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5.
AOTW: Beyond your own work (of course), what is your all-time favorite fantasy book and why? And what is your favorite book outside of the fantasy genre?
Terri Windling: It's very hard to pick just one fantasy genre novel (Patricia McKillip, Ursula Le Guin, Philip Pullman, Ellen Kushner, Jane Yolen, and Robert Holdstock being just a few of my favorite authors) --- but I suppose that if I *have* to pick just one, it would Little, Big by John Crowley. John draws upon some of my favorite things --- fairy tales, Victorian culture, and New York history --- to create an utterly magical, fresh, and brilliant story. The last paragraph of that book is one of the most beautiful ever written.
My favorite book outside the fantasy genre is The Bloody Chamber by the late, great Angela Carter. Her literary re-workings of fairy tales are second to none. But I consider that to be fantasy too.
Juliet McKenna: Oh, ask something difficult, why don't you! I could come up with a dozen or more beloved titles without pausing for breath. Today, Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is probably at the top of the list, as a thrilling tale underpinned with thought-provoking ideas that doesn't shrink from the harder realities of life and death. Outside the genre; an even harder question. The best I can come up with is the book I've probably reread more than any other and that's Dorothy L. Sayer's Murder Must Advertise; superb on so many levels.
Elizabeth Haydon: I think I would opt for The Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia McKillip as my favorite fantasy work. The writing in that series is just beautiful. A close second would be William Goldman's The Princess Bride. Outside the genre, it would be hard to pick from among the adult books that have shaped my world, so I guess I would nominate a children's work, Cheerful, by Palmer Brown, as my favorite all-time book. It hold such special memories for me, and is still so lovely in its prose and illustrations, that my children consider it a magic book (as do I).
Teresa Edgerton: A difficult question, because there are so many books that I have loved, and my answer might vary on any given day. How about a three-way tie for favorite fantasy: The Lord of the Rings, The Last Unicorn, and The Once and Future King. I imprinted on each of these books at a relatively early age, so it's doubtful that any other book will ever equal their emotional impact.
Outside the fantasy genre, I would have to say A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens --- except that it's not really out of the genre, because of the ghosts. So if you disqualify that one, I'll say The Dean's Watch, by Elizabeth Goudge.
Above all, I love books that provoke a strong emotional reaction. There are scenes in all of the books I've mentioned that continue to move me, no matter how many times I reread them.
Michael Stackpole: Again, very tough question, because there are so many books. As a writer I carry away an appreciation of other authors' skills and abilities. Different books roll up to the top of the list from time to time, depending on my mood. Outside the genre, I really like the Nero Wolfe novels of Rex Stout. Best single fantasy novel (not fair, since so many fantasy sagas unfold over 3 or more books) would be Dragon Doom by Dennis L. McKiernan.
Lynn Flewelling: Fantasy? Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. It is a beautifully written, deeply wise book, and catches many elements of my own childhood. Non-fantasy? That's a tough one: I read very widely, so I have favorites in many genres and they're always changing. To name a few: Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Pat Barker's
Redemption books, Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, anything by Robertson Davies. And on and on . . .
Robin Hobb: Well, if I could answer this, we wouldn't be building more bookshelves even as I speak. Every year, I discover more favorite books. My most anticipated book, right now, is the next installment in George RR Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice. My touchstone books are The Lord of the Rings. Wonder and nostalgia for my own wonderful world: Bradbury's Dandelion Wine or Something Wicked This Way Comes. My favorite Arthurian books: The Once and Future King by T.H.White and The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart. I could go on and on.
Outside the Fantasy genre, I still have the same problem. Mysteries: Sherlock Holmes, Travis McGee, Archie Goodwin, and Spenser are all my heroes. I love reading Shakespeare and poetry. I love Tom Sawyer. I like Jack London adventures and Doug Adams for humor. Zane Gray westerns. Robert Heinlein and Frank Herbert. Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. Just tell me a good story, and I'm hooked.
L.E. Modesitt: I cannot and will not pick a favorite fantasy book -- that's too much like asking a parent to pick a favorite child. My favorite works outside of fantasy are the collected poems of William Bulter Yeats, the Irish poet.
Lois McMaster Bujold: The Lord of the Rings has held its own over time. I first read it in my teens, and have re-visited it with equal pleasure a dozen or more times in the thirty-five years or so since. The works of Terry Pratchett are my contemporary favorites. Outside the genre, oh, heavens, there are so many --- Dorothy Sayers and Georgette Heyer probably head the list, and Conan Doyle and Kipling and, and, and…
Martha Wells: I have a lot of favorites but the top one would probably be the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander, The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, etc. It was a children's fantasy series based on Welsh legends and folklore. My favorite book outside the genre is Malevil by Robert Merle. It's a post-holocaust novel set in France, with survivors living in a medieval castle. Another favorite is Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers, one of the Peter Wimsey mysteries. Sayers and Josephine Tey (who wrote the novel Brat Farrar) are probably my two favorite authors.
Sean Russell: In the fantasy genre I love The Lord of the Rings. Outside the genre the list would be very long; Anna Karenina, the works of Mark Twain and Heinrich Boll, the poetry of Tu Fu and Li Po, the French symbolist poets. The list would run to several pages.
Margaret Weis: My favorite novel is Bleak House.
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