My hard-core version of Gary's Appendix N

[geoffrey]

Stripping away the less central stuff and being more detailed:

J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 book:
The Hobbit

Robert E. Howard's 21 Conan stories:
"The Phoenix on the Sword"
"The Frost-Giant's Daughter"
"The God in the Bowl"
"The Tower of the Elephant"
"The Scarlet Citadel"
"Queen of the Black Coast"
"Black Colossus"
"Iron Shadows in the Moon"
"Xuthal of the Dusk"
"The Pool of the Black One"
"Rogues in the House"
"The Vale of Lost Women"
"The Devil in Iron"
"The People of the Black Circle"
The Hour of the Dragon
"A Witch Shall Be Born"
"The Servants of Bit-Yakin"
"Beyond the Black River"
"The Black Stranger"
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula"
"Red Nails"

Abraham Merrit's best novels:
The Moon Pool
The Face in the Abyss
Dwellers in the Mirage

Michael Moorcock's good Elric stories:
"The Dreaming City"
"While the Gods Laugh"
"The Stealer of Souls"
"Kings in Darkness"
"The Flame Bringers" (later retitled "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams")

Jack Vance's stories collected in The Dying Earth:
"Turjan of Miir"
"Mazirian the Magician"
"T'sais"
"Liane the Wayfarer"
"Ulan Dhor"
"Guyal of Sfere"

Fritz Leiber's 1939-1953 stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser:
"Two Sought Adventure" (later retitled "The Jewels in the Forest")
"The Bleak Shore"
"The Howling Tower"
"The Sunken Land"
"Thieves' House"
"Claws from the Night"
"The Seven Black Priests"

The above 38 short stories and 5 novels embody for me the essential sword and sorcery bedrock of A/D&D. They float in my mind as the constant background of my A/D&D games.

[Finarvyn]

An awesome list! I love the way you think and would love to play in your game sometime, since we seem to have very similar thoughts on essential fiction.

(1) All of the Conan stories are "must read" in my opinion. Good to stick with Howard's originals.

(2) Merrit's stuff is certainly classic, but I found that they were more of a struggle to read than the other authors on the list. As those are all novels, I would be tempted to trim these out because they felt a lot more dated than even REH's fiction (to me).

(3) You have selected all of the Elric stories from Moorcock's first collection, and I agree they are awesome. I'm on the fence about the second collection (Stormbringer) and its 5-6 more stories.

(4) Vance needs some appearance, but I liked "Eyes of the Overworld" more than any of the short stories you mentioned. Maybe I need to go back to re-read the short stories.

(5) Great selection of Leiber. It's the contents of "Two Sought Adventure," I believe, and is by far the best collection of stories.

I like the notion of not just certain authors, but the BEST of those authors. Interesting that they are almost always the earliest stories by each. As much as I like REH, however, the list does seem to be slanted towards his works and I wonder if it would be worth picking a half dozen of his best instead of including all Conan stories. Not really arguing for it, but just throwing the idea out there.

I also hate to see an essential list without Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. Not really the same as the others, as it features non-earthlings, but still one of the best from the era.

[stevemitchell]

I wouldn't toss out anything on the list. But for Howard, I would add "The Worms of the Earth," "The Valley of the Worm," "The House of Arabu," "The Shadow Kingdom," and "The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune."

And C. L. Moore's tales of Jirel of Joiry--kind of a half-way point between Howard and Merritt.

And personal favorites Andre Norton for the Witch World series and Karl Edward Wagner for the Kane stories.

[doublejig2]

Good list! I don't mind any extra Howard stories. A Witch Shall Be Born! Personally, I'll add Wagner, CA Smith, & strangely le Guin skewing the s&s both before and after re-reading.

[Otto Harkaman]

Poul Anderson - Three Hearts And Three Lions?



Oh and certainly L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt - The Compleat Enchanter

[plethon]

Nice list, I also find the first part of The Dying Earth to be my favorite. I enjoyed the 2 Cugel novels but was getting a little tired of it by the end, and the Rhialto novel I found to be tedious.

[Morandir]

No “Ship of Ishtar”? Definitely my favorite of Merritt’s!

[retrorob]

1. REH - I would pick some Conan stories and add some about other characters. It's the same universe anyway. For example "The The Valley of the Worm" is my favorite fantasy short story. Kull stories were also better than some Conan.
2. Merritt - I've read only "The Face in the Abyss". I wasn't surprised when found out that it's a fix-up - feels like 2 novellas combined into one.
3. Not being a big fan of Moorcock, I must admit that Elric stories were very influential. The first collection is far better than "Stormbringer"
4. Vance is a key to understand D&D. "The Dying Earth" stories are awesome and I like them better than Cugel.
5. Leiber - good selection I guess, but I have to refresh these stories.

[Deleted]

Jan 1, 2022 9:26:26 GMT -6 retrorob said:

4. Vance is a key to understand D&D. "The Dying Earth" stories are awesome and I like them better than Cugel.

You know, I go back and forth on this. Cugel is such a delightfully amoral character and his shenanigans are timeless, but it definitely seems like the first collection of short stories that follow different protagonists more directly laid foundations for D&D. Rhialto contributed a lot to gonzo and high-level play, similarly. (Flying mansions, Ioun stones, etc.)

[geoffrey]

Here is my ranking of the authors of my hard-core version of Gary's Appendix N. Note that I'm not ranking the individual stories, but each author's body of work as a whole that I have listed:

1. J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 book:
The Hobbit

2. Robert E. Howard's 21 Conan stories:
"The Phoenix on the Sword"
"The Frost-Giant's Daughter"
"The God in the Bowl"
"The Tower of the Elephant"
"The Scarlet Citadel"
"Queen of the Black Coast"
"Black Colossus"
"Iron Shadows in the Moon"
"Xuthal of the Dusk"
"The Pool of the Black One"
"Rogues in the House"
"The Vale of Lost Women"
"The Devil in Iron"
"The People of the Black Circle"
The Hour of the Dragon
"A Witch Shall Be Born"
"The Servants of Bit-Yakin"
"Beyond the Black River"
"The Black Stranger"
"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula"
"Red Nails"

3. Michael Moorcock's good Elric stories:
"The Dreaming City"
"While the Gods Laugh"
"The Stealer of Souls"
"Kings in Darkness"
"The Flame Bringers" (later retitled "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams")

4. Fritz Leiber's 1939-1953 stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser:
"Two Sought Adventure" (later retitled "The Jewels in the Forest")
"The Bleak Shore"
"The Howling Tower"
"The Sunken Land"
"Thieves' House"
"Claws from the Night"
"The Seven Black Priests"

5. Jack Vance's stories collected in The Dying Earth:
"Turjan of Miir"
"Mazirian the Magician"
"T'sais"
"Liane the Wayfarer"
"Ulan Dhor"
"Guyal of Sfere"

6. Abraham Merrit's best novels:
The Moon Pool
The Face in the Abyss
Dwellers in the Mirage

[cadriel]

A number of years back (when Google+ was still a thing) I ran a bracket challenge on my blog. You can see the whole thing here: initiativeone.blogspot.com/p/appendix-n-madness.html

The Elite Eight were:

Lovecraft
Burroughs
Howard
Tolkien
Brackett
Anderson
Vance
Moorcock

Of those, Lovecraft, Howard, Anderson, and Vance went to the Final Four, and Howard defeated Vance in the final.

It's an interesting result to me. Of your list, Merritt (knocked out by Manly Wade Wellman on day 9) and Leiber (vanquished by Tolkien in the second round) didn't make it to the final 8, but I think overall it was a good result. You could quibble about Brackett and Anderson as "core" authors but I think it's a solid bunch.

[tdenmark]

Feb 15, 2023 10:08:49 GMT -6 cadriel said:

A number of years back (when Google+ was still a thing) I ran a bracket challenge on my blog. You can see the whole thing here: initiativeone.blogspot.com/p/appendix-n-madness.html

The Elite Eight were:

Lovecraft
Burroughs
Howard
Tolkien
Brackett
Anderson
Vance
Moorcock

Of those, Lovecraft, Howard, Anderson, and Vance went to the Final Four, and Howard defeated Vance in the final.

It's an interesting result to me. Of your list, Merritt (knocked out by Manly Wade Wellman on day 9) and Leiber (vanquished by Tolkien in the second round) didn't make it to the final 8, but I think overall it was a good result. You could quibble about Brackett and Anderson as "core" authors but I think it's a solid bunch.

Leigh Bracket has only improved in stature the more of her work I read. For me it is a close tie between Howard and Burroughs. Howard gets the edge for being a better writer, Burroughs for his boundless creativity.

[geoffrey]

I have read Brackett's Skaith Trilogy and Anderson's The Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions. While I enjoyed them all, I found none more than "pretty good". I would be content to never re-read any of those five books. But the works on my list above? I have to re-read all of those frequently.

[Finarvyn]

Feb 15, 2023 13:04:42 GMT -6 geoffrey said:

I have read Brackett's Skaith Trilogy and Anderson's The Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions. While I enjoyed them all, I found none more than "pretty good". I would be content to never re-read any of those five books. But the works on my list above? I have to re-read all of those frequently.

Curious as to which version of Broken Sword you read. I have both the 1950's version and the 1970's version and their tone is somewhat different. The older one has a more grim feel to it while the later revision is more "high fantasy" if I recall correctly. (It's been years since I read either one.)

I agree that none of these break into the "elite tier" of Appendix N IMO, which for me are Tolkien, Howard, Leiber, Burroughs.

[geoffrey]

I made sure to read the original, 1954 version of The Broken Sword.