Where to Start With American Fantasy Series by Bill Ward While J.R.R. Tolkien may be the most famous and ubiquitous of fantasy writers, introducing generations of readers the world over to fantasy fiction through The Hobbit and influencing the way such stories are forever told with his masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, American letters has perhaps contributed more profoundly to the development of the modern secondary world fantasy story. From the pulpsters of early 20th century magazine fiction that first combined elements of weird horror with historical adventure to create sword-and-sorcery, to later writers adding their distinct stamp to fantasy in a post-Tolkien world, the tradition of American fantasy is a rich and varied one. The purpose of this brief survey is to highlight classic fantasy series fiction for the curious and eager reader. This is by no means meant as an exhaustive list, but simply as a jumping off point for readers that have heard of the big names, seen the film adaptations, played the tabletop and video games, but have perhaps never been directly exposed to some of the classics of yesteryear. Items marked with an *asterisk are particularly friendly to young readers. BARSOOM/JOHN CARTER OF MARS, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Don’t let the Martian setting fool you, these stories are straight-up pulp fantasy with a science fiction veneer. The granddaddy of the sword-and-planet subgenre of fiction that would attract such luminaries as Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore, and are the direct inspiration for George Lucas’ Star Wars, Burrough’s Barsoom (Mars) is a land of four-armed green Tharks, beautiful (excuse me, incomparable) princesses, and flying airships. Burroughs had huge success with this series and with Tarzan, making him one of the most popular writers of his day (LA’s Tarzana suburb, where Burroughs resided, is named for his most famous character) His Martian books are still some of the most perfectly paced adventure stories ever written, even when they shade into formula in later books they are classic celebrations of heroism, sacrifice, and daring-do. The place to start is with the first book, A Princess of Mars. *THE CHRONICLES OF PRYDAIN, Lloyd Alexander. Classic coming of age adventure of Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper, who goes from callow youth to mature adult – but don’t confuse this with the chosen one farm boy who becomes the embodiment of unearned power...