Wanted: Susan Cooper for adults
Jul. 21st, 2012 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sepdetActually, I was thinking, "I want to find a fantasy author like Tanith Lee, only less twisted." I love fantasy with overrich, dreamlike, mythic prose. It's why I like the best of Gaiman's Sandman stories, when people aren't being too awful to each other and the Lovecraftian element is absent.
So then I thought of Susan Cooper. She's got the dreamlike imaginativeness that I crave, but has real characters and dialog as well. I just ordered Seaward. However, most of her books are for an even younger audience than the Dark Is Rising series, so they probably lack some of the more mature worldbuilding and mythmaking elements that would be too hard or scary for wee ones. Not that I don't love children's books, but there's some minor chords you have to leave out of them.
I need to go back and make sure I've read all my George MacDonalds, as well. I think I've missed a few.
I want this first because they're the sort of books I enjoy, and second because too much writing for the web is atrophying my native imaginative style. I am a chameleon, and my writing style shifts. My favorite writing style tends to come out when I immerse myself in video games, movies, or books in that idiom. (Hence my return to FFXIII-2; it's got the blend of angst, myth, and dreamlike, MYSTlike vistas that tap into that wellspring.)
So, can you think of other authors that do that?
Cherryh comes to mind, too. I have only read Dreamstone and Tree of Swords and Jewels; any other recommendations of her work (which is almost too melancholy for me to bear, but I do love her writing)?
So then I thought of Susan Cooper. She's got the dreamlike imaginativeness that I crave, but has real characters and dialog as well. I just ordered Seaward. However, most of her books are for an even younger audience than the Dark Is Rising series, so they probably lack some of the more mature worldbuilding and mythmaking elements that would be too hard or scary for wee ones. Not that I don't love children's books, but there's some minor chords you have to leave out of them.
I need to go back and make sure I've read all my George MacDonalds, as well. I think I've missed a few.
I want this first because they're the sort of books I enjoy, and second because too much writing for the web is atrophying my native imaginative style. I am a chameleon, and my writing style shifts. My favorite writing style tends to come out when I immerse myself in video games, movies, or books in that idiom. (Hence my return to FFXIII-2; it's got the blend of angst, myth, and dreamlike, MYSTlike vistas that tap into that wellspring.)
So, can you think of other authors that do that?
Cherryh comes to mind, too. I have only read Dreamstone and Tree of Swords and Jewels; any other recommendations of her work (which is almost too melancholy for me to bear, but I do love her writing)?
