Fairies, Dragons, etc...

"I find your lack of faith disturbing" -Vader

The most classic form of Fantasy involves legendary beasts and beings, either in their past forms or as urban legends now. Some authors even place these mythical creatures on other planets, as genetically created beings, aliens, the results of our imaginations, etc. A good dragon always livens up a story, don't you think?

Urban Fantasy
Traditional Fantasy
Otherworldly Fantasy

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Urban Fantasy
 (modern and future earth Fantasy)

  • Charles De Lint
    • Svaha (Native American belief systems in a futuristic setting)
    • "Newford Novels" (Collections of short stories about seemingly ordinary people caught up in the magic of the world around them)
    • Jack the Giant-Killer and Drink Down the Moon (Jacky becomes the champion of the Seelie Court)
    • The Little Country (Janey Little opens a book and discovers all the magic and mystery of the lost music)
  • Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald
    • "Magewars" (The first Magewar turned Beka's mother and homestation into slag. She's about to start the second Magewar herself.)
  • Emma Bull
    • War for the Oaks (Urban fantasy- a mortal is brought into Faerie to make the deaths of immortals possible)
  • Madeleine L'Engle
    • A Wind in the Door (A cherubum helps Meg and Calvin fight for Charles Wallace's life)
    • A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Charles Wallace's companion in saving the universe is a Pegasus)
  • Mercedes Lackey
    • Elves, kitsune, and other strange beings live in the "Bedlam Bard" and "SerrAted Edge" urban fantasy world.
  • Susan Cooper
    • Greenwitch (A girl makes friends with an undersea creature of the Wild Magic)
    • Silver on the Tree (Two boys travel back in time to a fantastical, doomed land to find a treasure to save the future)
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Traditional Fantasy
(from Earth's past)
  • Denise Little
    • Twice Upon a Time (Retold traditional fairy tales)
  • John Barnes
    • One for the Morning Glory (The son of a king in ancient times drank the Wine of the Gods- and began a self-aware legend)
  • Morgan Llewelyn
    • The Red Branch (In the old days, the gods still walked Ireland in human form)
    • The Horse Goddess (Epona did not want to be a Druid. Instead, she became a Goddess)
    • Druids (The last stand of the Gauls agaist Rome would require the power of a Druid and a King)
    • The Elementals (Like Atlantis before them, each civilization is destroyed. Only those with an affinity for the elements survive...)
  • Judith Tarr
    • "The Hound and the Falcon" series (Everyone says Alf is an Elf- but he would rather be a priest than of a heathen race)
  • William Goldman
    • The Princess Bride (The classic tale of true love, swordsmen, giants, princes, masterminds, torture, miracles, revenge, and the beauty of a woman)
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Otherworldly Fantasy
 (set on another planet)

  • Andre Norton
    • The Elvenbane (Shana, an orphan, is half Elven, half Human, raised by the Kin (Dragons), and strong in wizard magic. Is she the one destined to save the humans from their slavery?)
  • C. J. Cherryh
    • Fortress in the Eye of Time (A wizard creates a boy from the shadows of the past)
  • C. S. Lewis
    • "Narnia" (Several children find themselves in a new world full of animal-people and magic)
  • David Eddings
    • Polgara the Sorceress (The 3000 year-old sorceress explains what really happened before "The Belgariad")
  • J. R. R. Tolkien
    • The Hobbit (A fantastical creature known as a "Hobbit" joins a wizard and 13 dwarves to battle a dragon for treasure)
    • "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy (The Hobbit's nephew takes on the greatest evil in the world with some unlikely companions)
  • Julian May
    • "Trillium" series (Triplet sisters hold the keys to saving their world, if they can figure out how to use them.)
  • Marion Zimmer Bradley
    • "Darkover" (From the Chieri of the mountains- six-fingered people with powerful magic- to the catmen of the hills and Tower-bred comyn with laran, Darkover is the antithesis of the scientific Terran Empire)
  • Martin H. Greenberg
    • After the King (Stories in honor of Tolkien, from a variety of enchanting worlds)
  • Mercedes Lackey
    • "The Last Herald-Mage" trilogy (Vanyel wanted to be a Bard. His father wanted him to be a warrior. Fate had other plans.)
    • The Black Gryphon (Gryphons and other magical creatures help fight a war against their mage-master's ultimate enemy)
    • The White Gryphon (The same gryphons and others now try to build new lives in a new home, but find themselves trapped in the schemings of a foreign court)
    • Oathbound (A magical wolf, known as a Kyree, takes a liking to a human warrior and becomes her familiar)
    • Oathbreakers (That same wolf, named Warrl, travels with his chosen companions as they try to find and rescue their captain)
    • Gypsies, ghosts, elves, etc. populate the "Bardic Choices" and "Bardic Voices" worlds.
    • Fortress of Frost and Fire (Game-derived fiction from "The Bard's Tale")
  • R. A. Salvatore
    • "The Icewind Dales Trilogy" (D&D-style adventures with a dark elf as the main character)
    • "The Dark Elf Trilogy" (Further adventures of those characters, involving the Dark Elf's past)
  • Robin McKinley
    • The Blue Sword (Magic runs in her blood- and in the blood of the demon invaders from the north)
    • The Hero and the Crown (Aerin is a failure as a princess, so she takes up dragon-killing instead)
  • Terry Brooks
    • The Sword of Shannara (Shea, his brother must search for the legendary sword to stop the shadows)
  • Terry Pratchett
    • "Discworld" (Humor in a world shaped like a disc, sitting on the back of a turtle)
  • Ursula K. Le Guin
    • "Earthsea" (the entire series stars a mage and a world still full of dragons, mages, etc. in an island setting)
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Last Updated: November 7, 1999

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