Customer Reviews

Read On...Fantasy Fiction: Reading Lists for Every Taste (Read On Series)

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Several years ago, I was asked by the King William, Virginia County Schools to visit one of their middle-schools and give a series of talks and readings to the kids. I was impressed by their eagerness to read, spurred on primarily by the success of J. K. Rowling, Goosebumps and the Animorphs. I found myself at every turn being asked "What should I read now?" I gave them what authors and titles I could, but there's always the chance that my taste and theirs wouldn't coincide and I was concerned that a suggestion I made would be so disliked that it would turn the Asker against reading, a result devoutly NOT to be wished.

I wish now that I'd had a copy of Neil Hollands' READ ON...FANTASY FICTION back then, it would have made things a lot easier. What Hollands has done is create a reference sorted by ideas. Looking for books about wizards? Go to "Chapter Two: Character" on the table of contents and eyeball down to this entry - "Wizards and Warlocks: The Wise, the Wily, and the Wacky." Turn to the appropriate page, and there are seven authors and eight books listed beneath a brief descriptive paragraph. Same thing with barbarians, urban fantasy, giants and/or little folk, and practically every other subject you could want suggestions for.

Hollands, a librarian by profession, has a keen sense of placement that serves him well here. There's crossover, of course, but no more than is necesary and it's clear from the breadth of his listings that he has a near-encyclopedic grasp of authors and titles.

In addition, he also has a keen sense of wit; hardly a page goes by without a humorous reference or pun, which makes this one of the scarcest of references: one that's fun to simply sit back with and browse for the hell of it.

If you have kids of your own, or tend to those kids who are somebody else's, I recommend this one highly as a terrific way to answer the inevitable "NOW what can I read, Mr. Hollands? NOW what, huh? HUH?" before you go quietly out of your mind. In fact, I'd go so far as to recommend it to booksellers, both new and used; I intend to use my copy to suggest material with which I'm unfamiliar to those book buyers who have exhausted my stock and are still jonesing for a Good Read. I may even let them read READ ON...FANTASY FICTION (without taking it home, of course. Let 'em buy their own copy).