Eek!
OK, Tuesday's retroactive novels will be the Amber Chronicles of Roger Zelazny.
They decline in quality a bit as they go along, but the first five or so are real ripsnorters, and the conceits of Amber, the Pattern, and the Trumps are all-timers.
Well, they deserve better, but I am in a hurry, so let's flip forward to today and talk about...Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy! Vances does very little fantasy, although much of his science fiction is highly fantastic (The Book of Dreams, anyone?). The Lyonesse books are, however, a very notable exception. Set in the (mythical) island of Hybras and its lesser surrounding isles, west of France, it is chock-full of fairies, wizards, princes, Ska (vikings, not musicians), and even stranger things. Like all Jack Vance stories it is intensely weird; like most it is often laugh-out-loud funny; and it is perhaps the strongest of all his books for characterization and plot. It might be my favorite work of Vance's...'nuff said.
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