The A to Z of Fantasy Literature

by Stableford, Brian M.

  KINGSLEY, CHARLES (1819–1875). British clergyman and writer who recycled three classical myths in The Heroes (1856) before producing the moralistic/children’s fantasy The Water Babies (1863), in which a chimney sweep’s boy becomes a water sprite in order to undertake a redemptive quest that might qualify him for a more authentic afterlife.

  Kingsley’s friend George MacDonald employed its example to prompt yet another cleric, Lewis Carroll, to produce Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but the result was not quite what he intended. Charles’s brother Henry (1830–76) was more faithful to his exemplar when he produced the allegorical The Boy in Grey (1871).

  KING-SMITH, DICK (1922– ). British writer. Most of his children’s fantasies are aimed at younger readers, but his more elaborate animal fantasies include The Fox Busters (1978), The Sheep-Pig (1983; aka Babe: The Gallant Pig)—which made his name when it was filmed—

  Noah’s Brother (1986), The Schoolmouse (1994), and Godhanger (1996). The Merman (1997) features a rare male of the species. The Crowstarver (1998) features a foundling child who has an uncanny rap-port with animals. The Roundhill (2000) is a ghost story featuring the model for Lewis Carroll’s Alice.

  KINSELLA, W. P. (1935– ). Canadian writer whose relevant work is all sports fantasy. The title story of Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa (1980) was expanded as Shoeless Joe (1982), a sentimental fantasy in which baseball is employed to symbolize the American psyche in need

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  of re-enchantment. The Iowa Baseball Confederacy (1986) is a timeslip fantasy in the same vein; more baseball fantasies are included in The Thrill of the Grass (1984) and The Further Adventures of Slugger McBatt (1988). Some of Kinsella’s other collections include tall stories and fabulations. He edited the anthology Baseball Fantastic (2000).

  KIPLING, RUDYARD (1865–1936). British writer whose childhood years in India prompted him to produce numerous exotic short stories.

  Those for adults are usually tinged with horror, like those in The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Tales (1888), which include the hallucinatory fantasy of the afterlife “The Strange Ride of Morrowby Jukes” (1885), although those in Many Inventions (1893) and The Day’s Work (1898) are more varied. The novella They (1905) is a wholehearted sentimental ghost story.

  Kipling’s work for children is unusually vivid; the animal fantasies in The Jungle Book (1894) and The Second Jungle Book (1895) include an influential series about the feral child Mowgli, who receives a valuable education in the Law of the Jungle from his mentors. Just So Stories for Little Children (1902) is a classic collection of absurd confec-tions in which didacticism is blithely parodic. Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906) and Rewards and Fairies (1910) employ a fantasy story as a frame for a series of stories describing a thinning process that eventually renders British history thoroughly mundane, save for astrological illusions. Debits and Credits (1926) includes several notable fantasies, including the Arabian fantasy “The Enemies to Each Other,” and the satirical afterlife fantasy “On the Gate.” An eclectic sampler is Kipling’s Fantasy (1992).

  KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN, E. H. (1829–1893). British statesman,

  whose elevation to the peerage in 1880 encouraged the reprinting under his new title (Lord Brabourne) of selections from several volumes of fairy tales he had produced as Christmas fantasies in Stories for My Children (1869), Crackers for Christmas (1870), Moonshine (1871), Tales for Teatime (1872), Queer Folk (1873, dated 1874), River Legends (1874), Whispers from Fairy-Land (1874), Higgledy-Piggledy (1875), Uncle Joe’s Stories (1878), and Other Stories (1879). He went on to add The Mountain Sprite’s Kingdom and Other Stories (1880), Ferdinand’s Adventure (1882), Friends and Foes from Fairyland (1885), and The Magic Oak-Tree and Prince Filderkin (1894). His work offers a cardinal example of the application of censorious Victorian sensibility to folktale materials.

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  KNOWLES, VERNON (1899–1968). Australian writer long resident in Britain. Four of the nine calculatedly quaint and mannered items in The Street of Queer Houses and Other Stories (1924) were reprinted, with 11

  new items, in The Street of Queer Houses and Other Tales (1925). Here and Otherwhere (1926) contains more items in the same vein, including the wish-fulfillment fantasy “The Shop in the Off-Street.” Silver Nutmegs (1927) includes a novella wryly celebrating the escapist impulse, separately reprinted as The Ladder (1929). Eight stories selected from the latter collections were reprinted, along with four new stories, in Two and Two Make Five (1935).

  KOTZWINKLE, WILLIAM (1938– ). U.S. writer. His children’s fantasies include Elephant Boy: A Story of the Stone Age (1970), The Supreme, Superb, Exalted, and Delightful, One and Only Magic Building (1973), Dream of Dark Harbor (1979), The Ants Who Took Away Time (1978), and the parodic animal fantasies collected in Trouble in Bugland: A Collection of Inspector Mantis Mysteries (1983). Doctor Rat (1976) successfully crossed over into the adult market, where his teasing fabulations became more wholehearted by degrees. Although Fata Morgana (1977) and Herr Nightingale and the Satin Woman (1978) are content with peripheral surrealism, The Exile (1987)—a timeslip/identity exchange fantasy—is far more explicit. The Bear Went Over the Mountain (1996) is an offbeat animal fantasy. Some of the short fiction featured in Elephant Bangs Train (1971) is fantasy; Jewel of the Moon (1985), Hearts of Wood and Other Timeless Tales (1985), The Hot Jazz Trio (1989), and Tales from the Empty Notebook (1995) are entirely composed of fantasy stories.

  KUMMER, FREDERICK ARNOLD (1873–1943). U.S. writer best

  known for detective fiction. The Second Coming: A Vision (1916, with Henry P. Janes) is an earnest Christian fantasy; it contrasts strongly with the infernal comedies Ladies in Hades: A Story of Hell’s Smart Set (1928) and Gentlemen in Hades: The Story of a Damned Debutante (1930), which satirize the mores of the Roaring Twenties in a manner akin to the works of Thorne Smith.

  KURIMOTO, KAORU (?– ). Japanese writer. Her Guin Saga, intended to consist of 100 books (95 were complete in 2004, plus 19 in a spinoff series) began translation in The Leopard Mask (1979; tr. 2003), Warrior in the Wilderness (1979; tr. 2003), and The Battle of Nospherus (1980; tr. 2003). It is a distinctive example of Japanese heroic fantasy, also

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  displayed in a three-volume graphic novel adaptation of The Sword of Paros by Yumiko Igarashi. Her untranslated work also includes material in the spirit of H. P. Lovecraft.

  KURTZ, KATHERINE (1944– ). U.S. writer. She was the first writer to publish original work in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, establishing the Deryni series—which adds other elements to a quasi-historical Celtic base—as one of the foundation stones of the nascent commodified genre. The first trilogy, comprising Deryni Rising (1970), Deryni Checkmate (1972), and High Deryni (1973), pioneered what was to become a familiar pattern when it was followed by a prequel trilogy comprising Camber of Culdi (1976), Saint Camber (1978), and Camber the Heretic (1981), which was then followed by two fill-in trilogies, one comprising The Bishop’s Heir (1984), The King’s Justice (1985), and The Quest for Saint Camber (1986), and another (set earlier in the time-line) comprising The Harrowing of Gwynedd (1989), King Javan’s Year (1992), and The Bastard Prince (1994). The series continued in King Kelson’s Bride (2000) and In the King’s Service (2003). The Deryni Archives (1986; exp. 2002 as Deryni Tales) adds a miscellany of short fiction, while Deryni Magic: A Grimoire (1990) is a scholarly fantasy explaining the theory and practice of the magic featured in the series.

  Lammas Night (1983) is a dark/historical fantasy whose inclinations were extended in Two Crowns for America (1996) and in novels written in collaboration with Deborah Turner Harris. In St. Patrick’s Gargoyle (2001), gargoyles are eccentric guardian angels. She edited two anthologies of Templar fantasy: Crusade of Fire: Mystical Tales of the Knights Templar (1997) and On Crusade: More Tales of the Knights Templar (1998).

  KUSHNER, ELLEN (1955– ). U.S. writer who coedited an anthology with Terri
Windling before publishing “The Unicorn Masque” in Windling’s first Elsewhere anthology and becoming involved with Windling’s Endicott Studio project. Swordspoint (1987) is set in a secondary world that has already been subject to rigorous thinning; The Fall of Kings (2002, with Delia Sherman) carries the same milieu forward.

  Thomas the Rhymer (1990) is an elaborate transfiguration of the ballad in which Faerie is reconfigured as “Ballad-Land.” Kushner wrote and narrated The Golden Dreydl: A Klezmer Nutcracker (2000), a Chanukah-celebrating performance piece for the Shirim Klezmer Orchestra’s adaptation of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.

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  KUTTNER, HENRY (1915–1958). U.S. writer best known for sf (refer to HDSFL). He was briefly associated with the Lovecraft circle, and much of his early fiction was sword and sorcery in the vein of Robert E. Howard, including two brief series featuring Elak of Atlantis (1938–41; book 1985) and Prince Raynor (1939; book 1987). He wrote humorous fantasies for Unknown, including “The Misguided Halo”

  (1939) and “Compliments of the Author” (1942). Before marrying C. L.

  Moore in 1940, Kuttner collaborated with her on “Quest of the Starstone” (1937), which contrived a meeting between her two key characters, Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith; they produced numerous exotic melodramas in the manner of A. Merritt, all cast as science fantasy.

  – L –

  LACKEY, MERCEDES (1950– ). U.S. writer. She is the most prolific producer of commodified fantasy, the central thread of her work being a long sequence of novels set in the secondary world of Valdemar, including several trilogies: Arrows of the Queen (1987), Arrow’s Flight (1987), and Arrow’s Fall (1988); Magic’s Pawn (1989), Magic’s Promise (1990), and Magic’s Price (1990); Winds of Fate (1991), Winds of Change (1992), and Winds of Fury (1993); Storm Warning (1994), Storm Rising (1995), and Storm Breaking (1996); The Black Gryphon (1994), The White Gryphon (1995), and The Silver Gryphon (1996); and Owlflight (1997), Owlsight (1998), and Owlknight (1999).

  The last two trilogies were written in collaboration with her husband, Larry Dixon. Other Valdemar-set books are the novels The Oathbound (1988), Oathbreakers (1989), Brightly Burning (2000), and Take a Thief (2001), the anthologies Swords of Ice and Other Tales of Valdemar (1996) and Sun in Glory (2003), and the collection Oathblood (1998). The series beginning with Exile’s Honor (2002) and Exile’s Valor (2003) is a prequel to the first trilogy. The guide The Valdemar Companion (2001), ed. John Helfers and Denise Little, includes an original novella. The opening of the Valdemar setting to other writers reflected Lackey’s increasing involvement in collaborative and shared-world projects; two novels combined as Bedlam’s Bard (1992) were co-credited to Ellen Guon, while Beyond World’s End (2001), Spirits White as Lightning (2001), and Mad Maudlin (2003) were co-credited to Rosemary Edghill.

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  The Bardic Voices series, four of which— The Lark and the Wren

  (1992), The Robin and the Kestrel (1993), The Eagle and the Nightingales (1995), and Four and Twenty Blackbirds (1997)—Lackey wrote solo, also became a shared-world endeavor with A Cast of Corbies (1994 with Josepha Sherman). Others include novels featuring an elvish Road Racing Association, variously co-credited to Dixon, Mark Shepherd, and Holly Lisle. Lackey has also contributed to collaborative projects with Marion Zimmer Bradley, C. J. Cherryh, Andre Norton, Piers Anthony, and Anne McCaffrey. The Shadow of the Lion (2002

  with Eric Flint and Dave Freer), a massive alternative-history fantasy mostly set in 16th-century Venice, continues in This Rough Magic (2003). The Outstretched Shadow (2003 with James Mallory) launched the Obsidian trilogy. This Scepter’d Isle (2004 with Roberta Gellis) is a historical fantasy about the early life of Elizabeth I.

  Lackey’s other solo work includes several occult detective stories, notably Sacred Ground (1994), and the historical fantasy The Fire Rose (1995). Firebird (1996), based on the Russian fairy tale that inspired Stravinsky’s ballet, was followed by The Black Swan (1999), based on Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. The River’s Gift (1999) is in the same vein.

  The Serpent’s Shadow (2001) is a transfiguration of Snow White set in 1909 London with an Anglo-Indian heroine; The Gates of Sleep (2002) transfigures Sleeping Beauty in Victorian England. Joust (2003) and Alta (2004) feature dragons and their riders. The Fairy Godmother (2004) is a paranormal romance. Lackey’s short fiction is sampled in Fiddler Fair (1998) and Werehunter (1999). Her anthologies include Flights of Fantasy (1999), featuring birds of prey.

  LAFFERTY, R. A. (1914–2002). U.S. writer best known for sf (refer to HDSFL), although his surreal and chimerical/fabulations, of spiritual evolution invariably include motifs drawn from myth and folklore. Fantasy elements predominate in the sequence begun by The Devil Is Dead (1971), which continued in Archipelago (1979) and More than Melchisedech (3 vols., 1992), Serpent’s Egg (1987), and Sindbad: The 13th Voyage (1989). The short-story collections following Through Ele-gant Eyes (1983) and Ringing Changes (1984), most of which were produced as pamphlets by small presses, also feature enigmatically whimsical material that defies ready classification.

  LAGERLÖF, SELMA (1858–1940). Swedish writer. Much of her

  work—including the episodic Gösta Berling’s Saga (1891; tr. 1898)—

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  describes conflicts between pietistic ideas of Christian virtue and codes of conduct based in pagan tradition. Many of her short works are sentimental exercises in Christian fantasy, examples of which are included in Invisible Links (1894–98; tr. 1899), From a Swedish Home-stead (1899; tr. 1901), and Christ Legends and Other Stories (1904; tr.

  1908), although “The Legend of the Christmas Rose” is in The Girl from the Marsh Croft (1904; tr. 1910). Herr Arne’s Hoard (1904; 1923; aka The Treasure) is an account of divine vengeance visited on three Scottish soldiers. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906; tr. 1907) and The Further Adventures of Nils (1907; tr. 1911) are theriomorphic/

  children’s fantasies commissioned to aid in the teaching of geography.

  Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! (1912; tr. 1921) is a hallucinatory fantasy based on a legend asserting that the last man to die on New Year’s Eve must drive Death’s cart during the coming year. Lilicrona’s Home (1911; tr. 1913) tells the story of an unfortunate pastor’s daughter whose wicked stepmother might be a dispossessed water sprite. The General’s Ring (1925; tr. 1928; aka The Lowenskold Ring) is a historical fantasy about a curse.

  LANG, ANDREW (1844–1912). Scottish writer and pioneer of anthro-pology. He followed an edition of Perrault’s Fairy Tales (1888) with a notable series of anthologies launched with The Blue Fairy Book (1890) and followed by volumes in Red (1890), Green (1892), Yellow (1894), Grey (1900), Violet (1901), Crimson (1903), Brown (1904), Orange (1907), Olive (1907), and Lilac (1910); he also produced two volumes of recycled animal fantasies (1896–99) and a volume of Arabian Nights Entertainments (1898). He wrote a new text to fit one of the picture sequences in Richard Doyle’s In Fairyland (1869), The Princess Nobody (1884), and a dark-edged account of a child abducted into Faerie, The Gold of Fairnilee (1888), before achieving greater commercial success with two humorous/children’s fantasies, Prince Pri-gio (1889) and Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia (1893). The stories in Tales of a Fairy Court (1906) are in a similarly light vein.

  Lang’s works for adults includes a verse epic Helen of Troy (1882) and a satirical account of the return to England of an exiled fairy queen, “That Very Mab” (1885, with May Kendall). The title piece of In the Wrong Paradise and Other Stories (1886) is a satirical afterlife fantasy. In collaboration with Walter Herries Pollock, he parodied H.

  Rider Haggard’s She in He, by the Author of It (1887) but went on to collaborate with Haggard on the earnest Odyssean fantasy The

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  World’s Desire (1890). He discovered and published Robert Kirk’s seemingly credulous account of The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies (written 1691)
in 1893.

  LATIN AMERICAN FANTASY. Latin American fantasy grew out of a syncretic process that mingled European literary and religious traditions with native myth and folklore. Such links began to be forged in the 19th century in the works of such Argentine writers as Juana Manuela Gor-riti and Eduardo Ladislao Holmberg; they began to spread to other nations in the early 20th century—to Peru in the works of Clemente

  Palma, Uruguay in the works of Horace Quiroga and Feliberto Hernan-dez, Brazil in the works of Jorge Amado, Mexico in the works of Juan José Arreola, and Guatemala in the works of Miguel Angel Asturias.

  These native traditions came into full flower in the 1940s, when the Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges, his associate Adolfo Bioy Casares, and their countryman Julio Cortazar produced much of their seminal work.

  They were followed by the Colombian Gabriel Garcia Márquez, the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa, the Mexicans Carlos Fuentes and Juan

  Rulfo, the Cuban Alejo Carpentier, the Argentinian Enrique Anderson Imbert, and the Brazilian Paulo Coelho. The purportedly distinctive manner of their use of the fantastic came to be characterized as magic realism.

  LAWHEAD, STEPHEN R. (1950– ). U.S. writer long resident in Britain.

  The religious fantasy trilogy comprising In the Hall of the Dragon King (1982), The Warlords of Nin (1983), and The Sword and the Flame (1984) disguises its Christian affiliations more carefully than do later works; the Arthurian series comprising Taliesin (1987), Merlin (1988), Arthur (1989), Pendragon (1994), Grail (1997), and Avalon: The Return of King Arthur (1999) is more explicit. The portal fantasy trilogy comprising The Paradise War (1991), The Silver Hand (1992), and The Endless Knot (1993) deals with other Celtic fantasy materials in a similar fashion. Byzantium (1996) is a historical fantasy about a journey to the eponymous city. The Celtic Crusades trilogy, comprising The Iron Lance (1998), The Black Rood (2000), and The Mystic Rose (2001), features a search for the true cross, inevitably involving Templars. City of Dreams (2003) is set in an alternative history in which Jesus is belatedly incarnated in Pennsylvania.