Writers who Fueled my Love of Fantasy

Today I found myself taking a stroll down memory lane, recalling the authors who, during my formative years, kindled my love for the fantastic in literature and in life. Some of these favorites make me grimace; having reread their work, I see their flaws and in some cases the pedestol I placed them on has been shattered. But all my intellectual criticism can’t erase the magical impact they had on my personal and creative development.

J. R. R. Tolkien: I’m sure Tolkien figures heavily in the favorites for fantasy enthusiasts and fantasy writers alike. Not without cause. In both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, he tells wonderful tales of the hero’s journey, in the Joseph Campbell sense, though the style and themes of these works are quite different. My parents read the novels to me when I was six or seven, and I’ve reread the entire opus at least biennially since. Tolkien was seminal in my appreciation of language, history, and culture.

C. S. Lewis: Ditto. When I proved receptive to Tolkien’s writing, my parents thought they’d move me on to fellow Inkling Lewis. While Lewis doesn’t hold the same lofty position in my literary pantheon as Tolkien, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe had a profound emotional impact on my young mind. I don’t remember this personally, but my parents recently told me that after the death of Aslan, I became so depressed and despondent that I wouldn’t let them read any further in the book. Finally, they convinced me that all would turn out well, and finished reading the book to me.

Lloyd Alexander: The first fantasy writer I discovered in my own right, Lloyd Alexander wrote the enchanting children’s series The Chronicles of Prydain, based on Welsh mythology. Alexander held mastery over archetypes, and the coming-of-age story of Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper, was the escape I needed from my own private elementary school hell.

David Eddings: In High School, I received a random book from Recorded Books for the Blind called Belgarath the Sorcerer. I found myself fascinated by the story of the sly, whimsical, powerful “Old Wolf” of a sorcerer, and when I learned the novel was a prequel to The Belgariad series I devoured those books in short order. What drew me to Eddings was his wry sense of humor, which provided me a respite from an otherwise-serious life.

Terry Brooks: Eddings awoke in me a desire to find more epic fantasy, and the Shannara books were the next port of call. Brooks’s world, filled with dwarves, elves, trolls, and mysterious wizards, felt like meeting an old friend after years of absence.

Robert Jordan: Around the same time, I discovered the mammoth Wheel of Time cycle. The series drove home to me how much fantasy could be a vehicle for political and cultural discourse.

I’ve since read novels by dozens of other fantasy authors. Some are, in my opinion, better at the craft than those I’ve enumerated here. But as I said earlier, these are the writers who forged and fused my fascination with fantasy. After reading these “classics”, there was no going back.

Who were your inspirations in the world of speculative fiction? Share in the comments below.