Background
The novel is a high fantasy, and Carter's preface characterized it as showing influences from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and C. S. Lewis's Narnia series, which he presumed Chant had "read carefully" before beginning her tale. In an afterword to the third Vandarei book, When Voiha Wakes , Chant explained in detail the origins of Vandarei and the Kendreth stories, specifying that she had been reading folklore and mythology since childhood and that Vandarei was a "playworld":
"... it began as a playworld, the sort that a lot of children have, and I was of course the Queen, the character about whom I created the adventures. But I had the disposition of a pedant. I didn't really want to pretend: I wanted to know, to be sure, to get it right. So even in its childish form this playworld tended to become concise, factual. As I grew older, horses became a passion and the playworld developed into 'Equitania'—the horse motif strengthening. During this time the history of the country itself assumed an importance and I began to actually write. At fifteen, however, the last links with 'Equitania' wavered and the name 'Vandarei' appeared. The Queen was abandoned and ceased to be an avatar of myself, becoming a character whom I manipulated, but with whom I no longer especially identified." [2]
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin. He is best known for his work in the 1970s as editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre.
Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains part of that company.
The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was an imprint of American publisher Ballantine Books. Launched in 1969, the series reissued a number of works of fantasy literature which were out of print or dispersed in back issues of pulp magazines, in cheap paperback form—including works by authors such as James Branch Cabell, Lord Dunsany, Ernest Bramah, Hope Mirrlees, and William Morris. The series lasted until 1974.
Joy Chant is a British fantasy writer. She is best known for the three House of Kendreth novels, published 1970 to 1983. Her legal name is Eileen Joyce Rutter.
Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings, alternatively subtitled A joyous exploration of Tolkien's classic trilogy and of the glorious tradition from which it grew is a 1969 non-scholarly study of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien by the science fiction author Lin Carter. The original version of the book was among the earliest full-length critical works devoted to Tolkien's fantasies, and the first to attempt to set his writings in the context of the history of fantasy.
Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy I is an anthology of fantasy novellas, edited by American writer Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books in September, 1972 as the fifty-second volume of its Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. It was the eighth such anthology assembled by Carter for the series.
Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy Volume II is an anthology of fantasy novellas, edited by American writer Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books in March, 1973 as the fifty-sixth volume of its Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. It was the ninth such anthology assembled by Carter for the series.
Kingdoms of Sorcery: An Anthology of Adult Fantasy is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by American writer Lin Carter. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in January 1976 as the first of two such anthologies continuing a series of nine assembled by Carter for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.
At the Edge of the World is a collection of fantasy short stories by Irish writer Lord Dunsany, edited by Lin Carter. It was first published in paperback by Ballantine Books as the thirteenth volume of its Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in March 1970. It was the series' second Dunsany volume, and the first collection of his shorter fantasies assembled by Carter.
Realms of Wizardry: An Anthology of Adult Fantasy is an American anthology of fantasy stories, edited by American writer Lin Carter. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in December 1976 as the second of two such anthologies continuing a series of nine assembled by Carter for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.
The Lost Continent: The Story of Atlantis (1899) is a fantasy novel by English author C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne. It is considered one of the classic fictional retellings of the story of the drowning of Atlantis, combining elements of the myth told by Plato with the earlier Greek myth concerning the survival of a universal flood and restoration of the human race by Deucalion.
The Sundering Flood is a fantasy novel by British writer William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy writer to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. The Sundering Flood was Morris' last work of fiction, completed only in rough draft, with the ending dictated from his deathbed. It was edited posthumously by his daughter May into finished form for publication and published in 1897.
The House of Lost Identity is a collection of short stories by Donald Corley, illustrated by the author. Corley did not limit himself to one genre, but the primary distinction of the collection is its inclusion of a number of classic dark fantasies. It was first published in hardcover in New York by Robert M. McBride in May 1927, and had a number of reprintings; printings after the first include an introduction by James Branch Cabell. It was reissued in hardcover by Books for Libraries in 1971, and in hardcover and paperback by Wildside Press in February 2008. The first British edition was published by George G. Harrap and Co. in 1927. The book's importance in the history of fantasy literature was also recognized by the anthologization of two of its tales by Lin Carter in the 1970s; "The Song of the Tombelaine," in Discoveries in Fantasy (1972), for the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, and "Figs" in Realms of Wizardry (1976).
The Warrior of World's End is a 1974 fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, set on a decadent far-future Earth in which all the world's land masses have supposedly drifted back together to form a last supercontinent called Gondwane. The book is chronologically the first in Carter's Gondwane Epic. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books, then reprinted twice through November 1978. A trade paperback edition was published by Wildside Press in January 2001. The book includes a map by the author of the portion of Gondwane in which its story is set.
This is an incomplete list of works by American space opera and science fiction author Frederik Pohl, including co-authored works.
The Earth-Shaker is a science fiction novel by American writer Lin Carter, the fourth in his "Zarkon, Lord of the Unknown" series. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in July 1982. An ebook edition was issued by Thunderchild Publishing in November 2017.
Bibliography of science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction writer Lin Carter:
The Best of Leigh Brackett is a collection of science fiction short stories by American author Leigh Brackett, edited by Edmond Hamilton. It was first published in hardcover by Nelson Doubleday in July 1977 and in paperback by Ballantine Books in September of the same year as a volume in its Classic Library of Science Fiction. A second hardcover edition was issued by Garland Publishing in March 1983, and Del Rey/Ballantine reprinted the paperback edition in June 1986. The book has been translated into German.
