Rowan McAllister's Top 5 Fantasy Rereads From Youth

Thursday May 03, 2018

This proved to be more of a challenge than I expected. In any category I could come up with, I liked too many things equally, just for different reasons. LOL 

At last, I narrowed a category down enough that my younger self provided 5 fairly clear winners.

In honor of my new release-- my homage to my first love: Fantasy-- I dug out my top 5 fantasy novel rereads from my youth... but ONLY the lesser known ones.

 I'm not saying you won't recognize the titles or the authors if you're a fantasy lover too, but most of them haven't received quite as much attention as your Robert Jordans, Mercedes Lackeys, Anne McCaffreys etc. of the same era.

 

Take a trip with me down memory lane: 

1) "The Apprentice" by Deborah Tamadge-Bickmore (1989)- More of a romance, to be honest. I always hoped there'd be a sequel, but one never surfaced... except, in looking it up for this post, I discovered that the author did a revised edition published in (2014)!

2) "The Queens' Quarter" novels by Midori Snyder(1989)-  I've always had a penchant for elemental magic books.

3) "Finders-Seekers" novels by Gayle Greeno (1993)- Magical cat familiars... need I say more?

4) "Dun Lady's Jess" by Doranna Durgin (1994)- Possibly my love of "The Last Unicorn" fostered a connection to this tale of a horse turned into a girl... or my twenty-year-old self still wishing for that pony. LOL

5) "Nightseer" by Laurell K. Hamilton (1992)- Obviously, after the "Anita Blake" novels, Laurell K. Hamilton is hardly lesser known, but this was her first book, a true high fantasy. Unfortunately, she never revisited this one, more so because the ending seemed primed for a sequel (word of warning to those who need closure).

 

And there you have it. I've given you a window into my late teen/early twenty-year-old mind.

 Now it's your turn. Did any of these stick with your? What were your rereads from way back when? What novels (fantasy or otherwise) touched you, but didn't get as much attention as you think they deserved?