Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

Yesterday I was just browsing some stuff on the web and I Stumbled across a blurb about the death of Frank Frazetta. Wow, How did I miss that? He passed away two months ago. (May 10, 2010). I was shocked at his passing but also shocked that I didn’t know about it.

 Well, this morning I was out for a run and thinking about the website and work and what I was going to do today. My thoughts returned to Frazetta and that old Don McLean song just popped right into my head. You know, American Pie. One of the critical lines in the song is “The Day the Music Died” and it occurred to me that the day Frazetta died is the day the Colors died. Pretty much as simple as that.

His work breathed a certain life into the writing of many famous authors including the Conan series by Robert E. Howard.

You see, the genre of epic fantasy is a simple one. You take a man and set him against tremendous odds. Then see if he has the metal to overcome everything. That pretty much sums it up and Frazetta did the same thing with his paintings. The compositions were simple, usually 1 character and one beast, and the tension was palpable. How will our hero fare in this situation was the question being asked. He created wonderful visual representations of what the books were all about.

 I decided to do a little tribute to him for my fantasy guide website and while looking up his paintings and book covers I was shocked to discover how many of them I owned. I wonder how much of my reading in the genre was influenced by his covers. Evidently a lot. And I wasn’t the only one. He did the cover for a Robert E. Howard book called “Conan the Adventurer”. That book went on to sell ten million copies which in the late 60’s was an unheard of success. It could be considered the “Twilight” of the sixties.

 Frank Frazetta - Movie Poster - 11 x 17

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)

The new series based on the Terry Goodkind Sword of Truth books is moving forward nicely and there has been some additional information about it. I have also put together a webpage on my fantasy site where you can learn more about the show, the books, and the cast. (Legend of the Seeker information page)

The 2 hour premiere will be airing on ABC on November 1, 2008 and here is a video trailer:

[quicktime]http://www.castlefiction.com/blogimages/legendoftheseeker_320×180.mov[/quicktime]

About the book and series: I have returned to the beginning of the series and I am currently reading Wizards First Rule. I will be posting my review of the book soon. It feels great to return to the adventures of Richard Cypher and Kahlan Amnell:)

Wizards First Rule is available on Amazon.com - Wizard’s First Rule (Sword of Truth, Book 1)

I am a big fan of Terry Goodkind and the whole Sword of Truth series. Wizard’s First Rule is one of my all time favorite books and it is now being loosely made into a television series. There is just some early buzz about this tv show and there is not yet a lot of information about it but it is currently in production (being filmed in New Zealand) and early description of it is that it will have the characters and setting of The Sword of Truth but won’t follow the plotline.

I have been contacted by people working on the project and they will be sending me more information. As I get it I will update you. Here is a little sneak peek nibble of information from them:

The stories will be episodic, with some major themes and characters carried over from the Sword of Truth series of books. The overall plot point will be the defeat of Darken Rahl. As a synopsis for the show, it will look something like this: Richard and Kahlan’s journey takes them through dangerous passes, mystical forests, boundaries of the dead and magical lands, until their ultimate showdown with the ruthless Rahl.

Sounds like it will be fun! - Will

 Some Info on the show:

• The name of the show is: “Legend of the Seeker”
• Sam Raimi is one of the Executive Producers
• It is being produced by the same people who produced Xena and Hercules
• Kahlan Amnell is being played by the stunning Bridget Regan
• Here is the official website: Legendoftheseeker.com

Wizard’s First Rule (Sword of Truth, Book 1) 

The John Carter of Mars series of stories are a great series of book in the old pulp fantasy style and I had read the whole series a very long time ago. I dug up some of my copies of the books here:

The movie is being written by Andrew Stanton who wrote Finding Nemo and Wall-e. You can read the post about this on the Pixar Blog. And it will be interesting to see how they handle this story and the movie. Will it be fully animated or will be something else? Either way it is probably going to be really good. Pixar always makes wonderful movies.

About The Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs:

There are eleven Mars books in the series and four of them (listed first) are John Carter books:

• The Princess of Mars
• The Gods of Mars
• The Warlord of Mars
• John Carter of Mars (This book is a concatenation of two Novellas: “John Carter and the Giant of Mars” and “Skeleton Men of Jupiter”.
• Thuivia, Maid of Mars
• The Chessmen of Mars
• A Fighting Man of Mar
• Swords of mars
• Synthetic Men of Mars
• Llana of Gathol

I am wondering what the first movie will be about and what the real title will be. The proper first book is A Princess of Mars and this book sets everything up because it is where John Carter first finds himself on Mars. I have also heard rumors that there will be a trilogy of movies which fits with the first three Mars books.

The John Carter books are a lot of fun and they have been re-worked and repackaged several times over the last century including some covers and internal artwork by Frazetta, which is probably some of his most recognizable stuff.

How to Get some John Carter to Read:

Amazon has plenty of the Edgar Rice Burroughs stuff and seeing as the stuff is pretty old you can also download and read it for free on Gutenberg Scroll down to the bottom of this page for Burroughs

Here is the Edgar Rice Burroughs Section on Amazon.com Edgar Rice Burroughs Books 

About the famous curved rapier that is pictured on the Frazetta art. John Carter is famous for this sword and there is even a real version that has been made and is for sale. It’s pretty cool and you can take a look at it here: John Carter’s Martian Longsword