Book review
Written by Nick Rennison, Stephen E. Andrews
A&C Black paperback
Release date 5 October 2009

Well, you can guess what this book’s about…

The authors wisely begin the latest edition in Bloomsbury’s Good Reading Guides (which has so far also included the likes of 100 Must Read Science Fiction Novels and 100 Must-Read Life-Changing Books) by trying to pin down exactly what defines fantasy as opposed to science fiction or horror. Obviously there’s a lot of crossover between the three, and many authors pride themselves on avoiding strict genre boundaries, but Rennison and Andrews make a good (and lengthy) stab at laying down certain rules.

They suggest that fantasy nearly always has its roots in magic and the supernatural rather than science or technology, even if that supernatural element occurs on other planets. They then go on to talk about the origins of the genre (from ancient myths through to serial publishing) and define the various fantasy sub-genres (including High Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery and Steampunk).

Of course, the real interest here is in the books themselves, and the selections are both diverse and a good mix between the obvious and the less so. And so it takes in South American magic realism (One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Book of Sand by Jorge Luis Borges – yes, yes, technically a collection of short stories), dark fantasy (Clive Barker’s Weaveworld), slipstream (The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll) and children’s fantasy (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe), as well as covering obvious names such as JRR Tolkien, Michael Moorcock and Robert E Howard. Even Tove Jansson’s wonderful Comet in Moominland gets an entry.

Of course, as with all lists of this sort (including our own) you can quibble about what hasn’t been included (there’s no The Faraway Tree or Gulliver’s Travels among others), but that’s all part of the fun – plus, it gets round any omissions by calling itself ‘100 Must Read Fantasy Novels’ rather than ‘100 Greatest Fantasy Novels’. These kinds of lists have proliferated on the internet in recent years, but an informed stocking-friendly book like this is still enjoyable and entirely welcome. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
A thoughtfully put together introduction to classic fantasy.