Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

I have been getting some lucky finds lately when it comes to fantasy books. Here are some of the books and some interesting information and thoughts about them. I will be reviewing all of these books as I make my way through them. If not on this blog then on my Fantasy Guide Website.

The Period after WWII in Great Britain was a remarkable time for Fantasy. A couple of names that come to mind are JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. But there are other fantasy authors that were part of this beginning of the new genre of fantasy and one of these is Mervyn Peake. His Gormenghast Trilogy of books is one of the most remarkable fantasy series ever written yet he isn’t as well known as others. If you are a big fan of fantasy you really should look into snagging a copy of this series. The books are Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone. Much like JRR Tolkien Peake’s creativity wasn’t just limited to writing. He was also an artist and the book copies I picked up are illustrated by him. I don’t think the cover you see is his work but there is no attribution inside.

I am a big fan of Robert E. Howard’s Conan (who isn’t?) and I am also a big fan of Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time) and I have known that he has done some authorized Conan writing but have never read any of it. Well, here is my chance. It is Conan The Invincble written by Robert Jordan. It will be interesting to see how Jordan handles the Barbarian and the world of Aquilonia.

The Charwoman’s Shadow by Lord Dunsany - Lord Dunsany is one of the originators of the modern genre of fantasy. He wrote in the late 18th an early 19th century. This book was originally published in 1926 and just about everybody in the world of fantasy pays homage to him by openly acknowledging him as an influence. These include Robert Howard, HP Lovecraft, Ursula K. LeGuin, Neil Gaimon and even filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro. This book will be an adventure to the roots of modern day fantasy.

If you are a fan of fantasy you are no doubt familiar with the sub-genre of Arthurian Fantasy and of course you know the book “The Once and Future King” by T.H. White. It is the ultimate Arthurian legend book. But did you know that it is not complete? There was a whole new section that White wrote and it is called “The Book of Merlyn”. It contains Arthur’s final lessons from Merlyn before his death. If you have read The Once and Future King you should read this final addition.

Lots of books to read and I have some more great finds that I want to talk about but I will save them for a future post. And I will be writing reviews of these books either on this blog or my Fantasy Guide site.

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Snagging these books from Amazon.com

The Gormenghast Novels

Conan the Invincible (Conan #1)

The Charwoman’s Shadow (Del Rey Impact)

The Book of Merlyn (Once and Future King)

Popularity: 14% [?]

A lot of people who follow my youtube channel have been talking about my100th video.  It seems that I have to do something special as a 100th For a while nothing really popped but eventually I came up with a pretty nice idea.

I am currently working on all of this so these are just pics of the work in progress. As I complete the project I will post the finished work and the youtube video.

 Battle on the Wizards Tower Diorama: Here is the first shot of the cardboard mock up of the diorama. It is a pretty straight-forward theme of a wizard battling a dragon.  I am actually now working on the actual diorama.  I am also using this project for a couple of diorama tutorials and I may be using it in my upcoming fantasy diorama book).

But, there’s more

But this just didn’t seem to be enough for a 100th video so brainstorming it I decided it would be pretty cool to make this diorama into a video game.

Here are some screenshots of the game which I am currently working on:

The Wizards tower outside view:

A look inside the wizards tower:

So far the project has been a lot of fun and each component has had an effect on the other. The diorama has caused changes in the video game, and the video game has caused changes in the diorama. !

I will keep you posted on the progress of this project and I will post the video. And I don’t currently have a home page for this project but I will be doing one up and I will post it here for you to check out.

Resources for this Project:

If you like fantasy dioramas I have a whole section devoted to making them. It includes lots of tutorials and videos. How to Make fantasy Dioramas I also am working on a book on the subject.

If you want to make video games i have a whole website devoted to the subject. The site is complete with lots of tutorials and tools to making games on your own. Make-Video-Games.com

Popularity: 6% [?]

In the world of Epic Fantasy there are two series of books that stand above all the rest as masterpieces. Lord of the Rings is one of those series. The Earthsea Series by Ursula K. LeGuin is the other. This is a review of the first book in the Earthsea series A Wizard of Earthsea.As far as fantasy novels go this is a bit counter to the norm. This book weighs in at less than two hundred pages which in today’s world is less than half the size of a typical fantasy book. Yet, it is extremely rich and textured with a beautiful story and remarkable themes. The basic setting for the story is a coming of age story about a young boy named Ged who goes off to wizard school to achieve his potential. Sounds rather familiar? Maybe so but this is where the familiarity ends.   The world in which we travel (Earthsea) is an archipelago of different islands and a lot of the story involves travel by boat from island to island and often times Ged travels in a small boat alone using magic to fill the small sail and propel him onward in his travels and his quest.The book is rich with mythological themes and ideas and one of the central themes is the naming of things.  Wizards in Earthsea understand that if you know the true name of a thing you can control it and much of their time is spent learning the true names of things. This skill is critical when Ged, in his little sailboat, faces his first dragon.  The book also covers some importance of controlling power, the dangers of pride, and the importance of facing yourself and all your flaws truthfully.

But I really love the older print version of the books that I have. The cover is just so beautiful. It evokes that magical feeling. In this first book we see a dragon coiled around an island. It’s a scene from the book. (The Illustrator is Ruth Robbins) And sometimes you can snag copies of this version on amazon.com too. 

Popularity: 9% [?]