Cabell story, I should make better progress on it.
So unless something happens, I’m probably not going to have much to post about until next week.
I Look at The Spawn of Cthulhu
My latest post on the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series at Black Gate is up. It’s over The Spawn of Chthulu, edited by Lin Carter. Here’s the link to it.
This a collection of stories centered around Lovecraft’s “The Whisperer in Darkness”. All of the stories that follow have some connection to Lovecraft’s tale. I take a look at all of them. If you’re into Lovecraft, check it out.
I’m Now Blogging for Black Gate
I mentioned this here recently, but now it’s official. My first post for Black Gate went up this afternoon. I’m looking at the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. The first post was an overview, giving a little historical context and laying out what I’m going to be doing. The following posts will be reviews of the individual titles in the series. You can read my post here.
I’d like to thank John O’Neill for giving me the opportunity to blog for Black Gate, which is one of the top websites for fantasy.
I Look at the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series
I started to refer to this project as Sooper Seekrit Project Number 3, but it will go public too quickly to really have that title. Number 1 was the Amazing Stories gig. Number 2 has been put on hold indefinitely, and will thus remain secret for a while longer.
John ONeill asked me about a month or six weeks ago if I would consider doing some posts for Black Gate. After a brief back and forth, this is what we settled on. I said I would be glad to do it, but it would have to wait until October was over. He agreed.
Lin Carter
So here’s the deal. I’m going to be reviewing the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series edited by Lin Carter. The first post will be a brief overview of the series, placing it in its historical context. Then I’ll start reviewing the books. I’m going to take them in order of publication at first, but at some point I’ll start jumping around. Some of the titles I find the most interesting were published later in the run.
For those of you who might not be familiar with it, the Adult Fantasy Series was a series of books published by Ballantine Books in the late 1960s through the mid 1970s. Edited by Lin Carter, the series included a number of works written in the 1800s or early 1900s, many of which had fallen into obscurity or were unfamiliar to American readers. The books had gorgeous wraparound cover art and are highly collectible today.
I’m not going to be on a regular schedule, at least not for a while. My intention is to get about one post a month done. I’m still doing a weekly post for Amazing Stories, and that will continue through the end of the year. Then I’m going to cut back. Trying to review an independent work every week is starting to put more of a strain on my schedule than I want.
