Reading list: My Ranking of Cawthorn & Moorcock’s ‘Fantasy: The 100 Best Books’ (WIP)

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Back in 1988, Carroll & Graf Publishers provided a recommended reading list for Fantasy fans - ‘100 Best Books’, as selected by Michael Moorcock and James Cawthorn. The list was published in book form, because each selection is discussed in a short essay; the books are dealt with in chronological order. I picked this reading guide up after already committing to a rival list - Fantasy picks by David Pringle - because, even with crossover amongst the choices, the two lists had enough differences in recommendations for me to be loyal to both.

If this follow-up list by me is ever beyond the Work In Progress stage, it means I’ve finally read all the books, and my version of the list - favourites, down to least favourite - will go longer than 100 books, because some entries on the Moorcock/Cawthorn group a bunch of books under one listing; for instance, Jane Gaskell’s Atlan Saga gets a single entry when dealt with in the original list, but I’ve had to split Gaskell’s Atlan titles up, so they appear separately when I rank them.

Happy Reading, Fantasy Fans!

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Books: 97

The Gormenghast Novels - Quentin Crisp, Anthony Burgess, Mervyn Peake

10.

The Sword Of Rhiannon

by Leigh Brackett

Note:

11.

The Circus of Dr. Lao

by Charles G. Finney, Edward Hoagland

Note:

12.

The Citadel of Fear

by Francis Stevens

Note:

13.

Slaves of Sleep & the Masters of Sleep

by L. Ron Hubbard

Note:

14.

The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (Ki... - Angela Carter

The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (King Penguins)

by Angela Carter

Note:

15.

Tarzan of the Apes

by Edgar Rice(Author) Burroughs

Note:

16.

Lady Into Fox

by David Garnett

Note:

17.

Jirel of Joiry

by C.L. Moore

Note:

18.

The Worm Ouroboros

by E.R. Eddison, Keith Henderson

Note:

19.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket & ... - Edgar Allan Poe

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket & Related Tales (World's Classics)

by Edgar Allan Poe

Note:

20.

The Green Man

by Kingsley Amis

Note:

21.

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

Note:

22.

You're All Alone

by Fritz Leiber

Note:

23.

The Werewolf of Paris

by Guy Endore

Note:

24.

Herland and Selected Stories (Signet classics)

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Barbara H. Solomon

Note:

25.

The Devil's Day

by James Blish

Note:

26.

The Alteration

by Kingsley Amis

Note:

27.

The Philosopher's Stone

by Colin Wilson

Note:

28.

She

by H. Rider Haggard

Note:

29.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

by H.P. Lovecraft

Note:

30.

The Man Who Was Thursday

by G.K. Chesterton

Note:

31.

The Complete Compleat Enchanter

by L. Sprague de Camp, Fletcher Pratt

Note:

32.

The Ship of Ishtar

by A. Merritt

Note:

33.

Three Hearts and Three Lions

by Poul Anderson

Note:

34.

The Serpent

by Jane Gaskell

Note:

35.

The Serpent, Part 2: The Dragon

by Jane Gaskell

Note:

36.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Ot... - Robert Louis Stevenson, Jenny Davidson

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories

by Robert Louis Stevenson, Jenny Davidson

Note:

37.

The Pastel City (Avon SF, 19711)

Note:

38.

A Voyage to Arcturus

by David Lindsay, Bob Pepper

Note:

39.

The Night Land

by William Hope Hodgson

Note:

40.

Conan 09/conqueror

by Robert Howard

Note:

41.

Fear

by L.Ron Hubbard

Note:

42.

Frankenstein

by Mary Shelley, Maurice Hindle

Note:

43.

A Princess of Mars

by Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Seelye

Note:

44.

Zothique

by Clark Ashton Smith

Note:

45.

The Lost World

by Arthur Conan Doyle

Note:

46.

Witch Wood

by John Buchan

Note:

47.

The Monk

by Christopher MacLachlan, Matthew Gregory Lewis

Note:

48.

Flatland: A Romance Of Many Dimensions

by Edwin A. Abbott

Note:

49.

The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories

by Henry James, T.J. Lustig, Tim Lustig

Note:

50.

The Book of Ptath

by A.E. van Vogt

Note:

51.

The Dark World

by Henry Kuttner

Note:

52.

The Dying Earth

by Jack Vance

Note:

53.

Mistress Masham's Repose (New York Review Children... - T.H. White, Fritz Eichenberg

Mistress Masham's Repose (New York Review Children's Collection)

by T.H. White, Fritz Eichenberg

Note:

54.

Dark Ladies: Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness

by Fritz Leiber

Note:

55.

Atlan

by Jane Gaskell

Note:

56.

The Businessman: A Tale of Terror (Supernatural Mi... - 'Thomas M. Disch', 'John Crowley'

The Businessman: A Tale of Terror (Supernatural Minnesota)

by 'Thomas M. Disch', 'John Crowley'

Note:

57.

Drawing of the Dark

by Tim Powers

Note:

58.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the L... - Lewis Carroll, Peter Hunt, John Tenniel

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (Oxford World's Classics)

by Lewis Carroll, Peter Hunt, John Tenniel

Note:

59.

The Sending

by Geoffrey Household

Note:

60.

A Man in the Zoo - David Garnett

A Man in the Zoo

by David Garnett

Note:

61.

The City

by Jane Gaskell

Note:

62.

Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings

by Jonathan Swift

Note:

63.

War in Heaven

by Charles Williams

Note:

64.

A Wizard of Earthsea

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Note:

65.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde

Note:

66.

Turnabout - Thorne Smith

Turnabout

by Thorne Smith

Note:

67.

VALLEY OF THE FLAME

by Henry (also wrote as Lewis Padgett) Kuttner

Note:

68.

To Walk the Night

by William Sloane

Note:

69.

The Devil in Velvet (1994 Ed)

by John Dickson Carr

Note:

70.

The House on the Borderland

by William Hope Hodgson

Note:

71.

Moby Dick

by Herman Melville, Frank Muller

Note:

72.

Hawksmoor

by Peter Ackroyd

Note:

73.

Caravan for China.

by Frank S. Stuart

Note:

74.

Expecting Someone Taller

by Tom Holt

Note:

75.

Land Under England

by Joseph O'Neill

Note:

76.

Vathek

by William Beckford, Richard Lonsdale

Note:

77.

Darker Than You Think

by Jack Williamson

Note:

78.

Northwest Smith

by C.L. Moore

Note:

79.

The Great Captains

by Henry Treece, James Cawthorn, Michael Moorcock

Note:

80.

The King of Elfland's Daughter

by Lord Dunsany, Neil Gaiman

Note:

81.

Zuleika Dobson

by Max Beerbohm

Note:

82.

Wuthering Heights

by Lucasta Miller, Pauline Nestor, Emily Brontë

Note:

83.

The Crystal World

by J.G. Ballard

Note:

84.

The Light Fantastic

by Terry Pratchett

Note:

85.

Land of Unreason

by L. Sprague De Camp;Fletcher Pratt

Note:

86.

The Haunting of Hill House

by Shirley Jackson, Laura Miller

Note:

87.

The Twilight of the Gods

by Richard Garnett

Note:

88.

Roads - Seabury Quinn

Roads

by Seabury Quinn

Note:

89.

THE TRITONIAN RING

by L. Sprague De Camp

Note:

90.

WELL OF THE UNICORN

by Fletcher Pratt

Note:

91.

The Colour of Magic

by Terry Pratchett

Note:

92.

The Glittering Plain

by William Morris

Note:

93.

Dwellers in the Mirage (Mass Market)

by A. Merritt

Note:

94.

At the Mountains of Madness

by H.P. Lovecraft, S.T. Joshi, China Miéville

Note:

95.

The Night Life of the Gods

by James Thorne Smith

Note:

96.

Some Summer Lands

by Jane Gaskell

Note:

97.

Red Shift

by Alan Garner

Note:

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Reading list: My Ranking of Cawthorn & Moorcock’s ‘Fantasy: The 100 Best Books’ (WIP)

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Books: 97

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