Some Great Ideas for Summer Reading From Our Where to Start Series
Whether you’ve got vacation from work or school, prefer to shelter-in-place with some strong air-conditioning, or have just recently defeated an interdimensional incursion of home-besieging swine-things and find yourself with a block of free time—it’s a fine occasion for some summer reading!
Tales From the Magician’s Skull’s ongoing Where to Start series of articles are written specifically to introduce readers to new (old!) fiction, with particular care taken to untangle some of the more confusing or overwhelming aspects of convoluted publication histories and multiple editions. They are also written by folks who absolutely love the authors, characters, and series in question, and want to share that love with the world.
So Where to Start? For an overall survey of many of the biggest fantasy series published in the US, from Barsoom to Zothique, check out our Where to Start With American Fantasy Series. This is especially useful if you are looking for recommendations for kids, as child-friendly books are highlighted.
A few of our articles focus specifically on one series of stories or novels from a particular author: consider unraveling the not-so-obvious best approach to Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Series, or ease into darkness with Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane Series this summer.
Quite often an author’s reputation is enough to get potential readers interested, but said author’s back catalog is so overwhelming, or even obscure, that it intimidates newcomers. The following author-specific Where to Start articles offer many ideas about the best places to embark when exploring these classic writers.
So what are you waiting for? The hazy days of summer are never as long as we’d wish, and the next swine-thing invasion is probably right around the corner—there’s never been a better time to discover the fiction of these classic authors.
